Hindu deity and concept
Kala
(
Sanskrit
:
???
,
romanized
:
K?la/K?lam
,
[2]
IPA:
[k?ː?l?]
) is a
Sanskrit
term that means 'time'
or 'death'.
[4]
As
time personified
, destroying all things, Kala is a god of
death
, and often used as one of the epithets of
Yama
. In
Shaivism
, Kala is known as the fiery avatar of Shiva
Kala Bhairava
or Kalagni Rudra; and in
Vaishnavism
Kala is also associated with
Narasimha
and
Pralaya
.
As applied to gods and goddesses,
K?la
is not always distinguishable from
k?la
, meaning 'black'.
[4]
Etymology
[
edit
]
Monier-Williams
's widely used Sanskrit-English dictionary
[4]
lists two distinct words with the form
k?la
:
- k?la
1 means "black, of a dark colour, dark-blue ..." and has a feminine form ending in
?
?
k?l?
? as mentioned in
P??ini
4?1, 42.
- k?la
2 means "a fixed or right point of time, a space of time, time ... destiny, fate ... death" and has a feminine form (found at the end of compounds) ending in
?
, as mentioned in the
?gveda
Pr?ti??khya
. As a
traditional Hindu unit of time
, one
k?la
corresponds to 144 seconds.
According to Monier-Williams,
k?la
2 is from the verbal root
kal
"to calculate", while the root of
k?la
1 is uncertain, though possibly the same.
[4]
As applied to gods and goddesses in works such as the
Dev?
M?h?tmya
and the
Skanda
Pur??a
,
k?la
1 and
k?la
2 are not readily distinguishable. Thus Wendy Doniger, translating a conversation between
?iva
and
P?rvat?
from the
Skanda
Pur??a
, says
Mah?k?la
may mean " 'the Great Death' ... or 'the Great Black One' ".
[6]
And
Sw?m?
Jagad??var?nanda
, a Hindu translator of the
Dev?
M?h?tmya
, renders the feminine compound
k?la-r?tri
(where
r?tri
means "night") as "dark night of periodic dissolution".
[7]
Deity
[
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]
Epics and the Puranas
[
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]
Kala appears as an impersonal deity within the
Mahabharata
, the
Ramayana
, and the
Bhagavata Purana
. In the Mahabharata,
Krishna
, one of the main characters, reveals his identity as Time personified. He states to
Arjuna
that both sides on the battlefield of the
Kurukshetra War
have already been annihilated. At the end of the epic, the entire
Yadu
dynasty (Krishna's dynasty) is similarly annihilated.
Kala appears in the
Uttara Kanda
of the Ramayana, as the messenger of Death (Yama). At the end of the story, Time, in the form of inevitability or necessity, informs
Rama
that his reign on Earth is now over. By a trick or dilemma, he forces the death of
Lakshmana
, and informs Rama that he must return to the realm of the gods. Lakshmana willingly passes away with Rama's blessing and Rama returns to
Vaikuntha
.
Time appears in the Bhagavata Purana as the force that is responsible for the imperceptible and inevitable change in the entire creation. According to the Purana, all created things are illusory, and thereby subject to creation and annihilation, this imperceptible and inconceivable impermanence is said to be due to the march of Time. Similarly, Time is considered to be the unmanifest aspect of God that remains after the destruction of the entire world at the end of a lifespan of
Brahma
. According to Soifer,
Narasimha
is explicitly linked with
Pralaya
or Yuganta itself in
Bhagavata Purana
,
Linga Purana
, and
Kurma Purana
versions; he is said to appear like Kala or the fire of destruction, both agents of Pralaya.
In the
Chaitanya Bhagavata
, a
Gaudiya Vaishnava
text and biography of
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
, it is said that the fire that emerges from the mouth of
Sankarshana
at the End of Time is the
K?l?nala
, or "fire of Time".
[8]
One of the names of Sankarshana is
k
?
l
?
gni
, also "fire of time".
[9]
The
Vishnu Purana
also states that Time (kala) is one of the four primary forms of Vishnu, the others being matter (
Pradhana
), visible substance (vyakta), and Spirit (
Purusha
).
[10]
[11]
According to Pinchman, "It is said that at the time of primordial creation, three forms arise from
Vishnu
: time (kala),
purusha
, and
prakrti
".
Bhagavad Gita
[
edit
]
At
Bhagavad Gita
11.32,
Krishna
takes on the form of
k?la
, the destroyer, announcing to Arjuna that all the warriors on both sides will be killed, apart from the Pandavas:
???? ?????
??????????? ????????? ?????? ?????????? ?? ????????? ?
This verse means: "
Time (k?la) I am
, the great destroyer of the worlds, and I have come here to destroy all people."
[13]
This phrase is famous for being quoted by
J. Robert Oppenheimer
as he reflected on the
Manhattan Project
's explosion of the first nuclear bomb in 1945.
In other cultures
[
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]
In Javanese mythology,
Batara Kala
is the god of destruction. It is a very huge mighty and powerful god depicted as
giant
, born of the sperm of
Shiva
, the kings of gods.
In
Borobudur
, the gate to the stairs is adorned with a giant head, making the gate look like the open mouth of the giant. Many other gates in Javanese traditional buildings have this kind of ornament. Perhaps the most detailed Kala Face in Java is on the south side of
Candi Kalasan
.
In
Thailand
, he is popular worshipped together with
Lak Mueang
within
Tai folk religion
and
Chitragupta
in
Hinduism
.
[14]
Jainism
[
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]
In
Jainism
, K?la (Time) is infinite and is explained in two different ways:
- The measure of duration, known in the form of hours, days, like that.
- The cause of the continuity of function of things.
However
Jainism
recognizes a very small
measurement
of time known as
samaya
which is an infinitely small part of a
second
. There are cycles (
kalachakra
s) in it. Each cycle having two eras of equal duration described as the
avasarpini
and the
utsarpini
.
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
Sources
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Kala
.