536 HHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1 700-1. 



joogs,* a certain measure of time. Which when it is come, God not only 

 annihilates the whole created world, but every thing else as well angels, souls 



* The term yoog or yug, it seems, in the Indian chronology, denotes a period or revolution of a 

 certain number of years, or a conjunction or coincidence, as if being the period of years in which all 

 the planets come into a conjunction in tiie same sign, counting by their mean motions. The Indians 

 however have yugs of different kinds. According to their romantic ideas, the age of the world is di- 

 vided into four grand periods, of astonishing duration, called yugs, or distinct ages. The first is the 

 satya yug, that is, the age of purity, or of truth; this it is said lasted 3,200,000 yiars ; that the life 

 of man, during that period, was extended to 1 00000 years ; and that his stature was 21 cubits. The 

 second was the tretayug, or the age in which the third part of mankind became corrupt, the word 

 treta in the Sanscrit, it seems, denoting the number 3. This yug is supposed to have lasted 2400000 

 years, and that men in this period lived to the age of 10000 years. The third was the dvirapar yug 

 or the age in which half the human race became depraved ; dwa or dua signifying the number 2, or 

 the second, and by the addition of par, or paar, it denotes a half. The duration of this yug is stated 

 at 1600000 years, and in it the life of man was reduced to 1000 years. The fourth, or present age, 

 is the calee yug, or call yug, in which all mankind are said to be depraved or shortened. The 

 Hindoos suppose that the call yug will subsist for 400000 years, that it commenced in the year 3 102 

 before our Christian era, and consequently that the present year, 1804, is the 4906th of the Indians* 

 call yug. 



But other accounts of the yugs make the current, or call yug, to consist of 432000 years, and the 

 preceding ones, in retrograde order, to be respectively double, triple, and quadruple of that ; by 

 which means it happens, that if the first number denote a period, or cycle, in which any certain 

 celestial phaenomena come to a coincidence, then the like coincidence must occur at the other three 

 periods also, because they are multiples of the first. It is remarkable that the four Indian ages have 

 their relations and gradations of qualities, as to purity or depravity, similar to the like four ages among 

 the ancient Greeks, viz. the golden age, the silver age, the brazen age, and the iron age. Hence, 

 , multiplying the call yug by the numbers 4, 3, 2, we have the length of the four Indian yugs, or 

 ages, as follow : 



The first yug, or golden age 1,728,000 



The second yug, or silver age 1,296,000 



The third yug, or brazen age. . . , 864,000 



The cali yug, or iron age 432,000 



The sum of all, or 10 cali yugs 4,320,000 



As to the quantity of the cali yug, various speculations and calculations have been made concern- 

 ing it. The prevailing idea seems to be, the coincidence cf the period of the moon's nodes, with that 

 of the Platonic year, that is, with the period of the precession of the equinoxes. Now the period 

 of the moon"s nodes is very neatly 18| years; but die Platonic year, or period in which the solar 

 node will move through all the points of the ecliptic, or 360 degrees, has been variously stated by 

 both the ancients and moderns; at present the motion of the equinox is taken to be 50! or 5 O-i. se- 

 conds per year ; but other ages and other nations have accounted it different, some more, some less; 

 and the Indians in particular, it is said, state the precession to be at the rate of 54 seconds per year. 

 Now calculating from this number, if 54" answer to 1 year, then 360°, or 12.96000", will answer to 

 just 24000 years, for the Platonic year. Then if this number be multiplied by 18, the even years in 

 the period of the moon's node, it produces 432,000, the very number of the cali yug. It is true 



