History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.728
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.728
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In Vanaparva 149. 11-38, Vāyu 32 and 57-58, Liṅga 39, Matsya 142-144, Garuḍa 223, Nāradapurāṇa (pūrvārdha 41) and in several other purāṇas there are descriptions of the nature of the four yugas, which are passed over here. But it is important to see how the Great Epic and the Purāṇas describe the nature of Kaliyuga. Vanaparva chap. 188 and 190, the Yugapurāṇa chapter of the Gargasamhitā (published in the J. B. O. R. S. vol. 14 pp. 400 ff. by K. P. Jayaswal), Harivaṁśa (Bhaviṣya chap. 3.5 ff), the Brahmapurāṇa 229-230, Vāyu 58 and 99. 391-428, Matsya 144. 32-47, Kūrma I. 30, Viṣṇu VI. 1-2, Bhāgavata XII. 2, Brahmāṇḍa II. 31, Nāradīya (Pūrvārdha 41, verses 21-88), Liṅga 40, Nṛsiṁha 54. 11-49 and several others present, often in identical verses, a very pessimistic, dismal and harrowing account of what will happen in the Kali age. One extract¹⁷⁵¹ taken from the Vanaparva (188) is added at the end by way of sample, of which a summary is given below. All men will generally be liars; in the Kali age substitutes will be invented for *yajñas*, gifts and *vratas*; brāhmaṇas will do actions prescribed as peculiar to śūdras and śūdras will be acquiring wealth (which is the peculiar privilege of vaiśyas) or they will maintain themselves by following the profession of arms; brāhmaṇas giving up the study of the Veda and the performance of sacrifices and devoid of the staff and deer skin will eat anything (i. e. will not observe rules about *bhakṣyābhakṣya*);
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brāhmaṇas will not engage in *japa* (muttering of Vedic mantras), while śūdras will be intent on *japa*; when the world will be turned topsyturvy, it will be the first indication of coming destruction; many *mleccha* kings will rule over the earth, who will be sinful, will issue false edicts and will be engaged in fruitless wrangling; there will be Āndhras, Śakas, Pulindas, Yavanas, Kāmbojas, Bāhlikas (from Balkh) and valiant Ābhīras (as rulers); no brāhmaṇa will maintain himself by pursuing his own dharma; kṣatriyas and vaiśyas will indulge in prohibited or bad activities; people will be short-lived, have little strength, their valour and prowess will be insignificant, their spirits will be low and their bodies diminutive and they will speak words that have very little truth; countries will be mostly untenanted and the spaces will be occupied by beasts and snakes; people will be engaged in dry discussions about *brahma* (they will have no realisation or experience of brahma), śūdras will employ the word 'bhoḥ' (in addressing others¹⁷⁵² of higher classes) and brāhmaṇas will employ the word *ārya* (in addressing peoples other than brāhmaṇas); swarms of insects will abound; all perfumes will not smell as fragrant as before and fluids will lose their sweet taste; women will have numerous progeny, will be of short stature, devoid of character and good conduct and engage in sexual intercourse against the order of nature;
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countries will suffer pangs of hunger¹⁷⁵³, squares where four roads meet will be full of *nautch* girls, and women will give up their chastity; cows will yield little milk; trees will produce few flowers and fruits and will abound in crows; brāhmaṇas will receive gifts from kings that are guilty of brāhmaṇa murder and that falsely accuse others of grave sins; people in the various spaces will be dunned for alms by brāhmaṇas steeped in greed and ignorance, who falsely make a pretence of their being religious; householders afraid of the burden of taxation, guilty of thieving and subsisting on trade, will remain concealed under the false garb of ascetics; brāhmaṇas pretending to be brahmacārins will, through greed of wealth, fraudulently allow their nails and hair to grow; persons in the various stages of life, that observe false rules of conduct but are drunkards and indulge in incest, will desire mundane objects and the increase of flesh and blood; the āśramas (forest dwellings) will be full of various heretical opinions and will extol the merits of food provided by others (out of charity); Indra will not send down rain at the proper season and all seeds will not put forth proper growth; people will take delight in killing and will be impure and abundant will be the fruit of adharma; whoever will then be acting according to his dharma may be regarded as having a short time to live, since there will be no dharma whatever (in Kaliyuga);
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people will sell goods mostly with false weights and measures and traders will be full of many tricks; the righteous will wither away, the sinful will prosper; dharma will lose its strength and adharma will be powerful; those who follow dharma will have short lives and will be poor, while those who give up dharma will have long lives and will be prosperous; in the sporting grounds of cities people will be sinful (or adulterous) and people will enter into transactions by sinful means; people, that have saved a little, will be puffed up with the pride of the rich; people with whom wealth was deposited privately through trust will mostly be ready to deny the deposit, shamelessly saying 'it was never so deposited;' the sporting grounds of towns and temples belonging to towns will be infested by beasts and birds that prey upon human beings; girls of seven or eight years will become pregnant and males of ten or twelve years old will have sons born to them; people will be bald-headed in the 16th year and there will be quick decline in the length of the lives of men; young men whose lives will be short will act like old people and old people will have the habits of the young; women acting contrary to their duty will deceive worthy husbands, will be of bad character and will have intercourse with slaves and even beasts; wives of heroes will resort to other men and will be guilty of adultery even while their husbands are alive.¹⁷⁵⁴