History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.786

v6.c82.786

In the purānas *pralaya* is said to be of four sorts,¹⁰⁹¹ viz. *nitya* (the every day deaths of those that are born), *naimittika* (when a day of Brahmā ends, then there is a dissolution of the world), prākṛtika (when everything dissolves itself into prakṛti, primordial substance) and ātyantika pralaya is *Mokṣa* (liberation of the soul due to correct knowledge of Reality and absorption into the Supreme Spirit). Harrowing descriptions of the naimittika and prākṛtika pralayas are given in several purāṇas A lengthy description of the naimittika dissolution is contained in Kūrma II. 45. 11-59 of which a brief summary is given here. When the one thousand Caturyugas end, there is the absence of rain for a hundred years; the result is that living beings perish and are reduced to earth; the sun's rays become unbearable, and even the ocean is dried up; the earth is burnt by the fierce heat of the sun together with its mountains, forests and continents As the sun's rays fall burning up everything, the whole world presents the appearance of one huge fire. Fire burns everything whether mobile or immoveable. The animals in the big seas come out and are reduced to ashes Then the saṁvartaka fire growing by the force of the wind burns the whole earth and its flames rise up to a height of thousands of *yojanas* and the flames burn up *gandharvas*, goblins, *yakṣas*, serpents and *rākṣasas* and not only the earth but the worlds called 'bhuvah' and 'mahaḥ' are burnt; then huge saṁvartaka clouds resembling herds of elephants, lit up by lightning, rise in the sky, some looking like blue lotuses, some yellowish, some having the colour of smoke, some like sealing wax and fill the whole sky and then extinguish the fires by sending down heavy showers When the fires are extinguished, the clouds of destruction cover the whole world with floods, mountains are concealed and the earth is plunged in waters and all becomes one ocean of water and then god Brahmā resorts to *Yogic* sleep Vanaparva (chap. 272 32-48) also contains a brief description of *naimittika pralaya*