A Chronology You Can Actually Use
A Chronology You Can Actually Use
Forty-one lessons have described texts, concepts and practices without telling you when any of it happened. Lesson 5 explained why in outline — the tradition's account and the philological one are answering different questions — and every lesson since has deferred to this one.
Manu sets it out in a handful of verses, and the details matter because they are usually misreported.
catvāry āhuḥ sahasrāṇi varṣāṇāṃ tat kṛtaṃ yugam | tasya tāvac chatī saṃdhyā saṃdhyāṃśaś ca tathāvidhaḥ — "Four thousand years, they say, is the Kṛta yuga; its twilight is as many hundreds, and its twilight-portion likewise." (1.69)
So: 4,000 plus 400 plus 400 — 4,800.
Month 1
A Chronology You Can Actually Use
Month 2 · Lesson 42. Forty-one lessons have refused to give dates. Here is the bill. The tradition's own scheme of ages turns out not to be a chronology at all — it is a theory of what practice suits which age.
5 min
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