yuga

Noun

yuga (plural yugas)

1. (Hinduism) In Hindu theology, a period of a few hundred or thousand years, or an epoch or era within a cycle of four ages, catur-yuga catur-yuga: the Satya Yuga (or Krita Yuga), the Dvapara Yuga, the Treta Yuga and finally the Kali Yuga, with lengths ranging from 432,000 to 1,728,000 years.
   • To Biardeau the linear nature of the declining dharma and the cyclical nature of the yugas make an unhappy marriage, and she ultimately rejects the idea of a true correspondence or rapport between the appearance of Vișņu as avatāra and the yuga cycle.1991, Deborah A. Soifer, The Myths of Narasimha and Vamana: Two Avatars in Cosmological Perspective, page 147
   • There is, you will note, a pattern of decreased duration in the yugas. Moving from the Krta Yuga, the yuga closest to primordial perfection, each progressive yuga grows shorter and shorter, as chaos and decrepitude increase in prominence.1998, Sean M. O'Shea, Meryl A. Walker, The Millennium Myth: The Ever-Ending Story, page 39