Time & Destiny in the Mahabharata (The Power of time & Fate) As early as the Rg. Vada, there is evidence of a preocupation with the destructive aspect of time. Among the most poetic of the Rg Vedic hymns are those dedicated to Uasa, the personification of dawn. According to the text, Uasa, who with her daily arrival epitomizes the passage of time, “destroys human generations,”1 & shortens the life of humans.2 Later, in the Brahmanas, the sacrificer who wanted to attain immortality had to overcome or “obtain” the year,3 which was the basic unit of time & its principal manifestation, & which was now sometimes said to be death itself.4 KRSNA, FATE & FREE WILL:- Krsna’s role in all of this deserves some comment. When he is portayed as the Supreme God, as in the Gita passages quoted above, he is said to be time itself, bent on destroying the world. In Samjaya: Yuganta: The End of the Yuga {The Mahabharata & the Yuga Theory} :- I have dealt at some length with the meaning & importance of time & destiny in the Mahabharata because, as will become clear further on, this will help us clarify the relationship between the Epic & the yuga system. In Puranic Hinduism, as well as in all other later developments based on it, the Hahabhata playa a fundamental yole scheme, as the events it chronicles are considered to mark the end of t- he Dvapara Yuga & the beginning of our present Kali Yuga. Moreover, ti is a common belife in the Puranas that the Kali Yuga started precisely at the moment of Krsna’s death, so the Epic plays a pivotal role in both traditional history & the mythology of the yugas. Thus, for traditional Hinduism—and for many modern scholars as well—the yuga theory forms an integral part of the plot of the Mahabharata. (MOTILAL BANARSIDASS)