Page:Hindu Feasts Fasts and Ceremonies.djvu/158

142 year 5000 will come to pass as foretold by the Devibhagavata.

In addition to the Puranic belief there are a few verses current among the astrologers of India which imply that the Hindu religion will perish in the year 5000 of the Kali age. They are as follows:—

They mean (1) Vishnu abandons this world at the close of the year 5000 of the Kaliyuga. (2) When Vishnu goes away, the Vedas will be burned upside down. (3) When the Vedas have suffered thus, the splendour of the planets wall vanish. (4) So, the truths of astrology will be current in this world only up to the year 5000 of the Kaliyuga. These verses, which allude to the ruin of India three years hence, are said to have been uttered by Krishnamisra, a poet who flourished in the Court of Vikramaditya at Ujjain in the 11th Century A.D. These are