Editing Kali Yuga (section)

== Duration and structure ==
{{See also|Yuga Cycle|Hindu units of time|List of numbers in Hindu scriptures}}

[[Hindu texts]] describe four ''[[yuga]]s'' (world ages)⁠ in a ''[[Yuga Cycle]]'', where, starting in order from the first age of ''[[Satya Yuga|Krita (Satya) Yuga]]'', each ''yuga's'' length decreases by one-fourth (25%), giving proportions of 4:3:2:1. Each ''yuga'' is described as having a main period ({{aka}} ''yuga'' proper) preceded by its {{IAST|yuga-sandhyā}} (dawn) and followed by its {{IAST|yuga-sandhyāṃśa}} (dusk)⁠, where each [[twilight]] (dawn/dusk) lasts for one-tenth (10%) of its main period. Lengths are given in divine years (years of the gods), each lasting for 360 [[Tropical year|solar]] (human) years.<ref name="Godwin 2011">{{cite book |author-last=Godwin |author-first=Joscelyn |author-link=Joscelyn Godwin |year=2011 |title=Atlantis and the Cycles of Time: Prophecies, Traditions, and Occult Revelations |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H14oDwAAQBAJ |publisher=[[Inner Traditions]] |isbn=9781594778575 |pages=300–301}}</ref><ref name="Merriam-Webster">{{cite encyclopedia |author=Merriam-Webster |year=1999 |editor-last1=Doniger |editor-first1=Wendy |editor-link1=Wendy Doniger |editor-last2=Hawley |editor-first2=John Stratton |title=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780877790440 |url-access=registration |encyclopedia=[[Merriam-Webster]] |publisher=[[Merriam-Webster|Merriam-Webster, Incorporated]] |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780877790440/page/445/mode/1up 445 (Hinduism)], [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780877790440/page/1159/mode/1up 1159 (Yuga)] |isbn=0877790442}}</ref><ref name="Springer measurements">{{cite book |author-last=Gupta |author-first=S. V. |year=2010 |chapter=Ch. 1.2.4 Time Measurements |editor-last1=Hull |editor-first1=Robert |editor-last2=Osgood |editor-first2=Richard M. Jr. |editor-link2=Richard M. Osgood Jr. |editor-last3=Parisi |editor-first3=Jurgen |editor-last4=Warlimont |editor-first4=Hans |title=Units of Measurement: Past, Present and Future. International System of Units |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pHiKycrLmEQC&pg=PA7 |series=Springer Series in Materials Science: 122 |publisher=[[Springer Publishing|Springer]] |pages=6–8 |isbn=9783642007378}}</ref>

''Kali Yuga'', the fourth age in a cycle, lasts for 432,000 years (1,200 divine years), where its main period lasts for 360,000 years (1,000 divine years) and its two twilights each last for 36,000 years (100 divine years). The current cycle's ''Kali Yuga'', the present age, has the following dates based on it starting in 3102{{nbsp}}BCE:<ref name="Godwin 2011"/><ref name="Merriam-Webster"/><ref name="Springer measurements"/>

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="border-width:0; text-align:right;"
|+ ''Kali yuga''
|-
! scope="col" | Part
! scope="col" | Start (– End)
! scope="col" | Length
|-
! scope="row" | ''Kali-yuga-sandhya'' (dawn)*
| 3102{{nbsp}}BCE
| class="nowrap" | 36,000 (100)
|-
! scope="row" | ''Kali-yuga'' (proper)
| 32,899{{nbsp}}CE
| class="nowrap" | 360,000 (1,000)
|-
! scope="row" | ''Kali-yuga-sandhyamsa'' (dusk)
| 392,899–428,899{{nbsp}}CE
| class="nowrap" | 36,000 (100)
|-
| colspan="3" style="background-color:#ffffff; font-weight:bold; padding-top:5px;" | Years: 432,000 [[Tropical year|solar]] (1,200 divine)
|-
| colspan="2" style="background-color:#ffffff; border-width:1px 0px 0px 0px; font-size:80%; padding-top:0; text-align:left;" | {{sup|(*) Current.}}
| style="background-color:#ffffff; border-width:1px 0px 0px 0px; padding-top:0;" | {{sfn|Godwin|2011|p=301|ps=: The Hindu astronomers agree that the [Dvapara Yuga ended and] Kali Yuga began at midnight between February 17 and 18, 3102 BCE. Consequently [Kali Yuga] is due to end about 427,000 CE, whereupon a new Golden Age will dawn.}}
|}

