At the turn of our era, and in circumstances that remain obscure, orthodox Brahmanic circles set up a cosmological system, that of the four "ages"(yuga), which nothing would ever replace in the Indian imagination. The system finds mature expressions as early as the famous Laws of Manu(Manusmṛti, 3rd century), certain recent sections of the Mahābhārata (3rd century?) and the earliest layers of the Purāṇa ("tales of antiquity", 3rd-4th century). According to this conception, every cosmic "microcycle" (a period of around twelve thousand years) is made up of four successive ages, from the "golden age"(kṛtayuga) to the "age of discord"(kaliyuga ;the nomenclature of the four ages is borrowed from that of the dice game, from winning move to losing move), itself punctuated by a yugānta or end of the last age. In its purely cosmological appreciation, this quaternary model is limited to a description of the religious (above all ritual), moral, intellectual and physical degradation of mankind. However, the device soon provides a framework for Brahman eschatology and feeds apocalyptic predictions, most of which can easily be interpreted as ex post facto prophecies describing a socio-religious, moral, political and economic environment in crisis. Pregnant girls, excessive imposition of Brahmins, impious kings, an explosion of heresies, foreign yoke, inversion of the seasonal cycle, mixing of castes, unfaithful women and other infamies abound.
14:30 - 15:30
Guest lecturer
Vices, threats and impiety : on the KaliYuga of the Buddhists
Vincent Eltschinger
14:30 - 15:30
