Puranic Cosmology of the Ancient Indians
The Judeo-Christian time scale as computed by James Ussher in 1650, that the universe was created single-handedly by Yahweh in October 23, 4004 BC (proleptic Julian calendar), is rather simple if you were to put it side by side with the Puranic model conceived by the ancient Indians. The Puranic model of time assumes that the world goes through a manvantara cycle of four yugas or ages, namely, the Krta yuga, the Tretā yuga, the Dvāpara yuga, and the Kali yuga. The durations of the four yugas is carefully chosen by the ancient Indians so that (a) they form an arithmetic progression; (b) they sum to a multiple of ten; (c) their arithmetic sum is 4.32 million years. Furthermore, the model also assumes the following conversion factors for dealing with longer time span, 1. 1,000 manvantara cycles is equivalent to one Brahmā day (approx. 4.32 billion years); 2. The next 1,000 manvantara cycles is equivalent to one Brahma night; 3. One Brahma day and one Brahma night is equivalen...