Kaliyuga Research Articles

Religion in the Subjunctive: Vaisnava Narrative, Sufi Counter-Narrative in Early Modern Bengal

When VaiX>avas in 16th century Bengal first recognised KPX>a Caitanya (1486-1533) as divine, they attributed to him all the forms of the pur@>ic KPX>a, starting with the yug@vat@ra as the corrective for the ills of the Kali age. These and related martial forms quickly yielded to more comforting and benign images of divinity that ultimately emphasised the erotic sentiment in the play of R@dh@ and KPX>a, embodied in Caitanya as the androgyne. With Mughal ascendancy, the political landscape seemed to run counter to the successful implementation of the yug@vat@ra's mission until Satya Par—a figure with allegiance to both VaiX>ava and Sufi ideals—arrogated to himself that now-vacated role. In this new form of devotion, VaiX>avas and Sufis were united in finding a common solution to the decline. Though Satya Par was only a fictional character, his tales circulated widely, prompting numerous attempts to reconcile Hindu and Muslim theologies. One example each from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries will illustrate the novel strategies as authors tried to imagine a world wherein the multiple religious traditions of Bengal could share the land with a common cosmology and a common devotion, an innovative speculation that is subjunctive in its impulse yet explicit in its suggested solutions. The pur@>ic master narrative of decline

Phoenix Rising: The culture of fire at the Burning Man Festival

Shiva dances and destroys the world with his mate Kali, the all devouring …. The current age is considered the Kali Yuga (Age of Kali), another apt symbol of the current situation in mythic terms. ...

Ksatriyas in the Kali Age? Gāgābhatta & His Opponents

AbstractThis paper deals with the history of the disputes regarding the Ksatriya status of the local ruler Shivaji and the Cāndrasenīya Kāyastha Prabhu (CKP) community of Maharashtra. The origin of these disputes lies in the wider dispute concerning whether there are any true Ksatriyas in the Kali age. The CKPs of Maharashtra claimed to be Ksatriyas and thus entitled for the rite of Upanayana, while the dominant regional Brahmin opinion was that they were Śūdras and not entitled for the Upanayana. The dispute broke out a few years before Shivaji's coronation, and to the discomfort of the local Brahmins, Gāgābhatta of Banaras settled it in favor of the Kāyasthas in his work, the Kāyasthadharmadīpa. In decades after Shivaji's death, the dispute broke out again, and within Maharashtra, gradually the Dharmaśāstric opinion shifted against the views of Gāgābhatta, and toward the end of the rule of the last Peshwa, this dispute was raised again by Nīlakantha Śāstri Thatte in Pune against the Kāyasthas. I have traced the lineage of Nīlakantha Thatte, through his teacher Vaidyanātha Pāyagunde, to his teacher, the great Nāgeśabhatta of Banaras. Nāgeśsabhatta produced his Vrātyatāprāyaścittanirnaya at a śāastrasabhā in Jaipur, where he argued that there were no pure Ksatriyas surviving in the Kali age, and that the impure ones do not have the eligibility for Upanayana through some expiation. So the Kāyasthas could not claim to be genuine Ksatriyas either. It was this opinion of Nāgesabhatta, counter to the opinion of Gāgābhatta, that steadily gained popularity among the Pune Brahmins during the rule of the Peshwas, finally reflected in the activities of Nīlakantha Thatte.

Fire, the Kali Yuga, and Textual Reading

L'A. traite du phenomene des chercheurs occidentaux qui adoptent la croyance et la pratique hindoues, et traite du probleme de l'identite ethnique pose.

Fire, the Kali Yuga, and textual reading

Fire, the Kali Yuga, and textual reading

Y51K and Still Counting: Some Hindu Views of Time

At the beginning of every religious ritual conducted in Hindu brahmanical modes, the officiating priest and those doing the ritual formally declare the co-ordinates of the land and the time in which the rite takes place. These words are part of the sankalpa or the declaration of intention to do the ritual. Such co-ordinates are in cosmic frameworks; the land is identified with one of the dvipas or islands in puranic cosmology and the timespan is given as a moment that occurs in a span of millions of years. The celebrant first announces the name of the kalpa (a span of 4320 million human years which is equal to one day in the life of the creator god Brahma) and then finetunes it to a shorter time period called the manavantara, a span of approximately 306,720,000 human years named after the primeval man called Vaivasvata. One then notes that this is first part of the kali yuga (this immediate cycle of 432,000 years). After these cosmic rotations of time, the person who is about to do the ritual also notes the calendrical details.

