Caturyuga calendar of vaivasvata manvantara — book review
Carl Sagan in his cosmos book deals with time. Instead of the familiar route of thinking of it as a linear concept, he advocates a pendulum-like movement of time. He also mentions further that the Hindu/Buddhist visualization of time comes closer to this and is more relevant
KSRI/Sanskrit college in Chennai published the book — Caturyuga calendar of vaivasvata manvantara. It is a small book (212 pages) and a handy one too. In terms of presentation, they have done good work. My son was astonished to see the lively graphic in the cover that kindles the interest in the seeker.
For the reasons best known to them, the west starts with the biblical calendar. Strange is their way or silence in recognizing the concepts of time that are prevalent in our country. Also, we can blame ourselves for being oblivious to such important things in our sampradaya
When it comes to the content, one has to first admire and pay our pranams to the author, Sri R. Parthasarathy for the meticulous research. The author starts with a brilliant sloka from Srimad Bhagavatam that sets the tone for this book
Canto XII 2.44 — The kings who once ruled the earth by their might have been reduced to mere legendary figures by the force of time; that too, they are known only in series
The actual subject starts in Pg 96. Until then, the author prepares the reader with a variety of details. Many references from different Puranas are given. It comes as a pleasant surprise to know that 52 different types of calendars are prevalent in India — solar, lunar, lunisolar, etc. To some extent, it also helps to address the time differences in the avatars of Lord Vishnu and other important events in our history
In the recent past, we have stopped using AD/BC and started using CE/BCE. Let more researches be conducted in these niche areas and let the world talk in terms of Kalpa, manvantara, saka era, Vikram era etc.
Review in vedanta kesari in page 45 -
http://invitations.chennaimath.org.s3-ap-southeast-1.amaz...
Om Tat Sat!
