Misplaced Pages

#877122

30-682: This is the first of many Arabic zijs based on the Indian astronomical methods known as the Sindhind. The work contains tables for the movements of the sun, the moon and the five planets known at the time. It consists of approximately 37 chapters on calendar and astronomical calculations and 116 tables with calendar, astronomical and astrological data, as well as a table of sine values. As described by Said al-Andalusi, as-Sindhind divides time into cyclic periods of creation and destruction which are called kalpas . This article about an astronomy -related book

60-561: A maha-kalpa (311.04 trillion years or 36,000  kalpa + 36,000  pralaya ). Fifty years of Brahma are supposed to have elapsed, and we are now in the Shveta-Varaha Kalpa or the first day of his fifty-first year. At the end of a kalpa , the world is annihilated by fire. The definition of a kalpa equaling 4.32 billion years is found in the Puranas —specifically Vishnu Purana and Bhagavata Purana . The duration of

90-575: A league high, uncracked, uncavitied, a single mass—and a man would come along once every hundred years and rub it once with a Kashi cloth. More quickly would that great mountain of rock waste away and be consumed by that effort, but not the eon [kalpa]. That's how long, monk, an eon is. Described in the Vibhanga division of the Abhidhamma Pitaka are sixteen rupa brahma lokas (worlds or planes) and four higher arupa brahma lokas , each attained through

120-464: A significant event in the kalpa and the most glorious person in the beginning of the kalpa . These 30  kalpas or days (along with 30 pralayas or nights) form a 30-day month of Brahma. The Vayu Purana has a different list of names for 33  kalpas , which G. V. Tagare describes as fanciful derivations. In the Pali language of early Buddhism , the word kalpa takes the form kappa , and

150-416: A single date of composition. (...) It is as if they were libraries to which new volumes have been continuously added, not necessarily at the end of the shelf, but randomly. The Asiatic Society , Calcutta published this text in two volumes in 1880 and 1888, as a part of their Bibliotheca Indica series. It was edited by Rajendralal Mitra . The Venkateshvara Press, Bombay edition was published in 1895. It

180-473: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Kalpa (time) A kalpa is a long period of time ( aeon ) in Hindu and Buddhist cosmology , generally between the creation and recreation of a world or universe. Kalpa ( Sanskrit : कल्प , lit.   'a formation or creation') in this context, means "a long period of time ( aeon ) related to the lifetime of the universe (creation)." It

210-554: Is approximately 16 million years long (16,798,000 years ), and a small kalpa is 1000 regular kalpas, or about 16.8 billion years. Further, a medium kalpa is roughly 336 billion years, the equivalent of 20 small kalpas. A great kalpa is four medium kalpas, or about 1.3 trillion years. Gautama Buddha did not give the exact length of the maha-kalpa in terms of years. However, he gave several astounding analogies to understand it. In one instance, when some monks wanted to know how many kalpas had elapsed so far, Buddha gave

240-506: Is derived from कॢप् (kḷp) + -अ (-a, nominalizing suffix) ( Sanskrit : कॢप् , romanized :  kḷp , lit.   'to create, prepare, form, produce, compose, invent'). Traditional In Hinduism , a kalpa is equal to 4.32 billion years, a "day of Brahma " (12-hour day proper) or one thousand mahayugas , measuring the duration of the world. Each kalpa is divided into 14 manvantara periods, each lasting 71 Yuga Cycles (306,720,000 years). Preceding

270-534: Is mentioned in the assumed oldest scripture of Buddhism, the Sutta Nipata . This speaks of "Kappâtita: one who has gone beyond time, an Arahant". This part of the Buddhist manuscripts dates back to the middle part of the last millennium BCE. Gautama Buddha claimed an incalculable number of Buddhas lived in previous kalpas : Vipassi Buddha 91 kalpas ago, Sikhi Buddha 31 kalpas ago, and three prior Buddhas in

300-502: Is mentioned in the manuscripts of the Mahabharata and other Hindu texts, which has led scholars to propose that the text is among the oldest in the Puranic genre. Vayu and Vayaviya Puranas do share a very large overlap in their structure and contents, possibly because they once were the same, but with continuous revisions over the centuries, the original text became two different texts, and

