According toPuranic sources,[a]Krishna's death marked the end ofDvapara Yuga and the start ofKali Yuga, which is dated to 17/18 February 3102 BCE.[9][10] Lasting for 432,000 years (1,200 divine years),Kali Yuga began 5,126 years ago and has 426,874 years left as of 2025 CE.[11][12][13]Kali Yuga will end in the year 428,899 CE.[14][b]
Near the end ofKali Yuga, when virtues are at their worst, a cataclysm and a re-establishment ofdharma occur to usher in the next cycle'sKrita (Satya) Yuga, prophesied to occur byKalki.[15]
Kali Yuga (Sanskrit:कलियुग,romanized: kaliyuga or kali-yuga) means "the age ofKali", "the age of darkness", "the age of vice and misery", or "the age of quarrel and hypocrisy".[17]
According toP. V. Kane, one of the earliest inscriptions with one of the fouryugas named is the Pikira grant ofPallava Simhavarman (mid-5th centuryCE):[19][20]
Who was ever ready to extricate dharma that had become sunk owing to the evil effects of Kaliyuga.
— Pikira grant of Pallava Simhavarman, line 10 (3rd plate, front)
Information kiosk atBhalka, the place from whereKrishna left for his realm in 3102 BCE.
The start date and time ofKali Yuga is traditionally dated to midnight (00:00) on 17/18 February 3102 BCE.[9][14][10][22][23]
Astronomer and mathematicianAryabhata, who was born in 476 CE, finished his bookAryabhatiya in 499 CE, in which he wrote "When the three yugas (satyug, tretayug and dwaparyug) have elapsed and 60 x 60 (3,600) years of kaliyug have already passed, I am now 23 years old." Based on this information,Kali Yuga began in 3102 BCE, which is calculated from 3600 - (476 + 23) + 1 (noyear zero from 1 BCE to 1 CE).[24]
According to K. D. Abhyankar, the starting point of Kali Yuga is an extremely rare planetary alignment, which is depicted in theMohenjo-daro seals.[25]
Kali Yuga, the fourth age in a cycle, lasts for 432,000 years (1,200 divine years), where its main period lasts for 360,000 years (1,000 divine years) and its two twilights each last for 36,000 years (100 divine years). The current cycle'sKali Yuga, the present age, has the following dates based on it starting in 3102BCE:[11][12][13]
(17) A year (of men) is equal to a day and night of the gods... (19) I shall, in their order, tell you the number of years that are for different purposes calculated differently, in the Krita, the Treta, the Dwapara, and the Kali yugas. (20) Four thousand celestial years is the duration of the first or Krita age. The morning of that cycle consists of four hundred years and its evening is of four hundred years. (21) Regarding the other cycles, the duration of each gradually decreases by a quarter in respect of both the principal period with the minor portion and the conjoining portion itself.
(67) A year is a day and a night of the gods... (68) But hear now the brief (description of) the duration of a night and a day of Brahman [(Brahma)] and of the several ages (of the world, yuga) according to their order. (69) They declare that the Krita age (consists of) four thousand years (of the gods); the twilight preceding it consists of as many hundreds, and the twilight following it of the same number. (70) In the other three ages with their twilights preceding and following, the thousands and hundreds are diminished by one (in each).
(13) ... twelve months make a year. This is called a day of the gods. (14) ... Six times sixty [360] of them are a year of the gods... (15) Twelve thousand of these divine years are denominated a Quadruple Age (caturyuga); of ten thousand times four hundred and thirty-two [4,320,000] solar years (16) Is composed that Quadruple Age, with its dawn and twilight. The difference of the Golden and the other Ages, as measured by the difference in the number of the feet of Virtue in each, is as follows : (17) The tenth part of an Age, multiplied successively by four, three, two, and one, gives the length of the Golden and the other Ages, in order : the sixth part of each belongs to its dawn and twilight.
