The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 2 (of 3): translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations
Religion
The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 2 (of 3): translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations
Iran -- Religion; Religions
Time, in Hindawi _Kal_, is a measure of the movement of the great
sphere, according to the philosophers of Greece and Persia. The author
has also heard from the Brahmans, and in conformity to the opinions
ascribed to the most distinguished persons of their caste, it is
stated in the work entitled _Muadan Ushshaffai Iskandari_ (a selection
taken from several Hindi medical treatises), that time, according to
the Hindu philosophers, is a necessarily-subsisting immaterial
substance, durable, incorporeal, that will ever last, and admits not
of annihilation. Time has been divided into three kinds, namely, past,
present, and future; but, as in their opinion time admits neither of
alteration nor extinction, these divisions are not in reality its
attributes, although correctly used when applied to acts performed in
time. According to the succession of acts, they figuratively describe
time as past, present, and future; as in reference to the solar
revolutions and phases, they call it by the names of days, nights,
months, years, and seasons: in short, they have so many intricate
distinctions of this same nature, that the mere attempt to enumerate
them would fill several volumes. They all agree that this world is to
continue for four ages: the first, the _Rast yug_, “the
righteous,”[65] which lasted one million seven hundred and
twenty-eight thousand common years; during which, all human beings,
high and low, exalted and humble, princes and servants, adhered to the
practice of righteousness and truth, passing their glorious existence
in a manner conformable to the divine will, and devoted to the worship
of the Almighty; the duration of human life in this age extended to
one hundred thousand common years. The second, the _Treta Yug_,[66]
which lasted one million two hundred and ninety-six thousand common
years: during this period, three-fourths of the human race conformed
to the divine will, and the natural duration of life extended to ten
thousand years. The third was the _Dwapar Yug_,[67] which lasted eight
hundred and sixty-four thousand ordinary years, during which one half
the human race performed good works and their life was limited to a
thousand years. The fourth is the _Kali Yug_,[68] or “iron age,” which
is to last four hundred and thirty-two thousand years, during which
three-fourths of the human race will be immersed in sin, infatuation,
and evil works, and the term of human life reduced to a hundred and
twenty ordinary years. These four ages (4,320,000 years) they call a
_Chakra_, and seventy-one Chakras a _Manwantar_; on the expiration of
seventy-one Chakras, there elapses one day of the life of India, the
ruler of the upper world; and on the expiration of fourteen
Manwantars, reckoned according to the preceding calculation, one day
of Brahma’s life is terminated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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