Page 565 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

346 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
only serve to check the extravagant estimates regarding the age
of the last Glacial epoch; and if the sober view of American geolo·
gists be adopted, both geology and the traditions recorded in
the ancient books of the Aryan race will be found alike to point
out to a period not much older than 8000 B. C. for the commence-
ment of the post-Glacial era and the compulsory migration of
the Aryan races from their Arctic home.
And not only Vedic but also Pura~ic chronology, properly
understood, leads us to the same conclusion. According to the
Pur.i~as the earth and the whole universe are occasionally
subjected to destruction at long intervals of time, the earth by
a small and the universe by a grand deluge. Thus we are told
that when the god Brahma is awake during his day the creation
exists; but when at the end of the day he goes to sleep, the world
is destroyed by a deluge, and is re-created when he awakes
from his sleep and resumes his activity the next morning.
Brahma's evening and morning are thus synonymous with the
destruction and the re-creation of the earth. A day and a night
of Brahma are each equal to a period of time called a Kalpa,
and a Kalpa is taken for a unit in measuring higher period of time.
Two Kalpas constitute a nycthemeron ( day and night ) of Brahma,
and 360 x 2 = 720 Kalpas make his year, while a hundred such
years constitute his life-time, at the end of which a grand deluge
overtakes the whole universe including Brahma. Now according to
the Code of Manu and the Mahabharata the four yugas of K~ita,
Treta, Dvapara and Kali form a yuga of gods, and a thousand
such yugas make a Kalpa or a day of Brahma of 12,000,000 years,
at the end of which a deluge destroys the world. The Pura~as,
however, have adopted a different method of computation. The
four yugas of K"fita, Treta, Dvapara and Kali are there said to
constitute a Maha-yuga; 71 such Mahayugas constitute a Manvan-
tara, and 14 Manvantaras make a Kalpa, which according to this
method of counting, contains 4,320,000,000 years. The difference
between the durations of a Kalpa according to these two methods
is due to the fact that the years making up the four yugas of
K"fita, Treta, Dvapara and Kali are considered to be divine in the
latter, while they are obviously human in Manu and the Maha-
bharata. For further details the reader is referred to the late Mr. S. B.
Dixit's History of Indian Astronomy in Marathi, Prof. Ral).gacharya's
essay on Yugas, and Mr. Aiyer's Chronology of Ancient India,