Length of the Yugas | Sat Krita Treta Dwapar Kali

The Mahabharata tells of the length of the 4 Yugas as 4,000, 3,000, 2,000 and
1,000 years (Vana Parva 188:22-26). The Hindi translation reads these as
“divine years.” The Linga Purana says that one divine year is equal to 360
human years (5:26-32). Thus, Sat Yuga (also written as Krita Yuga) = 4,000
divine years as told in the Mahabharata, multiplied by 360 being the number of
human years in one divine year as told in the Linga Purana. Plus we have to
add 10% each for the beginning and end transition periods (sandhya +
sandhyansh), making the Sat Yuga of 1728,000 human years. The Treta,
Dwapar and Kali Yugas are similarly of 1296,000, 864,000 and 432,000 years
respectively in the conventional understanding.
Genetic Information | Eve | Africa
Genetic information indicates that human beings have evolved about 160,000
years ago from one woman who lived in Africa.i Thus Vaivaswat Manu cannot
be located before this time because he was an evolved human being as
indicated in him riding on a boat. Therefore, Sat Yuga, in which he was born
has to extend to 160,000 years before present. The remaining 3 Yugas have to
be compressed within these 160,000 years. Accordingly, the four yugas cannot
be of 1728,000, 1296,000, 864,000 and 432,000 years.
Archaeology | Bronze Age | Egypt | Sumer | Indus Valley
The Ikshwaku Dynasty descended from Vaivaswat Manu who lived in the Sat
Yuga.ii Large cities like Ayodhya and Mathura were made in the rein of this
Dynasty. This means that the Dynasty started towards the beginnings of the
urban civilization. The earliest urban civilizations of Indus Valley, Egypt and
Sumer began in the 4th millennium BCE. Therefore, the Ikshwaku Dynasty
would have ruled after the 4th Millennium BCE.
Since Vaivaswat Manu lived in Sat Yuga, and his descendant Rama lived in
Treta Yuga, we may assume that the Ikshwaku Dynasty also began in the Treta
Yuga. The Treta, Dwapar and Kali Yugas, therefore, have to be located within
the time span of 4000 BCE to present.
In view of above genetic and archaeological evidences, we consider the four
Yugas to be of 1728, 1296, 864 and 432 years only and suggest the “000” years
added to these numbers is a hyperbole.
Manu | Prajapati | Avatara
Now we try to locate the Manus, Prajapatis and Avataras in the above
framework. The Hindu texts do not give any information of the time of
Swayambhu Manu.
Vaivaswat Manu, at whose time the Matsya Incarnation took place, lived in the
Sat Yuga. His son Ikshwaku lived in the Treta Yuga. It follows that Vaivaswat
Manu lived towards the end of Sat Yuga and the beginning of Treta Yuga.
Astronomers have suggested widely varying time periods for Vaivaswat Manu,
Rama and Krishna. Among them, S B Roy, has provided the possible time for
the three in a chronological sequence as given below. Further, Rama was born
in the Treta Yuga and Krishna in the Dwapar Yuga.iii The time of these
Prajapatis or Avataras and their respective Yugas as suggested by S B Roy are
given below:
Vaivaswat Manu: 3212 to 2798 BCE, Sat Yuga.
Rama: 1996 to 1646 BCE, Treta Yuga.
Krishna: 1445 to 1124 BCE, Dwapar Yuga.iv
The stretch of the Yugas has to be in the ration 4:3:2:1 as described in the
Mahabharata and also has to match with the time of the above Prajapati and
Avataras. One possible reconciliation of these is as follows, also given at
Picture 1.
Sat Yuga: 4728 to 3000 BCE: 1728 Years: Swayambhu Manu and Vaivaswat
Manu.
Treta Yuga: 3000 TO 1704 BCE: 1296 Years: Ikshwaku and Rama.
Dwapar Yuga: 1704 to 840 BCE: 864 Years: Krishna
Kali Yuga: Year 840 to 408 BCE.
Manvantara | Chaturyuga | Vaivaswat Manu| Swayambhu Manu
Now let us consider the Kalpa, Manvantara and Chaturyuga. The Bhagwata
Purana says that a Kalpa consists of 14 Manvantaras presided over by a Manu.
Each Manvantara consists of 71 Chaturygas. We are in the 2nd Kalpa (Varaha
Kalpa); 7th Manvantara (Vaivaswat Manvantara); 28th Chaturyuga (unnamed);
Kali Yuga (Bhagwata Purana 3.11).
The understanding here is that the 14 Manvantaras and 71 Chaturyugas are
sequential—they come after one another. Accordingly, the total time elapsed
from creation to present would be about 6.2 billion years.v
The texts also give certain genealogical information about the 14 Manus of the
present Kalpa. The genealogy of these 14 Manus suggests that they lived at
three time periods:
Time Period 1: Six Manus: (1) Swayabhu Manu. (2) to (5) Four grandons of
Swayambhu Manu, namely, (2) Svarocisa, (3) Uttama, (4) Tamasa, (5)
Raivata (all s/o Priyavrata s/o Swayambhu Manu). (6) One great
grandson of Swayambhu Manu, Caksusa Manu (s/o Dhruva s/o
Uttanpada s/o Swayambhu Manu). The latter 5 of these Manus are
 bilogical gandsons or great gradsons of Swaymabhu Manu indicating
they were contemporaneous.
Time Period 2: Two Manus. (7) Vaivaswat Manu,vi and (8) Savarni Manu.vii
Savarni Manu was step brother of Vaivaswat Manu indicating that these
two were also contemporaneous.
Time Period 3: Six Manus: These are yet to be born: (9) Daksa Savarni, (10)
Brahma Savarni, (11) Dharma Savarni, (12) Rudra Savarni, (13) Ruci
Savarni and (14) Indra Savarni. These six will be born as rebirths of 6
sons of Vaivaswat Manu. We have put them in a separate group because
the time after which their rebirth may take place is not known. These
are yet to be born hence outside our radar.
Now we try to place Manus (1) to (8) in a time frame. We have shown above
that Vaivaswat Manu lived towards the end of Sat Yuga at 3000 BCE. It follows
that the first six Manus numbered (1) to (6) were born some time before 3000
BCE. The texts give us no information to determine their time in more detail.
Thus we place these 6 Manus at an unspecified time before 3000 BCE; and
Vaivaswat and Savarni Manus at 3000 BCE as shown in Picture 2.

