Shloka 14

Devanagari script

युगं द्वादशसाहस्र॑ कल्पं विद्धि चतुर्युगम्‌ दशकल्पशतावृत्तमहस्तद्‌ ब्राह्ममुच्यते,देवताओंके बारह हजार वर्षोका एक चतुर्युग होता है। इसीको कल्प अर्थात्‌ महायुग समझो। ऐसे एक हजार महायुगोंका ब्रह्माजीका एक दिन बताया जाता है

Transliteration

yugaṁ dvādaśasāhasraṁ kalpaṁ viddhi caturyugam | daśakalpaśatāvṛttam ahas tad brāhmam ucyate ||

Translation

वसिष्ठ म्हणाले—देवांचे बारा हजार वर्षे मिळून एक चतुर्युग होते; यालाच कल्प, म्हणजे महायुग, असे समजा. अशा एक हजार महायुगांची समाप्ती ही ब्रह्मदेवांचा एक दिवस मानली जाते.

Word by Word

युगम्yuga (an age-cycle)

द्वादशसाहस्रम्twelve-thousand (in measure/extent)

कल्पम्kalpa

विद्धिknow (you should know)

चतुर्युगम्a four-yuga cycle (caturyuga)

दशकल्पशतावृत्तम्having the recurrence of a hundred tens of kalpas (i.e., 1000 kalpas)

अहःday

तत्that

ब्राह्मम्of Brahmā / Brahmā’s

उच्यतेis said / is called

Speaker

वसिष्ठ उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vasiṣṭha

Brahmā

caturyuga

kalpa

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse defines traditional measures of cosmic time: a caturyuga is reckoned as twelve thousand (divine) years, and Brahmā’s single day is described as consisting of a thousand such great age-cycles, emphasizing the vast scale of time within dharmic cosmology.

What is happening in the narrative?

In a didactic passage of Śānti Parva, the sage Vasiṣṭha instructs his listener by laying out the structure of yugas, kalpas, and Brahmā’s day, using cosmological time to frame moral and philosophical teaching.