The Asylum
of
Sarabhanga

COUNTING CREATION

One stands alone ~ it is what it is.

One by One, remains One.

1 x 1 = 1

Creation requires division ~ a separation or cleavage.

Perfection must be torn, so that One may become Two.

1 + 1 = 2

This diversity is, however, a union of equal opposites ~ light and dark, good and evil, male and female.

Overall, these contrary natures defeat one other and, together, they return to the source.

In truth, nothing has happened.

(positive) 1 + (negative) 1 = 0

But the illusion of number remains ~ and when Two come together, a Third is generally conceived.

Both the original and the future One are implicit in the notion of Two; and thus, Three implies Time ~ Past, Present, and Future.

1 + 2 = 3

One, Two, Three ~ with these concepts established, the multiplication proceeds.

2²	= 4
2 x 3	= 6
2³	= 8
3²	= 9
3 x 2²	= 12
2 x 3²	= 18
3 x 2³	= 24
3³	= 27
2² x 3²	= 36
2³ x 3²	= 72
2³ x 3³	= 216
Etc.	Etc.

Six is a very common factor in such a series.

3 x 2	= 6
4 x 3 x 2	= 24
5 x 4 x 3	= 60
5 x 4 x 3 x 2	= 120
6 x 5 x 4 x 3	= 360
6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2	= 720

Since 60 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, a sexagesimal (base 60) numbering would facilitate the manipulation of a large range of fractions. Such a system was used in ancient Sumer from around 3,200 BC; and it has proved to be the most convenient method for reckoning circles and cyclic phenomena.

Sumerian astronomers recognized two fundamental cycles in nature ~ the solar day and solar year. Each of these is clearly divided (by twilight and equinox, respectively) into a lighter and a darker half. One half-day (night or day) was comprised of 6 hours (double hours by our reckoning), and each hour of 60 minutes. The seasons were each divided into 6 months of 30 days ~ closely approximating the observed synodic months, whose period is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 2.7 seconds. Just as there are 360 degrees in a circle, the Sumerian calendar supposed 360 days in a year ~ a solar year actually lasts for 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds. A periodic intercalation of days and months was necessary to correct the accumulated error.

The orbital period of Jupiter is close to 12 years (11.6 years), and that of Saturn is almost 30 years (29.46 years), so that the interval between their conjunctions, in the same area of the zodiac, is about 60 years.

The interval between similar eclipses was also known to the ancient astronomers ~ called Saros by the Chaldeans, the period is 6585 days, or just over 18 years.

The earth’s precession causes our view of the heavens at a particular time (vernal equinox or winter solstice have usually been chosen as convenient markers) to change slightly from one year to the next. There is an annual advance of about 50 angular seconds, which amounts to 1 degree in 72 years, 30 degrees in 2,160 years, and 360 degrees in 25,920 years. The actual period slightly variable, but the present value is about 25,826 years.

The traditional figure of 25,920 and its various factors appear repeatedly in calculations of Cosmic Ages, Aeons, and Eras. And in this ‘Great Year’ there are reckoned 360 ‘Days’ of 72 years, and 12 ‘Months’ of 2,160 years.

25,920 is the number of years in a precessional cycle, and it is the number of (double) minutes in a Sumerian year. 2,160 is the number of (double) minutes in a month of 30 days, and the number of hours in a Sumerian season; and it is the number of (4 second) breaths taken in a day.

72 x 5	= 360
(72)² x 5	= 25,920

The Babylonian priest Berossos (c. 280 BC) listed Ten antediluvian Patriarchs who reigned for a total of 432,000 years, and he gave the total period from Creation to Dissolution as 2,160,000 years. The number 36,000 is associated with three of the kings, and it is the number of days in an ideal life of 100 years. There are 1,200 months in the same period. Five kings have ages that are multiples of 10,800 (4 x 10,800 = 43,200, and 6 x 10,800 = 64,800).

	‘King’	‘Years’	1/360
1.	Aloros	36,000	100
2.	Alaparos	10,800	30
3.	Amelon	46,800	130
4.	Ammenon	43,200	120
5.	Megalaros	64,800	180
6.	Daonos	36,000	100
7.	Euedoraches	64,800	120
8.	Amempsinos	36,000	100
9.	Opartes	28,800	80
10.	Xisuthros	64,800	180
	Total	432,000	1,200

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus (c. 500 BC) counted 10,800 years in a Great Year, and 10,800 bricks (in 5 tiers) are required to build the fire-altar for a vedic Agnicayana ritual. And the Mahabharata gives 432,000 years as the extent of the Present Age (Kali-Yuga).

The Kali-yuga is reckoned from 3102 BC, although the Kali-yuga calendar seems likely to have been devised in about 499 AD.

Following the method of Gematria, most of the higher numbers considered above reduce to Nine ~ in fact, the sum of the digits of any number that is a product of 9 will also be 9.

3: (12, 30). 6: (24, 60). 9: (18, 27, 36, 72, 108, 216, 360, 432, 720; 288, 468, 648, 1296, 2592).

SACRED NUMBERS

~ 666 ~

6	= 6
2 x 6	= 12
3 x 6	= 18
4 x 6	= 24
5 x 6	= 30
6²	= 36
2 x 6²	= 72
3 x 6²	= 108
8 x 6²	= 288
13 x 6²	= 468
6³	= 216
2 x 6³	= 432
3 x 6³	= 648
6⁴	= 1,296
2 x 6⁴	= 2,592

VEDANGA

In ancient India, the year began at Winter Solstice (Uttarayana) ~ changing to Spring Equinox (Vasant Sampat) under Babylonian and Greek influence at the beginning of the Saka Era (79 AD). As in Sumer, the year was divided into 2 semesters (Satras) of 180 days, and 12 months of 30 days. The obvious discrepancy between a 360-day calendrical year and the true solar year of 365.26 days being corrected by an annual intercalation of 4 to 6 days, which were reserved for special rituals. Later, these days were distributed as months or half-months in a cycle of 5 or 6 years.