In making this suggestion we assume that the 6 earlier Manus and Vaivaswat
and Savarni Manus were born in same Chaturyuga. In other words, we place
these 8 Manvantaras within the same Chaturyuga. Reason is that the texts give
us absolutely no information about the earlier 27 Chaturyugas of the present
Manvantara. The earlier 27 Chaturyugas, if they happened at all, would also
not match with the genetic and archaeological information given above. Thus
we assume that the 27 earlier Chaturyugas is an interpolation not grounded in
reality. Actually, there may be only 1 Chaturyuga with 14 Manvantaras within
it.
Kalpa | Braahm Kalpa | Varaha Kalpa | Flood | Varaha Avatara
The last point is of Kalpa. The first Kalpa was Braahm Kalpa. The second Kalpa,
running at present, is Varaha Kalpa. The name “Varaha” of the present Kalpa
helps us locate the same. The third Avatara after the Flood was that of Lord
Varaha. The first three Avataras, namely Matsya, Koorma and Varaha, are all
related to water or flood. It is possible these three Avataras took place at the
time of the Flood at the time of Vaivaswat Manu. From this we deduce that the
Varaha Kalpa may have started at the time of the Varaha Avatara after the
Flood at 3000 BCE. It follows that the Braahm Kalpa before it would have
ended at 3000 BCE. We thus give our suggestion for the Kalpas in Picture 3. In
this way we can reconcile the Manvantaras, Chaturyugas and Kalpas with
genetic and archaeological evidences.
Traditional Timeline | Bhagwata Purana | Reconciliation
The Bhagwata Purana says that we are living in the 2nd Kalpa of the life of the
present Brahma. Each Kalpa consists of 14 Manvantaras. Each Manvantara
consists of 71 Chaturygas. We are in the 4th Yuga (Kali) of the 28th Chaturyuga
of the 7th Manvantara of the 2nd Kalpa (Bhagwata Purana 3.11). We have
shown this in a diagram at Picture 4.

