Page:The Land of the Veda.djvu/88

78 this daring reckoning “a bold attempt of the Brahmins to map out eternity!”

Trevor has remarked that the present age (the Kali Yug) being 432,000 years, the other three Yugs are found simply by multiplying that number by 2, 3, and 4, respectively. The number itself is the tithe of the sum total of the four Yugs. The “divine year,” being computed like the prophetic, at a year for a day, (counting 360 days to the year,) is equal to 360 ordinary years; and these, multiplied by the perfect number 12,000, makes 4,320,000 years, the sum of the Ages, and a Kalpa, or “Day of Brahma.” Trevor supposes, that as this chronologic scheme is too absurd for reception, it must have been originally designed as a sort of arithmetical allegory, expressing the character, rather than the duration, of the periods referred to; while the descending ratios of 100,000, 10,000, 1,000, and 100 may indicate only the gradual shortening of the term of human life since the creation of man, as the corresponding proportions of the virtuous and vicious denote the spread of moral evil, till in the present age “they are altogether become filthy.” This theory I leave to the learned reader, having introduced the topic chiefly to illustrate the mental characteristics of the people of India, and to show into what vagaries the human intellect, albeit cultivated and subtile, can be drawn in the day-dreams of a people on whom the light of Revelation never dawned. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”

Their divisions of time are singular: 18 Mimeshas (twinkling of an eye, the standard of measure) are equal to 1 Kashta; 30 Kashtas to 1 Kala; 30 Kalas (48 of our minutes) to 1 Muhurtta; 30 Muhurttas to 1 day and night; 1 Month of Men to 1 day and night of the Pitris, (ancestors;) 1 Year of Men to 1 day and night of the Gods. The Hindoos have four watches of the day, and the same at night; these are called Pahars, and are three hours long, the first commencing at six o'clock in the morning. The day and night together are also divided into sixty smaller portions, called Ghurees, so that each of the eight Pahars consists of seven and a half Ghurees. They have twelve months in the year, each month