A dialogue betweenKrishna andGanga found in theBrahma Vaivarta Purana describes that for the first 10,000 years ofKali Yuga, the ill effects ofKali Yuga will be reduced due to the presence ofbhakti yogis and the ability to nullify sinful reactions, after which Earth will be devoid of devout religious people and be shackled byKali Yuga.[29][non-primary source needed]Gaudiya Vaishnavism believes this sub-period started later inKali Yuga with the birth ofChaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486 CE).[30]
Hinduism often symbolically represents morality (dharma) as an Indian bull. In theSatya Yuga, the first stage of development, the bull has four legs, which is reduced by one in each age that follows. The four legs of Dharma areTapaslit.'austerity',Śaucalit.'cleanliness',Dayālit.'compassion' andSatyalit.'truth'.[31] By the age of Kali, morality is reduced to only a quarter of that of the golden age, so that the bull of Dharma has only one leg, the one representingSatya.[32][33]
^abBurgess 1935, p. 19: The instant at which the [kali yuga] Age is made to commence is midnight on the meridian of Ujjayini, at the end of the 588,465th and beginning of the 588,466th day (civil reckoning) of the Julian Period, or between the 17th and 18th of February 1612 J.P., or 3102 B.C. [4713 BCE = 0JP; 4713 BCE - 1612 + 1 (noyear zero) = 3102 BCE.]
^abcGodwin 2011, p. 301: The Hindu astronomers agree that the [Dvapara Yuga ended and] Kali Yuga began at midnight between February 17 and 18, 3102 BCE. Consequently [Kali Yuga] is due to end about 427,000 CE, whereupon a new Golden Age will dawn.
^Merriam-Webster 1999, p. 629 (Kalki): At the end of the present Kali age, when virtue and religion have disappeared into CHAOS and the world is ruled by unjust men, Kalki will appear to destroy the wicked and usher in a new age.... According to some myths, Kalki's horse will stamp the earth with its right foot, causing the tortoise that supports the world to drop into the deep. Then Kalki will restore the earth to its initial purity.
^Kane 1936, p. 4: Among the earliest is the Pikira grant of Pallava Simhavarman where we have the words 'Who was ever ready to extricate dharma that had become sunk owing to the evil effects of Kaliyuga.'
^Each term has an index of volumes: * p. 177: Dvapara, Yuga or age; Dvapara-yuga, do. * p. 301: Kali-yuga, age of Kali * p. 364: Kritayuga, age; Kritayuga, do. —Krishna, Dr. M. H. (1934).Mysore Archeological Survey: Epigraphia Carnatica. Vol. XIII (Part I): General Index. Bangalore: Government Press. pp. 177,301,364.
^Gupta 2010, p. 8: The current Kali Yuga (Iron Age) began at midnight on 17/18 February 3102 BC in the proleptic Julian calendar.
^The Induand the Rg-Veda, Page 16, By Egbert Richter-Ushanas,ISBN81-208-1405-3
^H.D. Dharm Chakravarty Swami Prakashanand Saraswati.Encyclopedia Of Authentic Hinduism The True History and the Religion of India, Hardbound, 2nd Edition, 2003,ISBN0967382319 Retrieved 2015-01-21
^Abhyankar, K. D. (1993). "Astronomical significance to two Mohenjodaro seals".Astronomical Society of India, Bulletin.21 (3–4): 477.Bibcode:1993BASI...21..475A.
^Dutt, Manmatha Nath (1903)."Ch. 231 (CCXXXI)".A Prose English Translation of The Mahabharata (Translated Literally from the Original Sanskrit text). Vol. Book 12 (Shanti Parva). Calcutta: Elysium Press. p. 351 (12.231.17, 19–21)..
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Sotillos, Samuel Bendeck (2013). "New Age or the Kali-Yuga?".AHP Perspective.2013 (April/May):15–21.
Upton, Charles (2005).Legends of the End: Prophecies of the End Times, Antichrist, Apocalypse, and Messiah from Eight Religious Traditions. Hillsdale, NY: Sophia Perennis.
