YIIDHISHTIIIRA. See Pl'x'n'AvAs.
/WA (from the Sanskrit yuj, join; kindred to the Lat. jung-, the Gr. eeug-, Gothic, juk; hence, literally, junction) denotes, in Hindu mythology and astronomy, a long mundane period of years, which is preceded by a period called Sizndbya, " twilight," and followed by a similar period called Sandhydnt's'a, " portion of twilight." Manu, the Mahabharata, and the Puran'as name four such periods, three of which have already elapsed—viz , the Kr'ita-, Treta-, and Dweipara- Yuga; while the fourth, or Kali- Yuga, Is that in which we live. The Keita-Yuga, according to these works, consists of 4,000 divine years, its Sandhy'a of 400, and its Sandhyain s'a likewise of 400 divine years. The Tretil-Yuga consists of 3,000, and its Sandhya and Sandhyam's'a of 300 divine years each; the Dwapara-Yuga of 2,000 divine years, with 200 such years to its Sandhya. and 200 to its Sandhyam's'a; and the Kali-Yuga of 1000 divine years, with 100 such years to its Sandliya, and 100 to its Sandhydm's'a. And since a divine year comprises 360 solar years of mortals, a year of men being a day of the gods, these Yugas, with their Sand hytis and Sandhyam's'as, would severally represent 1,728,000, 1,296,000, 864,000, and 432,000, or in the aggregate, 4,320,000 solar years of mortals—a period called Maliiiyuga, or "a great Yuga;" 4,320,000,000 years being a day and night of Brahma. See BALPA. The notion on which the theory of these Yugas and their Sandhytis and Sandhyam's'as is based, as may be easily inferred from the foregoing statement, is that of a descending progression, 4, 3, 2, 1, each of these units multiplied by 1000, and in the case of the periods preceding and the Yuga by 100 years. The deteriorating process thus indicated in the succession of these Yugas, is also supposed to characterize the relative physical and moral worth of these mundane ages. "In the Keita-Yuga," Mann Fays,
" men are free from disease, attain all the objects of their desires, and live 400 years; but in the Treta and the their life is lessened gradually by one quar ter." .. " In the Kr'ita-Yuga, devotion is declared to be the highest object of men; in the Treta, spiritual knowledge; in the Dwapara, sacrifice; in the Kali, liberality alone." See also for other passages the article KALITUGA. The present or Kaliyuga of the world commenced in the year 3101 I3.C., when in.the year 1867, therefore, 4,968 years of the Kaliyuga would have expired.—The term Yuga is sometimes also applied to other divisions of time. The Vishn'u. Puran'a, for instance, mentions, besides the Yugas above named, a Yuga which consists of a cycle of five years, called Sam'vatsara, Pari routsara, Idratsara, .4nuratsara, and Vatsara (see Wilson's translation of this Pnrdn'a, 2d ed., by Fitzedward Hall, vol, i. p. 49, ff. • vol. IL p. 234, ff.); and a Yuga, or cycle of five years, is, as Colebrooke states (Miscellaneous Essays, vol. i. p. 106, ff.), likewise the cycle described iu the astronomical treatises connected with the Vedas, The use of the term Yuga, however, in such a special sense is not frequent, whereas its application to the four mundane ages is that which generally prevails in the classical and mediaeval Sanskrit literature.For other works, besides those already referred to, which afford information on these and other divisions of li•ividu time, see Kala Sankalita, a Collection Of Memoirs on the Various Hodes according to which the Nations of the Southern Parts of India divide Time, etc., by John Warren (Madras, 1825); and Carnatic Chronology, the Hindu and Mohammedan Methods of Reckoning Time Explained, etc., by Charles Philip Brown (Lond. 1863).