History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.791

v6.c82.791

The theory of yugas, manvantaras and kalpas with their fabulous numbers of years and harrowing descriptions of pralaya, appears unreal, bizarre and called up by sheer fancy. But underlying it there is the idea of the timelessness of the universe, though from time to time it evolves, gradually declines and perishes, only to reappear in perfection after a cosmic night. There is also the hankering after Reality and pursuit of different ideals. It enshrines the ideas that humanity embarks on a certain goal, pursues it with great efforts and, after achieving some success, gives up that goal and the way that was thought to lead to it and pursues some other goal for aeons in the hope that at some distant date it will be able to evolve and construct a perfect society. These ideas are at the bottom of what Manu¹⁰⁹³ and others say 'Tapas was the highest goal (deemed to yield great results) in Kṛtayuga, knowledge (of the self) was the highest in Tretā, yajña (sacrifices to God) in Dvāpara, charity alone in Kali'. This further implies that there are different impelling motives in different ages and modern men should not assess the actions and ideals of past ages by the same yardstick that is applied to contemporary actions and ideals. It is implicit in the words of Manu (XI. 301) that the four ages are not water-tight specific periods of time, but that the Ruler or Government can produce conditions of Kṛta age in what is popularly called Kali by appropriate conduct or measures and Medhātithi expressly says so.1093a Prof. Mankad has a novel theory in a paper on the manvantaras in I. H Q. vol XVIII, pp. 208-230, where he states that the Caturyuga formula took 40 years for a ruling unit and not for one king's regnal period and that the manvantara was the regular method of calculating regnal periods of different kings in a dynasty (p. 227). Hardly any scholar has accepted this theory and for reasons of space and relevance, it is not possible to discuss it here.