universally prevails in India in order that we may see wherein it
touches the life and moulds the thought of educated and uneducated
alike.

I

_The Astounding Length of the Chronological System_

In ancient Vedic times there obtained here, so far as we can see, much
more sober views of chronology than at present. It was much later that
the imagination of Hindu writers took full wing and carried the people
into the all but infinite reaches of Puranic chronology. One must wait
for the elaboration of Vishnu Purana, for instance, in order to meet
that apparent sobriety of mathematical detail which is utilized to add
credibility to the most fantastic time system that imagination ever
devised.

Christians of the West have doubtless erred on the side of excessive
brevity in their theories and beliefs about the beginnings of history
and especially in their attempt to locate the origin of the human
race. Until recently, it was thought that our human progenitor, Adam,
was created no more than sixty centuries ago, and that the whole
history of mankind is consequently confined to that brief space of
time. In the same way the practical mind of the West has pictured to
itself the termination of human life and history upon earth at some
not very remote date in the future. Science has already shown the
error of the former, as history is likely to demonstrate the falsity
of the latter theory.

But India has, with much greater daring and with more of unreason,
carried back many billions of years the origin of mankind and has
painted vividly a future whose expanse is as the boundless sea.

We are now, it is said, at the close of the first five thousand years
of _Kali yuga_. And this same _yuga_, or epoch, has 427,000 years
still in store for us and our descendants! Before it arrived, the
other three _yugas_--_Kritha_, _Tretha_, and _Dwapara_--had passed on;
and these, together, were equal to more than ten thousand divine
years, or to nearly four million human years! These four epochs equal
a total of 4,320,000 human years, and this is called a "_maha-yuga_."
This in itself would stagger the practical mind of the West. But it is
only the very threshold of Hindu chronology! There are seventy-one of
these great epochs in a "_Manuvanthara_," or the period of one Manu,
or human progenitor. And there are many of these Manus with their
periods. For instance, there are fourteen of them required in order to
cover the time called "_Karp