Each day of the gods, it was explained by the Brahmans, was a year to
mortals. Multiplied by 360 days, 12,000 divine years equalled
4,320,000 human years. This Maha-yuga, multiplied by 1000, gave the
"Day of Brahma" as 4,320,000,000 human years.
The shortest Indian Yuga is the Babylonian 120 saroi multiplied by
10=1200 divine years for the Kali Yuga; twice that number gives the
Dvapara Yuga of 2400 divine years; then the Treta Yuga is 2400 + 1200
= 3600 divine years, and Krita Yuga 3600 + 1200 = 4800 divine years.
The influence of Babylonia is apparent in these calculations. During
the Vedic period "Yuga" usually signified a "generation", and there
are no certain references to the four Ages as such. The names "Kali",
"Dvapara", "Treta", and "Krita" "occur as the designations of throws
of dice".[332] It was after the arrival of the "late comers", the
post-Vedic Aryans, that the Yuga system was developed in India.[333]
In _Indian Myth and Legend[334] it is shown that the Indian and Irish
Ages have the same colour sequence: (1) White or Silvern, (2) Red or
Bronze, (3) Yellow or Golden, and (4) Black or Iron. The Greek order
is: (1) Golden, (2) Silvern, (3) Bronze, and (4) Iron.
The Babylonians coloured the seven planets as follows: the moon,
silvern; the sun, golden; Mars, red; Saturn, black; Jupiter, orange;
Venus, yellow; and Mercury, blue.
As the ten antediluvian kings who reigned for 120 saroi had an astral
significance, their long reigns corresponding "with the distances
separating certain of the principal stars in or near the
ecliptic",[335] it seems highly probable that the planets were
similarly connected with mythical ages which were equated with the
"four quarters" of the celestial regions and the four regions of the
earth, which in Gaelic story are called "the four red divisions of the
world".
Three of the planets may have been heralds of change. Venus, as
"Dilbat", was the "Proclaimer", and both Jupiter and Mercury were
called "Face voices of light", and "Heroes of the rising sun" among
other names. Jupiter may have been the herald of the "Golden Age" as a
morning star. This planet was also associated with bronze, as "Kakkub
Urud", "the star of bronze", while Mars was "Kakkub Aban Kha-urud,"
"the star of the bronze fish stone". Mercury, the lapis lazuli planet,
may have been connected with the black Saturn, the ghost of the dead
sun, the demoniac elder god; in Egypt lapis lazuli was the hair colour
of Ra when he grew old, and Egyptologists translate it as black.[336]
The rare and regular appearances of Mercury may have suggested the
planet's connection with a recurring Age. Venus as an evening star
might be regarded as the herald of the lunar or silver age; she was
propitious as a bearded deity and interchanged with Merodach as a
seasonal herald.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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