This timeline leaves many questions unanswered:

1 The texts give no timeline for Swayambhu Manu. It is not clear whether
he lived in the 1st Braahm Kalpa or the present 2nd Varaha Kalpa.
2 The texts give no information about the 14 Manvantaras and 71
Chaturyugas of the Braahm Kalpa that allegedly took place before the
present Varaha Kalpa.
3 The texts give no information of the 71 Chaturyugas of the first six
Manus of the present Varaha Kalpa.
All these unanswered questions are resolved if the Chaturyuga was the largest
time scale, within which there were 2 Kalpas and 14 Manvantaras—partly
overlapping. We have given this possible reconciliation in Picture 5 with the
changes marked in red colour.
The Braahm Kalpa overlapped with the first 6 Manvantaras and with Sat Yuga
of the only Chaturyuga. Varaha Kalpa overlapped with 7th and 8th Manvantaras
and with the Treta-Dwapar-Kali Yugas of the present Chaturyuga. In this way
we can reconcile the Hindu Kalpa-Manvantara-Chaturyuga periods with
scientific evidence from genetics and archaeology.

i
https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-evolution-human-origins/genetic-adam-and-eve-all-humans-are-
descendants-one-man-and-woman-who-021536.
ii
Krishna, Yugas & Avatars, http://ramakjn.blogspot.in/2006/06/yugas-avatars.html, Retrieved July 16, 2015.
iii
Krishna, Yugas & Avatars, http://ramakjn.blogspot.in/2006/06/yugas-avatars.html, Retrieved July 16, 2015.
iv
Roy, S B, “Scientific (Astro-Dynastic) Chronology of Ancient India,” in C Margabandhu et. al., Editors, Indian
Archaeological Heritage, Agamkala Prakashan, Delhi, 1991, Page 702-703. Other scholars place the war of
Mahabharata in which Krishna had participated variously between 5500 BCE and 900 BCE (Vartak, P V, The
Scientific Dating of the Mahabharat War, Ved Vidnyana Mandal, Pune,
http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/mahabharat/mahab_vartak.html, Retrieved September 7,
2013; IGNCA, Dating The Kurukshetra War, http://ignca.nic.in/nl002503.htm, Retrieved September 7, 2013).
The range of 1445 BCE to 1124 BCE for the birth of Krishna suggested by Roy is within this larger range and we
accept this.
v
1st Kalpa of the 2 Kalpa, consisting of 14 Manvantaras, each consisting of 71 Chaturygas, each consisting of
4320k years = 4294,080k years. Plus, 6 Manvantaras of present Kalpa, each consisting of 71 Chaturygas, each
consisting of 4320k years = 1840,320k years. Plus 27 Chaturuygas of present Manvantara, , each consisting of
4320k years = 116,640k years. Plus the first 3 Yugas of present Chaturyga (In the ratio 4+3+2=9 of 10 parts) of
4320k years = 3,960k years. Total = 4294,080k + 1840,320k + 116,640k + 3,960k = 6255,000k years.
vi
Brahma created Marici by his mind and Daksha from his right thumb (Mani, Vettam, Puranic Encyclopedia,
Motilal Banarasidas, Delhi, 1975, Page 192). Kashyapa was son of Marici (Mani, Puranic… Page 398). Aditi,
daughter of Daksha was married to Kashyapa, son of Marici (Mani, Puranic… Pages 192, 396). Three sons
named Tvasta, Indra and Vivaswan (Surya) were born from this union (Mani, Puranic…Page 318, 879).
Vaivaswat Manu was son of Vivaswan (Mani, Puranic…Page 879).
vii
Savarni Manu was son of Surya (Vivaswan) and a maid (Mani, Puranic… Page 485).