''[[Mahabharata]]'', Book 12 ([[Shanti Parva]]), Ch. 231:<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Dutt |author-first=Manmatha Nath |year=1903 |chapter=Ch. 231 (CCXXXI) |title=A Prose English Translation of The Mahabharata (Translated Literally from the Original Sanskrit text) |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.142208/page/n272/mode/1up |volume=Book 12 (Shanti Parva) |location=Calcutta |publisher=Elysium Press |page=351 (12.231.17, 19–21)}}.</ref>{{efn|Chapter 224 (CCXXIV) in some sources: ''Mahabharata'' 12.224.}}

{{blockquote
 |text=(17) A year (of men) is equal to a day and night of the gods{{nbsp}}... (19) I shall, in their order, tell you the number of years that are for different purposes calculated differently, in the Krita, the Treta, the Dwapara, and the Kali yugas. (20) Four thousand celestial years is the duration of the first or Krita age. The morning of that cycle consists of four hundred years and its evening is of four hundred years. (21) Regarding the other cycles, the duration of each gradually decreases by a quarter in respect of both the principal period with the minor portion and the conjoining portion itself.
}}

''[[Manusmriti]]'', Ch. 1:<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Bühler |author-first=G. |author-link=Georg Bühler |year=1886 |chapter=Ch. 1, The Creation |editor-last=Müller |editor-first=F. Max |editor-link=Max Müller |title=The Laws of Manu: translated with extracts from seven commentaries |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/lawsofman00manu/page/n163/mode/1up |series=[[Sacred Books of the East]] |volume=XXV |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=20 (1.67–70)}}</ref>

{{blockquote
 |text=(67) A year is a day and a night of the gods{{nbsp}}... (68) But hear now the brief (description of) the duration of a night and a day of Brahman [(Brahma)] and of the several ages (of the world, yuga) according to their order. (69) They declare that the Krita age (consists of) four thousand years (of the gods); the twilight preceding it consists of as many hundreds, and the twilight following it of the same number. (70) In the other three ages with their twilights preceding and following, the thousands and hundreds are diminished by one (in each).
}}

''[[Surya Siddhanta]]'', Ch. 1:<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Burgess |author-first=Rev. Ebenezer |date=1935 |orig-date=1860 |chapter=Ch. 1: Of the Mean Motions of the Planets. |editor-last=Gangooly |editor-first=Phanindralal |title=Translation of the Surya-Siddhanta, A Text-Book of Hindu Astronomy; With notes and an appendix |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/SuryaSiddhantaTranslation/page/n59/mode/1up |publisher=[[University of Calcutta]] |pages=7–9 (1.13–17)}}</ref>

{{blockquote
 |text=(13) ... twelve months make a year. This is called a day of the gods. (14) ... Six times sixty [360] of them are a year of the gods{{nbsp}}... (15) Twelve thousand of these divine years are denominated a Quadruple Age (caturyuga); of ten thousand times four hundred and thirty-two [4,320,000] solar years (16) Is composed that Quadruple Age, with its dawn and twilight. The difference of the Golden and the other Ages, as measured by the difference in the number of the feet of Virtue in each, is as follows : (17) The tenth part of an Age, multiplied successively by four, three, two, and one, gives the length of the Golden and the other Ages, in order : the sixth part of each belongs to its dawn and twilight.
}}