O wise ones, listen as the ancient reckoning of time is revealed, as described in the sacred Liṅga Purāṇa. In the measurement of the ancestors, three hundred months, together with sixty more, are counted as a year, according to the way humans perceive time. By this human calculation, a span of one hundred years for mortals is equivalent to just three years for the ancestors. These measures are counted as such in this world. For the ancestors, a year is remembered as twelve months—ten plus two—just as it is for humans; this is the year as people know it. This reckoning is called the divine day and night in the Liṅga Purāṇa. In the realm of the gods, the combination of night and day makes a year, and their division is explained further. There, in the celestial understanding, the day is the sun’s northern course, and the night is its southern course. These divine days and nights are specially enumerated. For the gods, thirty years are considered a single divine month. O Brahmins, a hundred human years equal three divine months. Likewise, ten days are counted as a divine rule, and three hundred and sixty years are measured in this way. This divine year, according to human reckoning, is three thousand human years. Another period of thirty years is known as the Saptarshi year, which amounts to nine thousand human years. Another ninety years are called the Dhruva year, equaling thirty-six thousand human years. One hundred years should be understood as the divine rule, which is said to be three hundred thousand human years. Sixty thousand are counted by enumeration; those who are skilled in numbers declare this to be a thousand divine years. By the divine measure, the calculation of the number of Yugas is made. The first is the Kṛta Yuga, then comes the Tretā Yuga as prescribed. After that are the Dvāpara and Kali Yugas, O virtuous ones, and their years are observed according to human reckoning. O foremost of Brahmins, the duration of the Kṛta age has been proclaimed according to the divine measure: it is fourteen hundred thousand years, counted in thousands and hundreds. Likewise, the Kṛta Yuga consists of forty thousand years, and also ten thousand years multiplied by a hundred. The duration of the Tretā Yuga is eighty thousand years, and it is said to be seven hundred thousand human years. The Dvāpara Yuga lasts twenty thousand years, which is also three hundred thousand human years in total. The Kali Yuga endures for sixty thousand years; thus, the four Yugas together, excluding the twilight portions, are remembered. There are thirty-six hundred thousand years for the four Yugas, not counting the twilight periods; but when counted with the twilights, the total is forty-three hundred thousand years. The twilight portions of the four Yugas amount to twenty thousand years; thus, the grand total for the four Yugas, including their twilights, is seventy-one hundred thousand years. The period consisting of the Kṛta, Tretā, and the other Yugas is called a Manvantara. The count of a Manvantara is proclaimed at the beginning of the years. O best of twice-born, a Manvantara consists of thirty crore human years, plus sixty-seven lakh years in addition. Twenty thousand years are the excess duration, excluded; this is the count of a Manvantara as declared in the Liṅga scripture, O Brahmins. Thus, the count of years for the four Yugas is proclaimed. A thousand cycles of these four Yugas make one Kalpa, O best of Brahmins. At the end of the cosmic night, the worlds are created anew, and living beings perish during the night. For the celestial beings, there are twenty-eight crore. In the Manvantaras, the count is as follows: three hundred crore, and also ninety-two crore. O Brahmins, in the past Kalpa, there were seventy thousand, and again eight thousand everywhere in summary. Leaving behind those at the end of the Kalpa, when dissolution arrives, these beings depart from the Maharloka and ascend to Janaloka. There are two thousand crore, eight hundred crore hundreds, and sixty-two crore, and seventy hundred thousand. The divine count of half a Kalpa is thus calculated; a thousand Kalpas make one year of the Unborn—Brahmā. Eight thousand years is the Brahma Yuga, the age of Brahmā; a thousand Yugas of the Savana are the source of all the gods. Indeed, a thousand sacrifices are spoken of, of three kinds and three qualities; likewise, the time of Brahmā, who is the embodiment of time, is thus declared, O Lord. There is creation, emergence, and austerity; what is to be, the blossoming, the sacrifice again, the season, the fire, the carrier of offerings, the Sāvitra, and indeed, the pure one. Uśika, Kuśika, and also Gāndhāra, O best of sages, Ṛṣabha as well, then Ṣaḍja, Majjālīya, and Madhyama; Vairāja, Niṣāda, the chief Meghavāhana, the fifth Citraka, and also Ākūti, and knowledge itself; Mind, Sudarśa, Bṛṃha, and likewise Śvetalohita, Rakta, those clad in yellow, Asita, and the one of all forms—thus, the kalpas of Brahmā, whose birth is unmanifest, have been enumerated. O best of sages, there are billions upon billions of Kalpas. So many days and nights have passed; at the end of the supreme period, all modifications everywhere return to their source. The dissolution of transformation occurs only by the command of Śiva; when the transformation is dissolved, both the primordial matter and the self alone remain.