Revision of Yugas and Yuga-Constants in Indian Astronomy

Among the historians of Indian astronomy, John Bentley seems to be first to stress, nearly two hundred years ago, that yuga and kalpa, which form the basic time-divisions used for traditional astronomical computations in India, are not historical but astronomically interpolated. Bentley says that a division of time simply into the four yugas, viz. Krta, Tretā, Dwāpara and Kali, was introduced in 204 B.C. “It appears,” as Bentley surmises, “that at, or about this period (204 B.C.), improvements were made in astronomy; new and more accurate tables of the planetary motions and positions were found, and equations introduced. Beside these improvements, the Hindu history was divided into periods, for chronological purposes....The period immediately preceding the inventor was called the first, or Kali yuga; the secojid or next, was called the Dwāpara Yuga; the third was called the Tretā Yuga; and the fourth, or furthest back from the author, was called Kṛta Yuga and with which the creation began. The end of the first period, called Kali was fixed by a conjunction of the Sun, Moon and Jupiter, in the beginning of Cancer, on the 26th June 299 B.C. This was called the Satya Yuga, or true conjunction, and is the radical point from which the calculation proceeds” (Bentley 1823, p.61-62).

The Dimensions of the Self: Buddhi in the Bhagavad-G¯tā and Psyché in Plotinus

The Bhagavad-Gītā is the most important text in the smrti (what is remembered) literature of India, as distinct from the śruti (what is heard) literature which is traditionally regarded as ultimately authoritative. The Bhagavad-Gītā has been assigned a date ranging from the fifth century B.C. to the second century B.C. The Indian religious tradition places the Gītā at the end of the third age of the present cycle of the universe and the beginning of the fourth, namely the Kali Yuga to which we belong.

Obituaries

WE regret to record the death on Feb. 18, at Oxford, in his seventy-fifth year, of Mr. Frederick Eden Pargiter, the well-known oriental scholar. Mr. Pargiter was educated at Taunton Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford, where he took a first class in both Moderations and the final schools. He was also Boden Sanskrit scholar. He entered the Indian Civil Service in 1876 and served as district and sessions judge and was a judge of the Calcutta High Court, retiring in 1906. He was an active member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, of which he was successively secretary and president. On his retirement, he became closely associated with the work of the Royal Asiatic Society, serving for some years on its council and later becoming one of its vice-presidents. In his oriental studies he showed great originality. His “Dynasties of the Kali Age,” published in 1913, was a work which initiated the critical study of the semihistorical, semi-legendary Puranas. This study he carried further in his annotated translation of the Markandeya Purana and “Ancient Historic Indian Tradition.” He was a frequent contributor to Epigraphia Indica and prepared for the press the centenary volume of the Royal Asiatic Society issued in 1923.

The Dynasties of the Kali Age

The Dynasties of the Kali Age

Irregularities in the Puranic Account of the Dynasties of the Kali Age

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The Dynasties of the Kali Age

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

Irregularities in the Puranic Account of the Dynasties of the Kali Age

Irregularities in the Puranic Account of the Dynasties of the Kali Age

The Purana Text of the Dynasties of the Kali Age, with introduction, translation, and notes. Edited by F. E. Pargiter, M.A.; Indian Civil Service, Retired; late Judge, High Court, Calcutta. Small 4to: pp. xxxiv, 97. Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press: 1913.

The Purana Text of the Dynasties of the Kali Age, with introduction, translation, and notes. Edited by F. E. Pargiter, M.A.; Indian Civil Service, Retired; late Judge, High Court, Calcutta. Small 4to: pp. xxxiv, 97. Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press: 1913.