Description: This book questions the conventional wisdom that a fully matured theory of the yugas - Hinduism's ages of the world - is integral to the Mahābhārata, and it illustrates how traditional commentators and modern scholars have read the later Purāṇic yuga theory into the Mahābhārata, in particular when it comes to placing the action at the beginning of the current terrible Kali Yuga. Luis González-Reiman discusses the meaning of key terms in the epic by examining the text and early Buddhist sources. This book also traces the sectarian appropriation of the yuga system in later literature and documents how modern religious movements have used the system to proclaim the arrival of a new, prosperous Kṛta Yuga, a phenomenon that coincides with New Age expectations.
Review Quotes: «This original and well-researched study sheds considerable new light on the history and development of the theory of cyclical time, one of the most critical concepts in our understanding of the religious and cosmological thought of Hindu India. Luis González-Reimann's work is a 'must read' for anyone interested in the Indian epic literature and in the way in which the concept of recurrent yugas or world ages evolves in these seminal texts.» (Robert P. Goldman, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California at Berkeley)
«The view that yugas and pralayas replace each other in endless cycles strongly influenced the final formulations of all basic religious doctrines in India. This excellent book will prove to be indispensable for anybody interested in the foundations of Indian culture.» (Yaroslav V. Vassilkov, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies, St. Petersburg)