Then those two spoke to each other: “Let us first of all make a Brāhmaṇa.”
Saying that, they made a Brāhmaṇa from that earth, and having given breath to the Brāhmaṇa those two told him to arise. Then the Brāhmaṇa arose by the power of those Gods; and having arisen, that Brāhmaṇa conversed with those Gods.
Then the God Vishnu said, “Brāhmaṇa, for thy assistance thou art to make for thyself a woman.”
Afterwards the Brāhmaṇa by the power of those very Gods made a woman, and from that time men began to increase in number up to to-day.
North-western Province.
This is evidently a story of the last creation. In Hinduism there is a series of four ages termed Yugas, each ended by a destruction of the world by fire, which is quenched by cataclysmal rainfall. These are the Krita, Trēta, Dwāpara, and Kali Yugas, their periods being respectively 4,000, 3,000, 2,000, and 1,000 divine years. There are also intermediate periods equal to one-tenth of each of the adjoining Yugas. A divine year being 360 times as long as a human year, the whole series, called a Maha Yuga, amounts to about 4,320,000 years (Vishnu Purāna, Wilson, p. 24). When a series is ended the order is reversed, that is, the Kali Yuga, which is the present one, is followed by the Dwāpara.
The Vishnu Purāna, p. 12, thus describes the state of things before the original creation: “There was neither day nor night, nor sky nor earth, nor darkness nor light, nor any other thing, save only One”—“the Universal Soul,” the All-God, Vishnu in the form of Brahmā.
His action is thus summarised: “Affecting then the quality of activity Hari [Vishnu], the Lord of all, himself becoming Brahmā, engaged in the creation of the universe.”
At the end of the Yuga, “the same mighty deity, Janārddana, invested with the quality of darkness, assumes the awful form of Rudra, and swallows up the universe. Having thus devoured all things, and converted the world into one vast ocean, the Supreme reposes on his mighty serpent couch amidst the deep: he awakes after a season, and again, as Brahmā, becomes the author of creation (V.P., p. 19).