Decline and renewal

The scheme frames history as a long decline from an original perfection, with the present understood as Kali Yuga, and it carries a strong moral and religious charge: the erosion of virtue across the ages, and the promise of renewal when the cycle turns. Similar four-age schemes of decline appear in other traditions, notably the Greek and Roman ages of gold, silver, bronze and iron.

The atlas gives each yuga its character, its traditional length, and its place in the cycle. The yugas are the largest of the temporal cycles gathered under Cosmic Cycles.