The Four Yugas · चतुर्युग

Hindu traditions see time as a wheel, not a line. Four ages turn again and again, each shorter and dimmer than the one before. Here are the Yugas with the traditional figures, what each age is known for — and why they should be read as cosmology, not as archaeological dates.

The word kāla means both time and death; the Puranas picture it as a turning wheel (kālachakra). History, in this view, does not march from a beginning to an end — it cycles, and dharma waxes and wanes with it like the moon.

[Traditional account]

• Satya (Krita) Yuga — 1,728,000 years. The age of truth: dharma "stands on four legs".
• Treta Yuga — 1,296,000 years. Dharma stands on three legs; the age of yajna and of Sri Rama.
• Dvapara Yuga — 864,000 years. Dharma stands on two legs; the age of Krishna and the Mahabharata.
• Kali Yuga — 432,000 years. Dharma stands on one leg; the present age in traditional reckoning.

Together the four ages make one Chaturyuga (Mahayuga) of 4,320,000 years — a ratio of 4:3:2:1. These are the Puranic figures as given in texts such as the Vishnu Purana and Manusmriti; some traditions count them in "divine years". The deeper structure — manvantaras, kalpas and the life of Brahma — is larger still…

• From yugas to the life of Brahma
• What each age is like
• When did Kali Yuga begin?
• How to read the Yugas today
• What this teaches

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• Vishnu Purana — 1.3
• Manusmriti — 1.68–86
• Mahabharata — Vana Parva, Markandeya section
• Bhagavata Purana — Canto 12
• Aryabhatiya — Kalakriya 3.10