This is the English translation of the relevant portion from Manu Smriti.

Four thousand years is said to be the Krita Yuga (Satya Yuga). Its morning  has as many hundreds, and its evening is of the same length. (400+4000+400 = 4800). In the other three ages, with their morning and evening twilights, the thousands and hundreds decrease by one. (i.e. 300+3000+300 = 3600 and so on…). That fourfold cycle comprising twelve thousand years is called an Age of the gods.

Manu specifically mentions earth years,

The sum of a thousand divine ages constitutes one day of Brahma, and of the same length is its night.

The period of Satya Yuga proper is four thousand years in duration. Four hundred years before and after the Satya Yuga are its Sandhis or junctions with preceding and succeeding Treta Yuga where the gradual changes in the nature of the Yuga take place. Thus forty eight hundred years in all is the total age of the Satya Yuga.

Manu has laid down that in the calculation of  the periods of the other Yugas, numeral one should be subtracted from the number of both thousands and hundreds which indicate the periods of the previous Yugas and Sandhis.  From this rule the age of Treta Yug comes out to be thirty six hundred years. Three thousand as the length of the Yuga and three hundred years before and after as its Sandhis; a total of thirty six hundred years.

Thus two thousand years is the length of the Dwapar Yuga with two hundred years before and after as its Sandhis. A total of twenty four hundred years.

Lastly the duration of the Kali Yuga computes to be one thousand years with the junctions or Sandhis lasting one hundred years. This makes the total age of Kali Yuga to be twelve hundred years.

If we add 4800+3600+2400+1200 we get a total of 12000 years which is the length of one Daiva Yuga. Two of these Daiva Yugas make one cycle complete.

Sequence of Yugas

Satya(4800)-Treta(3600)-Dwapar(2400)-Kali(1200)-Kali(1200)- Dwapar(2400) – Treta(3600)- Satya(4800). Total 24000 Earth years.

As one can see two Satya Yug one descending and one ascending are joined together producing a total of 9600 years. Similarly at the other extremity, the descending and ascending Kali Yug are also joined producing a total of 2400 years. The sequence is in fact a circle.

In 11501 BC the autumnal equinox was on the first degree of Aries. At this point the Sun began to move away from its position closest to Vishnu Nabhi or grand center to its position farthest from it. This movement set in motion the very slow and imperceptible decline in the mental virtue of humans. The intellectual power of man began to diminish.

In the next 4800 years we lost  the power to grasp spiritual knowledge.

In the following 3600 years during the Sun’s journey through the descending Treta Yuga the human intellect lost all power of grasp of the divine magnetism.

In the succeeding 2400 years of the journey of the Sun through the descending Dwapar yuga the intellect became more clouded and humanity lost the ability to understand the existence and nature of five electricities.

Finally in the last 1200 years of the Kali Yuga the intellectual power became so weak that nothing about the creation could be understood.  Only gross material level of existence was known to us.

Adding 12000 years to 11501 BC we reach a figure of 499 AD. The period around 500 AD was indeed the darkest part of kali Yuga and of the whole cycle of twenty four thousand years.

To be concluded….

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Rajiv Sethi

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