Vishnupurana 6.3.p3

6.3.p3

Parāçara said:—Parardha, O Maitreya, is that number which takes place in the eighteenth place of figures enumerated according to the rule of decimal notation. At the end of twice that period elemental dissolution takes place when all the discrete products of nature are withdrawn into Their indiscrete source. The shortest period of time is Mātrā which is equal to the twinkling of the human eye; fifteen Mātrā make a Kāshthā; thirty Kāshthās one Kalā: fifteen Kalās one Nādhikā. A Nādhikā is determined by a measure of water with a vessel made of twelve Palas and a half of copper in the bottom of which there is to be a hole made with a tube of gold of the weight of four Māshas and four inches long. According to the Māgadha measure the vessel should hold a Prastha (or sixteen Palas) of water. Two of these Nādis make one Muhurta; thirty of which make one day and night. Thirty such periods constitute a month; twelve months make a year, or a day and night of the celestials; and three hundred and sixty such days, constitute a year of the celestials. An aggregate of four ages consists of twelve thousand divine years; and a thousand periods of four ages complete a day of Brahmā. That period is also termed a Kalpa during which fourteen Munis preside and at the end of it takes place the incidental or Brahmā dissolution. The nature of this dissolution is very dreadful; hear, I shall describe this as well as that which takes place as the elemental dissolution.