Satya Yuga

Satya Yuga (a.k.a. Krita Yuga) (IAST: Kṛta-yuga), in Hinduism, is the first and best of the four yugas (world ages) in a Yuga Cycle, preceded by Kali Yuga of the previous cycle and followed by Treta Yuga.^[1][2] Satya Yuga lasts for 1,728,000 years (4,800 divine years).^[3][4][5]

Kedareshwar Cave Temple is located at Harishchandragad, a hill fort in Ahmednagar district. Though there were four pillars surrounding the Linga, now there is only one pillar intact. Some believe the pillars to be symbols of yuga or time, namely, Satya, Treta, Dvapara , and the Kali Yuga. The temple was designed in the Hemadpanti style and is dedicated to Harishchandreshwar. The Kalachuri dynasty built this fort in the 6th century, according to locals, however, the Harishchandragad Fort caverns were discovered in the 11th century.

Satya Yuga is known as the age of truth, when humanity is governed by gods, and every manifestation or work is close to the purest ideal and humanity will allow intrinsic goodness to rule supreme. It is sometimes referred to as the "Golden Age".^{[citation needed]} The god Dharma (depicted in the form of a bull) symbolizes morality and stood on all four legs during this period; the legs of Dharma reduce by one in each yuga that follows.^[6]

Etymology

Yuga (Sanskrit: युग), in this context, means "an age of the world", where its archaic spelling is yug, with other forms of yugam, yugānāṃ, and yuge, derived from yuj (Sanskrit: युज्, lit. 'to join or yoke'), believed derived from *yeug- (Proto-Indo-European: lit. 'to join or unite').^{[citation needed]}

Satya Yuga (Sanskrit: सत्ययुग, romanized: satyayuga or satya-yuga) means "the age of truth or sincerity", sometimes abbreviated as Sat Yuga or Satyuga.^{[citation needed]}

Krita Yuga (Sanskrit: कृतयुग, romanized: kṛtayuga, kritayuga, kṛta-yuga, or krita-yuga), a synonym for Satya Yuga, means "the accomplished or completed age" or "the age of righteous or action", a time when people perform pious (righteous) actions, and is sometimes referred to as the "Golden Age".^{[citation needed]}

Krita Yuga is described in the Mahabharata, Manusmriti, Surya Siddhanta, Vishnu Smriti, and various Puranas.^[7]

Duration and structure

See also: Kali Yuga § Start date, Yuga Cycle, Hindu units of time, and List of numbers in Hindu scriptures

Hindu texts describe four yugas (world ages)⁠ in a Yuga Cycle, where, starting in order from the first age of Krita (Satya) Yuga, each yuga's length decreases by one-fourth (25%), giving proportions of 4:3:2:1. Each yuga is described as having a main period (a.k.a. yuga proper) preceded by its yuga-sandhyā (dawn) and followed by its yuga-sandhyāṃśa (dusk)⁠, where each twilight (dawn/dusk) lasts for one-tenth (10%) of its main period. Lengths are given in divine years (years of the gods), each lasting for 360 solar (human) years.^[3][4][5]

Krita Yuga, the first age in a cycle, lasts for 1,728,000 years (4,800 divine years), where its main period lasts for 1,440,000 years (4,000 divine years) and its two twilights each lasts for 144,000 years (400 divine years). The current cycle's Krita Yuga has the following dates based on Kali Yuga, the fourth and present age, starting in 3102 BCE:^[3][4][5]

Krita (Satya) yuga

Part	Start (– End)	Length
Krita-yuga-sandhya (dawn)	3,891,102 BCE	144,000 (400)
Krita-yuga (proper)	3,747,102 BCE	1,440,000 (4,000)
Krita-yuga-sandhyamsa (dusk)	2,307,102–2,163,102 BCE	144,000 (400)
Years: 1,728,000 solar (4,800 divine)
^Current: Kali-yuga-sandhya (dawn).		^[8]^[9]

Mahabharata, Book 12 (Shanti Parva), Ch. 231:^[10][a]

(17) A year (of men) is equal to a day and night of the gods ... (19) I shall, in their order, tell you the number of years that are for different purposes calculated differently, in the Krita, the Treta, the Dwapara, and the Kali yugas. (20) Four thousand celestial years is the duration of the first or Krita age. The morning of that cycle consists of four hundred years and its evening is of four hundred years. (21) Regarding the other cycles, the duration of each gradually decreases by a quarter in respect of both the principal period with the minor portion and the conjoining portion itself.

