Talk:Kalpa (time)/Archive 1

Wikiproject
Pls consider this page for wikiproject hiduism as well. Runehawk 20:20, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Buddhist calculations source
Just wondering where these numbers for the Buddhist kalpa come from, as there seem to be no calculations to obtain the number 16 million years for a regular kalpa. Why, a simple multiplication of a 16*16*16 mile cube and a 1/20th of an inch mustard seed inserted over 100 years yields approximately 1.447*10^19 years, so on the order of 14.5 Quintillion years not 16 Million years.

(I doubt the other example is as simple to calculate)

The Anonymous Bob (talk) 20:05, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Discussion related to revert?
I reverted this edit by 84.208.118.219:

Is [4.32 billion years] an error ... 4 periods of 320 million years more likely ? Source Murray (1832) in Guthrie (2002) ... would be consistent with the "great kalpa" definition lower down the page too. Is it an error perpetuated in dictionaries since 1898 and 1913 dictionaries?

Someone better-qualified than me can determine if they have a point, or maybe they can come back and just improve the article. Regardless, it's obviously Talk page material. ~ Violet (talk) 18:18, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Visuddhimagga Comment
The text says "According to Visuddhimagga, there are several explanations for types of kalpas and their duration." I can find very little mention of kalpas in any context in the Visuddhimagga. Can someone supply clear references for these "several explanations" please?--Shantavira|feed me 09:57, 20 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Re: The text under the heading "Buddhism" is not from Visuddhimagga. Some parts are paraphrased from "Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun, Buddhist pilgrims : from China to India" (see, for example, p. 156 footnotes), and some definitions are scraped from a website, namely http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/. -- SJL 09:49, Aug 31 2018 (EET). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sjlain (talk • contribs) 17:52, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

Sanghata Sutra references
My references to the Sanghata Sutra were rejected, probably because the editor did not check the text of the Sanghagta Sutra. I cannot give specific page numbers because the pagination is different depending on which pdf format one choses for printing on https://www.sanghatasutra.net/. On page 5 of one such document, one finds:

"...It is as follows: To make an analogy, a man built an enclosure twelve yojanas in circumference and three yojanas in height and completely filled that enclosure with nothing but sesame seeds. Then, whenever 1000 years had passed, that man cast a single sesame seed out from that enclosure that was completely filled with sesame seeds. In such a manner, even when that man comes to the end of all those sesame seeds, and even the foundation and base of that enclosure no longer exist, still an eon would not have come to an end.

"Moreover, Sarva-shura, it is as follows: To make an analogy, there is a mountain fifty yojanas in depth and some twelve yojanas in height. Then a man built a house on the side of that mountain, and for a long time, whenever one hundred years had passed, that man would wipe it once with a cloth of Benares muslin. By doing so, the mountain would come to an end. But even after it had, still an eon would not have come to an end. Sarva-Shura, that is the measure of an eon."

I am new at this wiki business, I don't know how to respond to Dharmalion76 so I can provide the above reference and let them know why I used it to replace the Citation-Needed tags for items 1 and 2 of the article.

"The English translation of the Sanghata Sutra is distributed as a protected pdf file to safeguard the sutra against distortion."

I printed my copy years ago, I cannot recall in which version the above appears on Page 5. If someone knows the correct way to provide a citation to the above, please replace the Citation-Needed in the article or tell me how to do it and I'll try it again.

Hpfeil (talk) 00:06, 30 August 2019 (UTC)

Manvantara calculations
i am confused with the numbers here comparing the kalpa, manvantara and mahayuga.

As per this article, 1 kalpa = 4.32 billion years = 1000 mahayugas. Hence 1 mahayuga = 4.32 million years. The next line says 1 kalpa = 14 manvantaras and 1 manvantara = 306,720,000.

So then, 14 manvantaras should equal the 1000 mahayugas, right??? but that adds to 4,294,080,000 years which is less 25,920,000 years!!! I think there's some mistake in the calculations??

--1ifes4v3r (talk) 20:42, 26 April 2009 (UTC)


 * More information was added in the past regarding the fifteen manvantara sandhyas (junctions) that occupy the extra time. More info is on the manvantara page. Jroberson108 (talk) 12:14, 25 March 2021 (UTC)