Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 3-4.djvu/61

 THE ANAL-EROTIC FACTOR IN HINDU RELIGION 315

(1) The Krita-Yuga 1,728.000 years

(2) The Treta-Yuga 1,296,000 „

(3) The Dvapara-Yuga. . . 864,000

(4) The Kali-Yuga 432,000 "

' A Mahayuga 4,320,000

71

A Manu period 306,720,000 „

14

4,294,080,000 „ With fifteen intervals ot 1,728.000 each 25,920,000 „

4,320,000,000 „

Jones 1 maintains that 'time' in its ordinary and personal application can be an unconscious equivalent of excretory product because of the sense of value attaching to it. Are vi^e not at liberty to suppose that the explanation of the origin of these almost in- credible figures has its root in somewhat similar notions? There exist throughout the literature that pertains to Hindu religion and philosophy almost endless examples of that particular type of thinking which is concerned so deeply with figures. It appears to me as not unlikely that playing and juggling with figures is an intellectual form of the manipulation of external objects. In other words, it is the purely mental equivalent of moulding, sculpture, and the manipulation of plastic material.

The Ramayana, one of the famous epic poems of the period of Mythological Brahmanism, to which reference has been made already, teams with numbers of colossal magnitude. For example, the host of Ravan, the demon opponent of Rama, consisted of 150,000,000 elephants, 300,000,000 horses and 1,200,000,000 asses ; and so on.

In the Harsa-Carita of Bana, a historical romance dating from the seventh century of our era, the epic poets are positively out- done. Here is a description of the camp of Sri-Hirsa.

'It seemed like a creation-ground where the Prajapatis practised their skill, or a fourth world made out of the choicest parts of the other three ; its glory could not be described in hundreds of

» Ernest Jones : op. cit.

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