Temporal Transitions and the Character of the Earth in the Mahabharata

Abstract

In light of the present-day discourse of environmental crisis, this short paper explores the characterisation of the Earth in the Sanskrit Mah?bh?rata, and discusses some implications of the text’s theory of cyclical time. In the Mah?bh?rata’s yuga theory, four ages (or aeons, or eras – four yugas) pass in turn, with human lifespan and morality declining in each successive age before being restored for the beginning of the next cycle, one thousand cycles making up a complete iteration of the universe. The paper focuses on specific transitions: the three transitions from one age to another within the descending phase, which are prompted by the female Earth’s complaint about the weight upon her; the transition from the end of one cycle to the beginning of the next; and the end of the thousandth cycle, when the biosphere disintegrates. Particular attention is paid to the Earth’s role and motives in prompting the descending transitions, and to the implications of the descending and ascending transitions from her perspective, and from ours as human beings. The human perspective is interesting from a religious point of view, because soteriological potential is said to be highest during the fourth and last age of the cycle, when morality is at its lowest.