The Book of Akbar 62.3

62.3

By help of Reason—the glory of the world,—and the assistance of trustworthy records and reliable statements about the world, such as the ancient books of India and Cathay (Khita), etc., which have been preserved from the agitations of accidents and with which agree the principles of astronomy and the conclusions of astronomical observations, (and such things yield trustworthy evidence) and also from the successive series of the biographies of the sages of those countries and the catena of opinions of this disciplined body (philosophers), it appears that the beginning of the world and of mortals and the source of the manifestations of the Divine attributes has not been discovered. Either it is eternal, as was the opinion of many ancient philosophers, or of such antiquity as to approximate to eternity. The sect of Sigha (Jains) who are preeminent in all the countries of India for austerity, asceticism and science, divide time— called kál in the Indian language—into two parts. One is Avasarpiṇī (descending cycle), i.e., the period whose beginning is joyful and end grievous, and the other is Utsarpiṇī (ascending cycle), i.e. the opposite of the first. Each of these periods is divided into six parts, called áras. Each ára has a distinct name in accordance with its speciality.