Mudgalapurana 3.17: kaliyugavarṇanaṃ nāma saptadaśo'dhyāyaḥ

Homage to the glorious Gaṇeśa.

Nara and Nārāyaṇa said: / The Kṛta age is declared to be of the nature of sattva, and the Tretā of rajas; / the Dvāpara is joined with tamas, while itself being declared rājasa.

The Kali age is completely filled with tamas; there everything is destroyed. / It assumes the form of sin in visible presence; whence could there be the dharma of a brāhmaṇa?

In the Kali age, there is fatal disease, constant fear of hunger, O sage, / sorrow born of drought, and ruin of regions.

Unrighteous, of improper conduct, greatly angry, narrow-minded, / greedy, those born in the Kali age, very wretched offspring, will speak falsehood.

Through misfortunes, bad study, wicked conduct, and corrupt traditions, / and through the faults in the rituals of brāhmaṇas, fear arises for the subjects.

In the Kali age, the twice-born do not study the Vedas, nor do they sacrifice. / Those of dull intellect recite the Vedas by inference in front of a śūdra.

Association of śūdras with brāhmaṇas will take place in the Kali age, / through the practice of mantras, O brāhmaṇa, and through sharing beds, seats, and food.

Śūdras become kings; they harass brāhmaṇas. / The rulers of men indeed commit the murder of brāhmaṇas and the slaughter of cattle.

Bathing, burnt offerings, chanting, giving, and likewise worship of deities / and other duties—the twice-born do not perform these.

They revile Gaṇeśa, brāhmaṇas, and even the gods, / the Vedas, all the śāstras, and the purāṇas in the Kali age.

They perform non-Vedic rites, entirely baseless, O sage; / no taste at all for their own duties arises among the twice-born and others.

Bad conduct, heresy, and vain and false fear will occur; / and people of all classes will become beggars in the Kali age.

Countries will have food for a stake (adrīśūlāḥ), crossroads will have Śiva for a stake (śivaśūlāḥ), / and women will have their hair for a stake (keśaśūlāḥ) in the Kali age.

With white teeth, conquering their eyes, shaven-headed, clad in ochre robes, / śūdras will practice the dharma of brāhmaṇas in the Kali age.

There will be thieves of food and likewise violators of the boundary. / Thieves will be robbers of thieves, and robbers of the robber.

There is an abundance of sorrow, short life; they are devoted to the belly and genitals, / addicted to gambling, liquor, and the like, lewd towards other men's wives, O sage.

There are Kāpālikas and other ascetics who are householders, / brāhmaṇas who sell the Veda, and likewise sellers of holy places.

Seeing the twice-born, those of dull intellect do not rise from their seats; / śūdras, kings, and those who live by serving kings beat the twice-born.

Seated on high seats, worshipped by brāhmaṇas, / śūdras will be intent on Vedic recitation in the Kali age.

Looking for an opportunity to serve, the twice-born indeed stand at the door, / bearing presents and the like for śūdras who live by serving kings.

Śūdras, endowed with intellect in this manner, indeed speak of duties; / knowing the discussion of Vedic arguments, they instruct brāhmaṇas.

Brāhmaṇas will become sellers of austerity, / of the fruits of sacrifices, of the Vedas, and of virtuous deeds in the Kali age.

Abandoning their husbands, women will constantly be attached / to other men, devoted to betraying their husbands.

Ascetics will be in the hundreds and thousands; / attached to the company of women and wine, they wander in the Kali age.

Followers of the left-hand path, Pāśupatas, and Sāṅkhyas will be carriers of the five [elements]; / in that Kali age, there will be such brāhmaṇas and kṣatriyas.

Section 3, Chapter 17, Page 35) When the paths of knowledge are destroyed and the world has fallen into inaction, / insects, mice, and serpents will attack human beings.

Those who were burnt by Dadhīci's curse long ago at Dakṣa's sacrifice, O twice-born, / will take incarnation in the families of brāhmaṇas.

Subject to the curse of Gautama, they will especially / be attached to left-hand paths and the like, and corrupt people.

Likewise, men will be born everywhere among other castes; / cursed at Dakṣa's sacrifice, people of all classes are obstinate in wickedness.

And they will delude people by displaying fruits, / their hearts possessed by tamas, vile people acting like cats.

There Viṣṇu, assuming the Buddhist illusion, nourisher of heresy, / will always be a helper to them, the god [acting thus] because of the curse of Dadhīci.

Cutter of the path of rites, men endowed with fallen conduct / Viṣṇu himself will make, the promoter of the dharma of the age.

Not knowing this, all men endowed with fallen conduct / will turn to him who is affectionate to those who take refuge, who has resorted to the Buddhist illusion.

When indeed ten thousand years have passed in the Kali age, / then Viṣṇu, having abandoned the earth, will go to his own abode.

For five thousand years the river Bhāgīrathī remains fixed; / for half of that the village deities, having gone to heaven, [remain], O great sage.

The rite which is performed by men endowed with the rules of their own dharma, / that alone indeed is enjoyed by the gods, O twice-born, always.

A rite performed conversely becomes indeed demonic; / in the Kali age, because of demonic disposition, the gods have gone to their own abode.

Seeing a man who has arrived at holy places, temples, and the like / with a demonic nature, the deities of the holy places depart.

Then, having entered into those holy places, into the images and other forms of the gods, / the asuras will become enjoyers of the rites in the Kali age.

The holy places and the abodes of deities / remain in a hidden state in that Kali age, accompanied by fasting.

Seeing [a man] endowed with divine nature, the great asuras depart / [from] the human, and the deities of the holy places go back to their own abodes.

There indeed the men performing rites from demonic disposition / will always be fallen, O brahmin, endowed with faults.

The great power in the form of action resides on the surface of the earth; / Gaṇeśa indeed stands as the bestower of the fruit of action.

Bestower of perfection to asuras and gods, Gajānana, / having concealed his own greatness, remains in the Kali age.

The four feet of dharma are austerity, purity, compassion, / and truth; there, by degrees indeed, all born of dharma perish.

And in the Tretā [age] compassion was destroyed, and in the Dvāpara [age] austerity was destroyed; / and when the Kali age has arrived, good conduct will assume a destroyed form.

The foot consisting of truth remains in the Kali age, O granter of honour; / by means of it all people on earth carry on their worldly dealings.

When the twilit portion of Dvāpara has passed, the Kali age, of immense strength, / through an abundance of falsehood, cuts off truth without respect.

Then gradually the destruction of truth will occur; / then, O brahmin, an uproar will take place in the abode of the gods.

In the Kali age people, afflicted with sorrow, deprived of food and the like, / abandoning villages and everything, live as forest-dwellers.

Seized by hunger, mindless, they devour one another; / the earth will indeed become devoid of truth, O wise one.

Sixteen years will be the highest lifespan, and a woman / will become pregnant when five years old, especially in that Kali age.

When everything has thus been conquered by demonic disposition, O great sage, / the deities and all the sages praise the Lord of Gaṇas.

Then Ḍhuṇḍhi will incarnate for the welfare of the gods; / Dhūmravarṇa, having destroyed that adharma, will establish dharma.

Having set dharma in motion, he will disappear; / then again the Kṛta age arrives, through the twilit portions in the succession of ages.

Thus the measure of the ages and the dharma of the ages has been proclaimed; / know that all this consists of illusion and has the nature of delusion.

Om tat sat. Thus, in the glorious, ultimate Purāṇopaniṣad, in the glorious Mahāpurāṇa of Mudgala, in the third section, in the deeds of Mahodara, the seventeenth chapter, named 'Description of the Kali Age.'