Talk:Hindu units of measurement

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I've moved this article to vedic timekeeping, since the use of these metrics isn't entirely limited to hindu scripture, and the sytem may in fact predate hinduism. Mkweise 18:19 29 May 2003 (UTC)

  • It has been suggested that we are entering a short period of relative light within this otherwise dark time for humanity and the higher beings. PLEASE CORRECT THIS IF NECESSARY.

Irrelevant and/or just plain of paragraph above cut out. Jpatokal 16:38, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] 203.199.120.7 massive copyright violation

The basically took a whole slab of text from http://www.ambedkar.org/riddleinhinduism/21C.Riddles%20in%20Hinduism%20PART%20III.htm and copied it from the article. I've rolled back, and as this user insists on doing this for all Hindu articles I'm rolling back all changes. - Ta bu shi da yu 11:29, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] references

the article is totally unreferenced, giving us no indication of the units' historical attestation. Maybe it should be merged somewhere; For the moment, I'm moving it to Hindu units of measurement, since apparently these are units in use in Hinduism today. dab (ᛏ) 14:36, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

  • dab - since when does wikipedia need external references? Much information learned orally is now showing up on WIkipedia precisely because it is convenient way to incrementally enter and collaboratively enhance. All the references will probably be Sanskrit texts which are hard to get in original - thus all references will be at most 2nd or 3rd level pointing to translations done by various researches (with disagreements).
  • that said, it would be good to note some of this - i am just taking exception to this narrow "hindu/unsubstantiated" classification.
  • --savyasaachi 20060420

[edit] not per se hindu

but it is probably hard to explain anyways. just a general tendency that i have observed about everything to do with ancient india. i have no suggestion to alleviate the error (as yet).

[edit] Alan Watts Disagrees

This wiki is in dire need of cleanup and factual checking. According to Alan Watts, an interpreter of Eastern religions and professor of Theology, this wiki has it wrong. The kalpa is the primary unit of measurement in Hinduism, and it lasts 4,320,000 Earth-years. According to Watts, there are two types of kalpa: Manvantara and Pralaya. Manvantara is the period of time in which the universe is manifested, and Pralaya is the period of time when the universe is un-manifested; when the Godhead does not dream but is aware of its own nature. These are called, respectively, the days and the nights of the Brahman, and this goes on forever. Furthermore, according to Watts, first Yuga is called Krita, not Satya. My reference is his lectures, and they are available (for a short time) on the Alan Watts podcast, the most relevant episode being "The Mythology of Hinduism #4". http://www.alanwattspodcast.com/

[edit] Response to Alan Watts

The original article is based on Bhagavatam and other puranas. That a kalpa is 4.32 billion years is correct. What Alan Watts refers as 4,320,000 Earth years is called a Maha-yuga. One thousand Mahayugas is a day of Brahma or a Kalpa. This is substantiated by Gita verse VIII - Verse 17.

I have not seen the usage of Manvantara Kalpa and Pralaya Kalpa said to have been used by Alan Watts. Manvantara is a technical name for the period of 71 successive Mahayugas.

The word Pralaya means 'deluge'. 'Small' pralayas occur at every twilight period, each such period lasting for 4 x 432,000 years. It is called a Sandhya period. After every Manvantara there is a Sandhya. There is a Sandhya before the beginning of the first Manvantara and thus we have, in a kalpa 71 Mahayugas plus 15 Sandhyas. And this is correctly stated in the article.

Also Krita-yuga and Satya yuga are both the same. Both nome nclatures are in vogue.

The external link cited in the article has all this in all details and it goes back to Bhagavatam as its source.


--Profvk 22:37, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] DON'T MERGE

This is not JUST about Hindu units of time, and these are not exactly only Hindu. Happy8 21:25, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Figures on pages inconsistent

This: "The lifespan of the Devas is 100 years of the Devas (= 36,000 human years)" does not concur with this: "12,000 years of the Devas = 1 day of Brahma (4320,000,000 human years)"

If the lifespan of the deva is 36,000/100 then a deva year is 360 human years If 12,000 deva years is a day of Brahma then a day of Brahma is 12,000x360 human years which is 4,320,000, not 4,320,000,000. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 196.44.16.10 (talk) 07:09, 1 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Isn't it stupid to suggest that this system/article doesn't belong to hinduism

What is Hinduism? How stupid it is to say that this system doesn't belong to Hinduism only? All those scriptures belong to what else? Thanks to some good guys in the west that Hinduism was studied and hence is known to west to some extent, else Hindus themselves hardly know what is there in their scriptures. Unfortunatelythere are others in the west who seem to fear Hinduism so much that they will say nothing belongs to Hinduism. That is amazing indeed. Truth eventually belong to one who understands it, but why fear attributing ideas to those people who actually originated them. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Skant (talk • contribs) 05:12, 21 February 2007 (UTC).

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