2 HISTORY OF INDIA. [Book IV.
AD. — Medbyadesa, and Aiyaverta, was in full and undisputed possession of the Hindoos, we turn to their records in the hope of obtaining accounts more or less Fabulous avitbentic of the manner in which they made their original con(][uests, and after- Hiiuioo wards extended them into the Deccan, so as to bring the whole of India under chronli^ their power. Unfortunately, on these important points the Hindoo annals fur- nish no information, and we are presented, instead of historical details, with the most extravagant fables. Commencing at a period so remote that the mind is unable to form any definite conception of the years which have elap.sed since its commencement, we arrive at last at four yugas or ages, evidently resembling those with which the literature of the Greeks and Komans has made us familiar. The first age, or satya yuga, lasted 1,728,000 years. Durmg this age man existed in his most perfect form, The whole race was free from any taint of corruption ; and each individual, besides being of gigantic stature, li-^ed 100,000 years. In the second age, or trela yuga, one-third of the human race had become corrupt, and the duration of the whole period, as well as of human life, suffered a corresponding dnninution, the former being reduced to Four ages. 1^290,000 ycars, and the latter to 10,000 years. In the thn^d age, or chuajmra yuga, corruption still proceeding, the whole period was reduced to 864,000, and the life of man to 1000 years. In the fourth age, or cali yuga, corruption became universal, and while human life has been restricted to its present maxi- mum of 100 years, it has been predicted that the whole number of years now running their destined com'se will not exceed 432,000. The three first ages are evidently fabulous ; but Hindoo chronology, maintaining a kind of consistency in its extravagance, treats them all as equally authentic, and assigns historical events to each. In some instances, indeed, even the myriads of years included in the ages are deemed insufiicient, and the Institutes of M'enu, though certainly not older than the ninth century before our era, are fabled to have been wi'itten at a date, to reach which, in counting backwards, the 4,820,000 years of the four ages must be multiplied by six times seventy one. In a similar spirit the Surya Sidhauta, an astronomical work of the fifth or sixth century, is assigned to the satya yuga, and gravely declared to have been written more than two millions of years ago. Tiie cali The cali yuga is the only age which can be regarded as historical. It com-
iiistoi'icai. menced about 5000 years ago, and thus falls within the period during which we know, from an infallible source, that men have lived upon the earth, and may have spread eastward from their original seat into the basin of the Ganges. Still, notwithstanding some remarkable coincidences, it is difficult in the ex- treme to unravel the web of Hindoo fiction, and assign a real existence to beings who, though living and performing exploits in localities which are easily identified, figure as the familiar associates of supernal or infernal powers, as the descendants of the sun and moon, and even as incarnations of deity. Such are the heroes of the two celebrated epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharat.