Manusmriti, Ch. 1:^[11]

(67) A year is a day and a night of the gods ... (68) But hear now the brief (description of) the duration of a night and a day of Brahman [(Brahma)] and of the several ages (of the world, yuga) according to their order. (69) They declare that the Krita age (consists of) four thousand years (of the gods); the twilight preceding it consists of as many hundreds, and the twilight following it of the same number. (70) In the other three ages with their twilights preceding and following, the thousands and hundreds are diminished by one (in each).

Surya Siddhanta, Ch. 1:^[12]

(13) ... twelve months make a year. This is called a day of the gods. (14) ... Six times sixty [360] of them are a year of the gods ... (15) Twelve thousand of these divine years are denominated a Quadruple Age (caturyuga); of ten thousand times four hundred and thirty-two [4,320,000] solar years (16) Is composed that Quadruple Age, with its dawn and twilight. The difference of the Golden and the other Ages, as measured by the difference in the number of the feet of Virtue in each, is as follows : (17) The tenth part of an Age, multiplied successively by four, three, two, and one, gives the length of the Golden and the other Ages, in order : the sixth part of each belongs to its dawn and twilight.

Characteristics

Among the four eras, the Satya Yuga is the first and the most significant one. Knowledge, meditation, and penance hold special importance in this era.^[13]

The Mahabharata, a Hindu epic, describes Krita Yuga as such:^[14]

Men neither bought nor sold; there were no poor and no rich; there was no need to labour, because all that men required was obtained by the power of will; the chief virtue was the abandonment of all worldly desires. The Krita Yuga was without disease; there was no lessening with the years; there was no hatred, or vanity, or evil thought whatsoever; no sorrow, no fear. All mankind could attain to supreme blessedness.

— Vana Parva

Additionally, in Vaishnava dharma, the Satya Yuga was characterised by the worship of one god, with the Supreme Godhead Narayana being the only object of worship; thus, demigods were reportedly not worshipped during this period and the world was united under the worship of one mantra--praṇava. Furthermore, there was only one Veda, with the Atharva Veda being divided into four parts later on, shortly before the beginning of the Kali Yuga.^[15]

See also

• Hindu units of time
  • Kalpa (day of Brahma)
  • Manvantara (age of Manu)
  • Pralaya (period of dissolution)
  • Yuga Cycle (four yuga ages): Satya (Krita), Treta, Dvapara, and Kali
• Itihasa (Hindu Tradition)
• List of numbers in Hindu scriptures
• Vedic-Puranic chronology

