(for purposes of marriage) and no one will give away
a girl (for such purposes), but the girls will themselves
choose their lords, when the end of the Yuga comes.
And the kings of the earth with souls steeped in ignorance,
and discontented with what they have, will at such
a time, rob their subjects by every means in their
power. And without doubt the whole world will
be mlecchified.[46] And when the end of the Yuga comes,
the right hand will deceive the left; and the left,
the right. And men with false reputation of learning
will contract Truth and the old will betray the senselessness
of the young, and the young will betray the dotage
of the old. And cowards will have the reputation
of bravery and the brave will be cheerless like cowards.
And towards the end of the Yuga men will cease to trust
one another. And full of avarice and folly the
whole world will have but one kind of food. And
sin will increase and prosper, while virtue will fade
and cease to flourish. And Brahmanas and Kshatriyas
and Vaisyas will disappear, leaving, O king, no remnants
of their orders. And all men towards the end
of the Yuga will become members of one common order,
without distinction of any kind. And sires will
not forgive sons, and sons will not forgive sires.
And when the end approaches, wives will not wait upon
and serve their husbands. And at such a time
men will seek those countries where wheat and barley
form the staple food. And, O monarch, both men
and women will become perfectly free in their behaviour
and will not tolerate one another’s acts.
And, O Yudhishthira, the whole world will be mlecchified.
And men will cease to gratify the gods by offerings
of Sraddhas. And no one will listen to the words
of others and no one will be regarded as a preceptor
by another. And, O ruler of men, intellectual
darkness will envelop the whole earth, and the life
of man will then be measured by sixteen years, on
attaining to which age death will ensue. And girls
of five or six years of age will bring forth children
and boys of seven or eight years of age will become
fathers. And, O tiger among kings, when the end
of the Yuga will come, the wife will never be content
with her husband, nor the husband with his wife.
And the possessions of men will never be much, and
people will falsely bear the marks of religion, and
jealousy and malice will fill the world. And no
one will, at that time, be a giver (of wealth or anything
else) in respect to any one else. And the inhabited
regions of the earth will be afflicted with dearth
and famine, and the highways will be filled with lustful
men and women of evil repute. And, at such a
time, the women will also entertain an aversion towards
their husbands. And without doubt all men will
adopt the behaviour of the mlecchas, become omnivorous
without distinction, and cruel in all their acts,
when the end of the Yuga will come. And, O thou
foremost of the Bharatas, urged by avarice, men will,
at that time, deceive one another when they sell and