G L O S S A R Y

Avatara – Sanskrit word that literally means “he who descends”, though avataras are usually called “incarnations”. It is said that in the present Manvantara (see below) there have been eight main incarnations of Vishnu, headed by the avatara Matsya, the fish incarnation that saved mankind from the deluge just before that period got started.   

Maha–yuga – A series of four ages or yugas, of gradually decreasing lengths, whose sequence is repeated time and time again. It parallels the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron ages of the western tradition and its total length, according to the orthodox Hinduism, is 4'320,000 common years, though as considered in this book it can be assimilated both to a human cycle, a Manvantara, and any period of time. The terms divya –yuga y chatur–yuga are also used.  

Jyotisha–shastras – Ancient Hindu astronomical treatises.

Kalpa – A series consisting of one thousand maha–yugas. It comprises a “Brahma’s day” with its corresponding “night”. 
                                        

Manu – Literally, “The Father of Mankind”. He is the Archetypal Man and at the same time “the savior”, leader, and legislator of the new humankind after each partial devastation of the universe. In the western tradition, Noah is an equivalent character.   

Manvantara – Literally, “a shift of Manu”. For the orthodox Hinduism it is a septenary cycle of immense duration, but in the sense given in this book it is equivalent to the maha–yuga as referred to the current mankind, i.e. a quaternary cycle whose length comprises two precessional periods.

Pralaya – An “emptiness” ensuing after the dissolution of each cosmic manifestation, when the universes are absorbed by the Supreme Being. Actually it is not a “period” but an outside-of-time phenomenon.

Puranas – Literally, “antiquities” o “ancient stories”. They are eighteen in number and according to the orthodox Vishnuism, they narrate the history of the universe. The Third Canto of  Bhagavata Purana, which is one of them, and whose contents is considered to be wholly authoritative, assigns durations to all cosmic and biological conceivable cycles, from an atom’s phase to the total universal manifestation.

Yuga – Each one of the four (“Satya”, “Treta”, “Dvapara”, and “Kali”) cyclical ages a maha–yuga consists of. For the orthodox Hinduism, their lengths are 1'728,000, 1'296,000, 864,000 and 432,000 terrestrial years. 
 

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