Indian astronomers looked especially to the Moon (Soma). The actual period of lunation is 29.53 days, so that 12 lunar months are completed in 354.37 days; and the Utsarniyanayanam calendar accounted for this by allowing a year of 12 exact lunar months, with 11 days reserved for the Atiratra sacrifice. An intercalary period of 12 days was later instituted.

The Vedanga Jyotisa (c. 500 BC) united the cycles of the Sun and the Moon in a period of 5 years.

60 + 2 lunar months	≈ 62 x 29 days	= 1830 days
5 solar years	≈ 5 x 366 days	= 1830 days

In practice, the vedic year of ritual Yajna consists of 12 lunar months, but this is only one Fifth of the 60 month cycle known as a Yuga.

According to the Vedanga Jyotisa, a cycle begins from the month Magha, when the sun, moon, and Dhanistha (Delphini) are in conjunction at Uttarayana (winter solstice). Every 30 months, an extra month is intercalated; and after 60 plus 2 lunations, the sun and moon again come into conjunction with Dhanistha at the winter solstice, and the cycle is repeated.

Due to the earth’s precession, other stars have been used in the calculation, but this particular alignment would have been correct c. 1,400 BC. The Vedanga Jyotisa, however, seems to have been written c. 500 BC. It also mentions that the longest day is 14 hours and 24 minutes, which only pertains to a location 33 degrees from the Equator.

For a Yaga (Offering) to be successful, the Kala (Instant of Time) must be Siva (Auspicious), and the vedic calendar is a Yoga (Means) for calculating those auspicious moments. Kalyuga (Kalayuga) is Counting a Couple, a Pair of (30 month) Periods; and it is Counting Conjunctions, a Yoga (Union) that reckons the Yuga and regulates the Kala of Yaga.

1 Yuga = 62 lunar Months = 1830 Days = 5 solar Years

A full cycle of 360 degrees includes 72 angles (or Angels) of Five degrees; and a Yuga of 60 lunar cycles must include 432 such units.

1 Yuga = 432 Yoga

Since Yuga (more widely) indicates an Age or Era, it is cognate with Millennium, and in later times came also to mean a era of 1,000 years. And subsequent confusion of the concepts led to the notion that an Age must last for 432,000 years.

When our individual passage through Time is complete, death and dissolution follow; and the Kaliyuga (also known as the Dark Age) is surely the last of the cycle.

Yuga also means Four, and the extent of previous Ages in a quadruple cycle has been calculated by multiplying 432 by its own digits (4, 3, and 2).

(4^th) Kali Yuga		= 432,000 years
(3^rd) Dvapara Yuga	2 x 432,000	= 864,000 years
(2^nd) Treta Yuga	3 x 432,000	= 1,296,000 years
(1^st) Satya or Krita Yuga	4 x 432,000	= 1,728,000 years

One Mahayuga (a complete cycle of all the Four Yugas) would thus span 4,320,000 years.

4 Yugas = 1 Maha-yuga = 10 Kali-yugas = 4,320,000 Years

Continuing the extrapolation, one Kalpa (Age of Brahma) has been defined as 1,000 Mahayugas (10,000 Kaliyugas, or 4,320,000,000 years).

More precisely, there are 71 Mahayugas in a Manvantara, and 14 Manvantaras in a Kalpa. So that one Manvantara equals 306,720,000 years and one Kalpa equals 4,294,080,000 years, or only 994 Mahayugas. A ‘15^th Manvantara’ equivalent to 6 Mahayugas must be assumed; and, distributed through the Kalpa, this intercalation reveals the presence of a subtle 72^nd Mahayuga in each Manvantara.

The Surya Siddhanta (c. 400 AD) explains: ‘Seventy-one Catur-Yugas make a Manu, at its end is a Twilight (Sandhya) which has the number of years of a Krita-Yuga, and which is Deluge. In a Kalpa are reckoned fourteen Manus, with their respective Sandhyas; at the commencement of the Kalpa is a fifteenth Dawn, having the length of a Krita-Yuga.’

SANSKRIT TERMS

Ya ~ to go.

Yaga ~ an Offering.

Yu ~ to unite.

Yuga ~ a Yoke or Couple, an Age or a Life, or the number Four.

Yoga ~ a Union or Conjunction, a Means or Vehicle, Meditation or Mantra, a regular Order or (in mathematics) Addition.

Kal ~ to count or reckon.

Kala ~ an Instant (of time), a Digit (one sixteenth of the moon), or a small Part (of anything). As a unit of time (or circular movement generally), one Kala is a span of one minute.

YUGA (recapitulation)

Yuga is a general term for an Age or Era, but its specific association with the number 432 is a result of the 5-fold division of a cycle, and sexagesimal mathematics.
The importance of 432 was verified when the period of earth’s precession was recognized. That cosmic Age (25,920 years) was known as a Yuga.
A Divine Year of 36,000 years (or 432,000 moons) was also known as a Yuga.
The Vedanga Jyotisa presents a more mundane Five-fold division, which served to regulate the calendar, and order the lives of men. That Five-year period was known as a Yuga.
Yuga also indicates Four, and the various Ages have consistently been multiplied or divided by that number.
A Ten-fold relation between Yuga and Maha-yuga is established.
And Yuga indicates Twelve ~ the 12 months of an earthly year, or the 1,200 months of an ideal life (a God’s Day on earth).