330-631: Is notable for the numerous references to it, in medieval era Indian literature, likely links to inscriptions such as those found on the Mathura pillar and dated to 380 CE, as well as being a source for carvings and reliefs such as those at the Elephanta Caves – a UNESCO world heritage site. The Vayu Purana is mentioned in chapter 3.191 of the Mahabharata, and section 1.7 of the Harivamsa , suggesting that

SECTION 10

#1732855310878

360-531: The Bhadrakalpa (Auspicious aeon), and the next kalpa will be the Nakshatrakalpa (Constellation aeon). Vayu Purana Divisions Sama vedic Yajur vedic Atharva vedic Vaishnava puranas Shaiva puranas Shakta puranas The Vayu Purana ( Sanskrit : वायुपुराण , Vāyu-purāṇa ) is a Sanskrit text and one of the eighteen major Puranas of Hinduism . Vayu Purana

390-513: The Brahman , Delighting in the Atman Alert and pure. Such are the ones who master Yoga. — Vayu Purana 16.22-16.23 The Vayu Purana exists in many versions, structured in different ways, For example: The Vayu Purana discusses its theories of cosmology , genealogy of gods and kings of solar and lunar dynasties, mythology, geography, manvantaras , the solar system and the movements of

420-572: The Vayu Purana , sometime before the 15th century. Vayu Purana, like all Puranas, has a complicated chronology. Dimmitt and van Buitenen state that each of the Puranas is encyclopedic in style, and it is difficult to ascertain when, where, why and by whom these were written: As they exist today, the Puranas are stratified literature. Each titled work consists of material that has grown by numerous accretions in successive historical eras. Thus, no Purana has

450-575: The Vayaviya text came also to be known as the Brahmanda Purana . The Vayu Purana , according to the tradition and verses in other Puranas, contains 24,000 verses ( shlokas ). However, the surviving manuscripts have about 12,000 verses. The text was continuously revised over the centuries, and its extant manuscripts are very different. Some manuscripts have four padas (parts) with 112 chapters, and some two khandas with 111 chapters. Comparisons of

480-460: The below analogy: Another definition of Kalpa is the world where Buddhas are born. There are generally 2 types of kalpa, Suñña-Kalpa and Asuñña-kalpa . The Suñña-Kalpa is the world where no Buddha is born. Asuñña-Kalpa is the world where at least one Buddha is born. There are 5 types of Asuñña-Kalpa : The previous kalpa was the Vyuhakalpa (Glorious aeon), the present kalpa is called

510-544: The celestial bodies. In addition to these, the text has chapters which were inserted in the later centuries into the older version of the Vayu Purana, such as chapters 16-17 which discuss duties of the Varna (caste or class) and duties of a person during various ashrama , chapter 18 which discusses penances for sannyasi (monks, yati ), chapters 57–59 on dharma , chapters 73 to 83 on sanskaras (rites of passage), and chapter 101 on

540-409: The diverse manuscripts suggest that the following sections were slipped, in later centuries, into the more ancient Vayu Purana : chapters on geography and temples-related travel guides known as Mahatmya , two chapters on castes and individual ashramas , three chapters on Dharma and penances, eleven chapters on purity and Sanskara (rite of passage) and a chapter on hell in after-life. The text

570-438: The earliest version of the text is likely from the 300 to 500 CE period, and broadly agreed that it is among the oldest Puranas. The text, like all Puranas, has likely gone through revisions, additions and interpolations over its history. Rajendra Hazra, as well as other scholars, for example, consider Gaya-mahatmya , which is an embedded travel guide to Gaya , as a later addition. The Gaya-mahatmya replaced older sections of

600-526: The first and following each manvantara period is a juncture ( sandhya ) equal to the length of a Satya Yuga (1,728,000 years). A kalpa is followed by a pralaya (dissolution) of equal length, which together constitute a day and night of Brahma. A month of Brahma contains thirty such days and nights, or 259.2 billion years. According to the Mahabharata , 12 months of Brahma (=360 days) constitute his year, and 100 such years his life called

