mahāyuga

Hinduism

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June 30, 2026

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In Hindu cosmology, a Mahayuga is a "great age" composed of four smaller ages, or yugas: Krita, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali. Each yuga represents a progressive decline in humanity's moral and physical state. The Krita yuga was an age of perfection, while the Kali yuga is the current, most degenerate age, which began in 3102 BCE.12

These four yugas together form a Mahayuga, and 2,000 Mahayugas constitute a larger cosmic cycle called a kalpa. At the end of the Kali yuga, the world is destroyed and then recreated as the cycle begins anew. The concept of yugas reflects a cyclical view of time in Hinduism, where the universe undergoes repeated cycles of creation, destruction, and rebirth.13

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chronology
Eras based on astronomical speculation
…of the universe was the mahāyuga, consisting of 4,320,000 sidereal years. It was divided into four yugas, or stages, on the hypothesis of an original “order” (dharma) established in the first stage, the Kṛta Yuga, gradually decaying in the three others, the Tretā, Dvāpara, and Kali yugas. The respective durations…
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…of the universe was the mahāyuga, consisting of 4,320,000 sidereal years. It was divided into four yugas, or stages, on the hypothesis of an original “order” (dharma) established in the first stage, the Kṛta Yuga, gradually decaying in the three others, the Tretā, Dvāpara, and Kali yugas. The respective durations…
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eschatology
Religions of Asia
The kalpa comprises 2,000 mahayugas, which in turn are each made up of four ages, or yugas, of diminishing length. The current age is the fourth yuga, the kaliyuga, of a mahayuga and is to last 1,200 “cosmic” years (432,000 years). An age of strife and disorder, decadence, and…
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The kalpa comprises 2,000 mahayugas, which in turn are each made up of four ages, or yugas, of diminishing length. The current age is the fourth yuga, the kaliyuga, of a mahayuga and is to last 1,200 “cosmic” years (432,000 years). An age of strife and disorder, decadence, and…
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Hinduism
Myths of time and eternity
…in a dice game—constitute a mahayuga (large yuga) and, like the comparable ages of the world depicted by the Greek poet Hesiod, are periods of increasing deterioration. Time itself also deteriorates, for the ages are successively shorter. Each yuga is preceded by an intermediate “dawn” and “dusk.” The Krita Yuga…
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…in a dice game—constitute a mahayuga (large yuga) and, like the comparable ages of the world depicted by the Greek poet Hesiod, are periods of increasing deterioration. Time itself also deteriorates, for the ages are successively shorter. Each yuga is preceded by an intermediate “dawn” and “dusk.” The Krita Yuga…
Read More