Around the turn of the Common Era, under circumstances that remain unclear, orthodox Brahmanical circles established a cosmological framework—that of the four “ages” ( yuga )—which has remained an enduring feature of the Indian imagination ever since. The system finds fully developed expressions as early as the famous Laws of Manu ( Manusmṛti, 3rd century), certain later sections of the Mahābhārata (3rd century?), and the oldest layers of the Purāṇas (“tales of antiquity,” 3rd–4th century). According to this conception, every cosmic “microcycle” (a period of approximately twelve thousand years) consists of four successive ages, from the “golden age” ( kṛtayuga ) to the “age of discord” ( kaliyuga; the nomenclature of the four ages is borrowed from that of a dice game, from the winning roll to the losing roll), itself punctuated by a yugānta or the end of the last age. In its purely cosmological interpretation, this four-part model is limited to a description of humanity’s religious (primarily ritual), moral, intellectual, and physical decline. The framework, however, soon provided a structure for Brahmanic eschatology and fueled apocalyptic predictions, most of which can be easily interpreted as ex post facto prophecies describing a socio-religious, moral, political, and economic environment in crisis. It abounds with pregnant girls, excessive oppression by the Brahmins, ungodly kings, an explosion of heresies, foreign domination, the reversal of the cycle of seasons, the mixing of castes, unfaithful women, and other infamies.
14:30 to 15:30
Guest lecturer
Vices, Threats, and Impiety: On the Buddhist Kali Yuga
Vincent Eltschinger
14:30 to 15:30