Explanatory notes

1. Chapter 224 (CCXXIV) in some sources: Mahabharata 12.224.

References

1. "yuga". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
2. "satya yuga". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
3. Godwin, Joscelyn (2011). Atlantis and the Cycles of Time: Prophecies, Traditions, and Occult Revelations. Inner Traditions. pp. 300–301. ISBN 9781594778575.
4. Merriam-Webster (1999). "Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions". In Doniger, Wendy; Hawley, John Stratton (eds.). Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. pp. 445 (Hinduism), 1159 (Yuga). ISBN 0877790442.
   * HINDUISM: Myths of time and eternity: ... Each yuga is preceded by an intermediate "dawn" and "dusk." The Krita yuga lasts 4,000 god-years, with a dawn and dusk of 400 god-years each, or a total of 4,800 god-years; Treta a total of 3,600 god-years; Dvapara 2,400 god-years; and Kali (the current yuga) 1,200 god-years. A mahayuga thus lasts 12,000 god-years ... Since each god-year lasts 360 human years, a mahayuga is 4,320,000 years long in human time. Two thousand mahayugas form one kalpa (eon) [and pralaya], which is itself but one day in the life of Brahma, whose full life lasts 100 years; the present is the midpoint of his life. Each kalpa is followed by an equally long period of abeyance (pralaya), in which the universe is asleep. Seemingly the universe will come to an end at the end of Brahma's life, but Brahmas too are innumerable, and a new universe is reborn with each new Brahma.
   * YUGA: Each yuga is progressively shorter than the preceding one, corresponding to a decline in the moral and physical state of humanity. Four such yugas (called ... after throws of an Indian game of dice) make up a mahayuga ("great yuga") ... The first yuga (Krita) was an age of perfection, lasting 1,728,000 years. The fourth and most degenerate yuga (Kali) began in 3102 BCE and will last 432,000 years. At the close of the Kali yuga, the world will be destroyed by fire and flood, to be re-created as the cycle resumes. In a partially competing vision of time, Vishnu's 10th and final AVATAR, KALKI, is described as bringing the present cosmic cycle to a close by destroying the evil forces that rule the Kali yuga and ushering in an immediate return to the idyllic Krita yuga.
5. Gupta, S. V. (2010). "Ch. 1.2.4 Time Measurements". In Hull, Robert; Osgood, Richard M. Jr.; Parisi, Jurgen; Warlimont, Hans (eds.). Units of Measurement: Past, Present and Future. International System of Units. Springer Series in Materials Science: 122. Springer. pp. 6–8. ISBN 9783642007378. Paraphrased: Deva day equals solar year. Deva lifespan (36,000 solar years) equals 100 360-day years, each 12 months. Mahayuga equals 12,000 Deva (divine) years (4,320,000 solar years), and is divided into 10 charnas consisting of four Yugas: Satya Yuga (4 charnas of 1,728,000 solar years), Treta Yuga (3 charnas of 1,296,000 solar years), Dvapara Yuga (2 charnas of 864,000 solar years), and Kali Yuga (1 charna of 432,000 solar years). Manvantara equals 71 Mahayugas (306,720,000 solar years). Kalpa (day of Brahma) equals an Adi Sandhya, 14 Manvantaras, and 14 Sandhya Kalas, where 1st Manvantara preceded by Adi Sandhya and each Manvantara followed by Sandhya Kala, each Sandhya lasting same duration as Satya yuga (1,728,000 solar years), during which the entire earth is submerged in water. Day of Brahma equals 1,000 Mahayugas, the same length for a night of Brahma (Bhagavad-gita 8.17). Brahma lifespan (311.04 trillion solar years) equals 100 360-day years, each 12 months. Parardha is 50 Brahma years and we are in the 2nd half of his life. After 100 years of Brahma, the universe starts with a new Brahma. We are currently in the 28th Kali yuga of the first day of the 51st year of the second Parardha in the reign of the 7th (Vaivasvata) Manu. This is the 51st year of the present Brahma and so about 155 trillion years have elapsed. The current Kali Yuga (Iron Age) began at midnight on 17/18 February 3102 BC in the proleptic Julian calendar.
6. Seth, Kailash Nath; Chaturvedi, B. K. (2000) [1993]. Gods And Goddesses Of India. Diamond Pocket Books. p. 109. ISBN 9788171820696.
7. Kane, P. V. (September 1936). Sukthankar, V. S.; Fyzee, A. A. A.; Bhagwat, N. K. (eds.). "Kalivarjya (actions forbidden in the Kali Age)". Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 12 (1–2). The Asiatic Society of Bombay: 4.
8. Godwin 2011, p. 301: The Hindu astronomers agree that the [Dvapara Yuga ended and] Kali Yuga began at midnight between February 17 and 18, 3102 BCE. Consequently [Kali Yuga] is due to end about 427,000 CE, whereupon a new Golden Age will dawn.
9. Burgess 1935, p. ix (Introduction): Calculated date of 2163102 B.C. for "the end of the Golden Age (Krta yuga)", the start of Treta yuga, mentioned in Surya Siddhanta 1.57.
10. Dutt, Manmatha Nath (1903). "Ch. 231 (CCXXXI)". A Prose English Translation of The Mahabharata (Translated Literally from the Original Sanskrit text). Vol. Book 12 (Shanti Parva). Calcutta: Elysium Press. p. 351 (12.231.17, 19–21).
11. Bühler, G. (1886). "Ch. 1, The Creation". In Müller, F. Max (ed.). The Laws of Manu: translated with extracts from seven commentaries. Sacred Books of the East. Vol. XXV. Oxford University Press. p. 20 (1.67–70).
12. Burgess, Rev. Ebenezer (1935) [1860]. "Ch. 1: Of the Mean Motions of the Planets.". In Gangooly, Phanindralal (ed.). Translation of the Surya-Siddhanta, A Text-Book of Hindu Astronomy; With notes and an appendix. University of Calcutta. pp. 7–9 (1.13–17).
13. Ghosh, Raghunath (2008). Humanity, Truth, and Freedom: Essays in Modern Indian Philosophy. New Delhi: Northern Book Centre. p. 81. ISBN 978-81-7211-233-2.
14. Mackenzie, Donald Alexander (2020). Indian Myth and Legend. BoD – Books on Demand. p. 119. ISBN 978-3-75244-315-8.
15. Vyasa. "Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam". Vedabase.