630-523: The imperfect, medial or perfect performance of the four states of jhāna (meditation), granting a duration of life measured in kalpas that exceed the top-most heavenly loka of 9.216 billion years: At the termination of each kalpa , the lower three rupa brahma lokas , attained through the 1st jhāna , and everything below them (six heavens, Earth, etc.) are destroyed by fire (seven suns), only to later again come into being. In one explanation, there are four different lengths of kalpas. A regular kalpa

SECTION 20

#1732855310878

660-475: The life of Brahmā seems fantastic and interminable, but from the viewpoint of eternity it is as brief as a lightning flash. In the Causal Ocean there are innumerable Brahmās rising and disappearing like bubbles. Brahmā and his creation are all part of the material universe, and therefore they are in constant flux. The Matsya Purana (290.3–12) lists the names of 30  kalpas , each named by Brahma based on

690-527: The material universe is limited. It is manifested in cycles of kalpas. A kalpa is a day of Brahmā, and one day of Brahmā consists of a thousand cycles of four yugas, or ages: Satya Yuga , Treta Yuga , Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga . ... These four yugas, rotating a thousand times, comprise one day of Brahmā, and the same number comprise one night. Brahmā lives one hundred of such "years" and then dies. These "hundred years" total 311 trillion 40 billion (311,040,000,000,000) earth years. By these calculations

720-400: The present kalpa . He confines his teachings to the present kalpa , the duration of which he doesn't arithmetically define, but uses a similitude: Were a man to take a piece of cloth of this most delicate texture [of fine cotton], and therewith to touch in the slightest possible manner, once in a hundred years, a solid rock, free from earth, a yojana [12 kilometres] high, and as much broad,

750-565: The text existed in the first half of the 1st-millennium CE. The 7th-century Sanskrit prose writer Banabhatta refers to this work in his Kadambari and Harshacharita . In chapter 3 of the Harshacharita Banabhatta remarks that the Vayu Purana was read out to him in his native village. Alberuni (973 -1048), the Persian scholar who visited and lived in northwest Indian subcontinent for many years in early 11th century, quoted from

780-615: The theory of hell in after-life. The text shares a large number of verses with the Brahmanda Purana , and the two texts originated most likely from the same core text. The comparison of the two texts and specifics within the texts suggests, states Hazra, that the split into two texts could not have happened before 400 CE. The chapters which were slipped into the Vayu Purana are missing in many versions of Vayu and in Brahmananda manuscripts. Chapter 18 on penances for those in monastic life,

810-522: The time would come when it would be worn down, by this imperceptible trituration, to the size of a mung seed. This period would be immense in its duration; but it has been declared by Buddha that it would not be equal to a Maha Kalpa. A similar similitude is found in the Mountain Pabbata Sutta (SN 15:5) of the Pali Canon : Suppose there were a great mountain of rock—a league long, a league wide,

840-425: The version of Vayu Purana that existed during his visit. The various mentions of the Vayu Purana in other texts have led scholars to recognize it as one of the oldest. The early 20th-century scholar Dikshitar, known for his dating proposals that push many texts as very ancient and well into 1st millennium BCE, stated that the Vayu Purana started to take shape around 350 BCE. Later scholarship has proposed that

870-801: Was followed by the publication of another edition by the Anandashrama (Anandashrama Sanskrit Series 49), Poona . In 1910, the Vangavasi Press, Calcutta published an edition along with a Bengali translation by Panchanan Tarkaratna, the editor of the text. In 1960 Motilal Banarsidass published an English translation as part of its Ancient Indian Traditions and Mythology series. The Yogin The Yogin possesses these attributes, Self-restraint , Quiescence, Truthfulness, Sinlessness, Silence, Straightforwardness towards all, Knowledge beyond simple perception, Uprightness, Composed in mind, Absorbed in

900-810: Was likely inserted before the 14th century. The travel guide to Gaya, Bihar was likely inserted before the 15th-century, because the Gaya-mahatmya was referenced many times by the 15th-century Vacaspatimisra (not to be confused with 9th-century Advaita scholar of the same name). The text also contains chapters on music, various shakhas of the Vedas , Pashupata - Yoga , and geographic Mahatmya (travel guides) particularly about Gaya in Bihar . The Vayu Purana also features other topics such as those dealing with construction of mountain top Hindu temples . The Revakhanda of Vayu Purana since 1910 has been wrongly attributed to

#877122