Page:Hindu Feasts Fasts and Ceremonies.djvu/155

Rh Godavari, Kaveri, Narmada and Tapti, which have caused immense loss of lives and property, are believed by the uneducated classes to be ushering us into a period of general cataclysms which is expected to take place in the last days of 1899 A.D. We will examine now the sources of the belief. Although all the Puranas are unanimous in describing the miseries of the Kali age there is fortunately only one Purana which speaks of the ruin of the world in the year 5000 of the Kali age. But this one Purana is the greatest authority to the whole of India. Its name is the Devibhagavata and it is regarded as a most sacred book. In the 6th chapter of Book IX it is related that the three goddesses Sarasvati, Ganga, and Lakshmi had a quarrel among themselves in heaven and each cursed the other. By the power of the curses they were converted into the rivers of Sarasvati, Ganga(Ganges) and Padmavati in this world and are expiating their sins here. Lakshmi in addition to her form as the river Padmavati has assumed also the shape of the shrub Tulasi (Oscymum sanctum). In the 8th chapter it is stated that these goddesses will abandon this world in the year 5000 of