A Prose English Translation of Vishnupuranam / (Based on Professor H. H. Wilson's translation.)

by Unknown

SECTION I.

Maitreya said:—"Thou hast described unto me in detail, O illustrious sage, the creation of the universe, the genealogies of the Patriarchs, the duration of the Manwantaras and the dynasties of the princes. I am willing to hear from you an account of the dissolution of the universe, the time of total destruction and that which occurs at the expiration of a Kalpa".

Parāçara said:—Hear from me exactly, O Maitreya, the circumstances attending the dissolution of the world either at the expiration of a Kalpa or that which occurs at the close of the life of Brahmā. A month of men constitutes a day and night of the progenitors; a year of men is a day and night of the celestials. Twice a thousand aggregates of the four ages is a day and night of Brahmhā. The four ages are the Krita, Treta, Dwāpara and Kali, comprehending altogether twelve thousand years of the celestials. There are infinite successions of those four ages of a similar description, the first of which is always called Krita and the last the Kali. In the first, the Krita is that age which is created by Brahmā; in the last, which is the Kali age, a dissolution of the universe takes place.

Maitreya said:—"O venerable Sir, It behoves thee to give a description of the nature of the Kali age in which the four-footed virtue suffers total extinction".

Parāçara said:—Hear, O Maitreya, of the nature of the Kali age, regarding which you have enquired and which is now approaching completion.

In the Kali age, people will not serve caste, order and institutes, nor the ceremonial enjoined by the Sāma, Rik and Yayur Vedas. Marriages in this age will be celebrated according to the rituals, nor will the rules that connect the spiritual protector and his disciple be in force; the laws that regulate the conduct of husband and wife will be neglected and oblations to the celestials with fire no longer be offered. A powerful and rich man, in whatever family he may be born, will have right to marry maidens of every tribe. In the Kali age, a Brāhmana will be always regarded as such even if he be not initiated properly, and many forms of penance will be prescribed. O Maitreya, O twice-born one, all texts will be considered as Sastras in the Kali age; all celestials will be considered in equal light and all orders of life will be common alike to all persons. In this Kali age, fasting, austerity, liberality practised according to the pleasures of those by whom they are observed will constitute piety. Every trifling property will make men proud of their wealth. Pride of beauty will be inspired by hair. Gold, jewels, diamonds, clothes will all have perished, and then hair will be the only ornament with which women can decorate themselves. Wives will desert their husbands when they will lose their wealth; and the rich only will be considered by woman as their lords. He who will distribute immense wealth, will be considered as master of men and prestige of birth will no longer be a title to supremacy. Accumulated wealth will be spent on ostentatious dwellings. The minds of men will be wholly occupied with earning money and that even will be spent on the gratification of selfish desires. Women will follow their own inclinations and be given up to pleasure-seeking. Men will endeavour to acquire riches even dishonestly. No man will part with the smallest fraction of his wealth at the sacrifice of his own interest even when requested by his friends. In the Kali age all people will consider themselves as equal with the Brāhmanas; and cows will be held in reverence only because they supply milk. People will be always in fear of dearth and scarcity and will watch accordingly the appearances of the sky. They will all live, like anchorets, upon leaves and roots and fruits and put a period to their lives through fear of famine and want. Deprived of wealth, people will be perpetually subject to famine and other afflictions; and they will never enjoy pleasure and happiness. At the advent of the Kali they will take their food without previous ablutions and without worshipping fire, celestials or guests or offering obsequial libations to their progenitors. The women will be fickle, short of stature, gluttonous; they will all have many children and little means. And scratching their heads with both hands they will pay no attention to the commands of their husbands or parents. They will be selfish, abject and slovenly; they will be scolds and liars; they will be indecent and immoral in their conduct and will ever attach themselves to dissolute men. And disregarding the rules of studentship youths will study the Vedas. Householders will neither sacrifice nor practise becoming liberality. Anchorets will live upon food accepted from rustics and mendicants will be influenced by regard for friends and associates. Princes will plunder their subjects instead of protecting them and under the pretext of levying customs they will rob merchants of their property. In the Kali Vuga every one, possessing cars and elephants and horses, will be a Raja; every one who is feeble will be a slave. Vaiçyas will abandon agriculture and commerce and gain a livelihood by servitude or exercise of mechanical arts; Sudras, seeking a subsistence by begging and assuming outward marks of religious mendicants, will become the impure followers of impious and heretical doctrines.

Oppressed by famine and taxation men will desert their native countries and repair to the lands which are fit for coarser grains. The path of the Vedas being obliterated and people having deviated into heresy, iniquity will flourish and the duration of life will therefore decrease. On account of the horrible penances enjoined by scripture and of the vices of the rulers, children will die in their infancy. Women will bear children at the age of five, six or seven years and men will beget them when they are eight, nine or ten. Men will grow old at the age of twelve and no one will live more than twenty years. Men will possess little sense, vigour virtue and will therefore die in a short time. O Maitreya, the wise then estimate the approach of Kali when the number of heretics increases. Whenever, O Maitreya, number of the pious devoted to the lessons of the Vedas, diminishes, the efforts, of the individuals who cultivate virtue, become relax; the first of males becomes no longer the object of sacrifice; respect for the teachers of the Vedas declines and regard is cherished for the disseminators of heresy, the wise estimate the augmented influence of the Kali.

O Maitreya, in the Kali age corrupted by unbelievers, men will refrain from adoring Vishnu, the lord of sacrifice and the creator and sovereign of all and will say "Of what authority are the Vedas? What are the celestials or Brahmanas? What need there is of purification with water?" At the approach of the Kali, O Vipra, the clouds will yield scanty rain; the corn will be light in ear and the grain will be poor and of little sap: garments will be mostly made of the fibres of the San: the principal of trees will be the Sami; principle caste will be the Sudra; millet will be the more common grain; the milk in use will be chiefly that of goats; unguents will be made of Ushira grass. The mother and father-in-law will be venerated in the place of parents; and a man's friend will be his brother-in-law or one who has a wanton wife. Men will say "Who has a father? Who has a mother? Every one is born according to his deeds"; therefore they will regard the wife's or the husband's parents as their own. Gifted with little sense they will be subject to all sorts of infirmities of mind, speech and body and will daily commit sins; and every thing that is likely to afflict beings, vicious, impure and wretched will be generated in the Kali Yuga. Thus, O Brahman, when holy study, oblations to fire and convocations of the celestials shall be stopped some few people shall live at a holy place. And at this place with the least trouble that piety shall be accumulated which could be acquired with the greatest exertions in the Krita age.