nor air, nor sky remains, when all the world being destroyed looketh like one vast ocean, when the Gods and Asuras and the great Uragas are annihilated, and when the great-minded Brahma, the Lord of all creatures, taking his seat on a lotus flower, sleepeth there, then thou alone remainest to worship him!  And, O best of Brahman as thou hast seen all this that occurred before, with thy own eyes.  And thou alone hast witnessed many things by the senses, and never in all the worlds hath there been any thing unknown to thee!  Therefore do I long to hear any discourse explaining the causes of things!”

“Markandeya replied, ’Indeed, I shall explain all, after having bowed down to that Self-existent, Primordial Being, who is eternal and undeteriorating and inconceivable, and who is at once vested with and divested of attributes.  O tiger among men, this Janardana attired in yellow robes is the grand Mover and Creator of all, the Soul and Framer of all things, and the lord of all!  He is also called the Great, the Incomprehensible, the Wonderful and the Immaculate.  He is without beginning and without end, pervades all the world, is Unchangeable and Undeteriorating.  He is the Creator of all, but is himself uncreate and is the Cause of all power.  His knowledge is greater than that of all the gods together.  O best of kings and pre-eminent of men, after the dissolution of the universe, all this wonderful creation again comes into life.  Four thousand years have been said to constitute the Krita Yuga.  Its dawn also, as well as its eve, hath been said to comprise four hundred years.  The Treta-Yuga is said to comprise three thousand years, and its dawn, as well as its eve, is said to comprise three hundred years.  The Yuga that comes next is called Dwapara, and it hath been computed to consist of two thousand years.  Its dawn, as well as its eve, is said to comprise two hundred years.  The next Yuga, called Kali, is said to comprise one thousand years and its dawn, as well as eve, is said to comprise one hundred years.  Know, O king, that the duration of the dawn is the same as that of the eve of a Yuga.  And after the Kali Yuga is over, the Krita Yuga comes again.  A cycle of the Yugas thus comprised a period of twelve thousand years.  A full thousand of such cycles would constitute a day of Brahma.  O tiger among men, when all this universe is withdrawn and ensconced within its home—­the Creator himself—­that disappearance of all things is called by the learned to be Universal Destruction.  O bull of the Bharata race, towards the end of the last mentioned period of one thousand years, i.e., when the period wanted to complete a cycle is short, men generally become addicted to falsehood in speech.  O son of Pritha, then sacrifices and gifts and vows, instead of being performed by principals are suffered to be performed by representatives!  Brahmanas then perform acts that are reserved for the Sudras, and the Sudras betake themselves to the acquisition of wealth.  Then