Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 456

416
THE KALI-YUGA
This pretension to remote antiquity
amongst ancient
civilized peoples,
is
a favourite illusion
who, as they sank into
soon forgot the traditions of their ancestors
regarding the creation of the world, and believed they
could add to their own glory by assuming an origin which
was, so to say, lost in the dim vista of mythical times.
It is well known to what extremes the Chinese, the Egyp-
tians, and the Greeks carried this mania, and it is charac-
teristic of the Hindus that they far excel these nations in
idolatry,
their pretensions.
At the close of each of the yugas. there took place a
No trace of the preceding
universal upheaval in nature.
yuga survived in that which followed. The gods them-
selves shared in the changes brought about by these great
Vishnu, for instance, who was white in the
upheavals.
preceding yuga, became black in the present one.
But of all the yugas the most direful is the Kali-yuga, in
which we now live. It is verily an
of misrule and misery, during which
has deteriorated. The elements, the
everything, in
character of mankind
:
Iron Age, an epoch
everything on earth
duration of life, the
a word, has suffered,
Deceit has taken the
everything has undergone a change.
And this
place of justice, and falsehood that of truth.
degeneration must continue and go on increasing till the
end of the yuga.
From what I have just stated it will be seen that the
commencement of the true era of the Hindus, that is to
say, of their Kali-yuga, dates from about the same time as
the epoch of the Deluge an event clearly recognized by
them and very distinctly mentioned by their authors, who
give it the name of Jala-pralayam, or the Flood of Waters.
Their present era, indeed, dates specifically from the
commencement of this Jala-pralayam. It is definitely
stated in the Markandeya-purana and in the Bhagavata
that this event caused the destruction of all mankind, with
the exception of the seven famous Rishis or Penitents
whom I have often had occasion to mention, and who were
saved from the universal destruction by means of an ark,
of which Vishnu himself was the pilot.
Another great
personage, called Manu, who, as I have tried elsewhere to
show, was no other than the great Noah himself, was also
—