Shloka 3
Adhyaya 53 — Rudrasarga and the Measure of the Manvantaras: Svayambhuva Manu, Priyavrata’s Line, and the Seven Dvipas
मार्कण्डेय उवाच—
मन्वन्तराणां संख्याता साधिका ह्येकसप्ततिः ।
मानुषेण प्रमाणेन शृणु मन्वन्तरं च मे ॥
mārkaṇḍeya uvāca— manvantarāṇāṃ saṃkhyātā sādhikā hy ekasaptatiḥ | mānuṣeṇa pramāṇena śṛṇu manvantaraṃ ca me
Mārkaṇḍeya said: The Manvantaras are counted as seventy-one (and more). Hear from me the measure of a Manvantara in human reckoning.
FAQs
Purāṇic cosmology trains the mind to think in vast cycles, relativizing personal time and encouraging steadiness (dhairya) and long-view dharma.
Manvantara proper: numerical accounting of the Manu-epochs and their temporal measure.
‘Human measure’ versus divine measure hints at layered realities: the same truth is scaled differently for different levels of consciousness and being.