Kalki
Kalki, also called Kalkin, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. According to Vaishnava cosmology, Kalki is destined to appear at the end of the Kali Yuga, the last of the four ages in the cycle of existence. His arrival will mark the end of the Kali Yuga and herald the beginning of the Satya Yuga, the most virtuous age, before the ultimate dissolution of the universe.
In the Puranas, Kalki is depicted as the avatar who will rejuvenate existence by ending the darkest period of adharma and restoring dharma. He is described as riding a white horse named Devadatta and wielding a fiery sword. The portrayal of Kalki varies across different Puranas, and his narrative is also found in other traditions, including the Kalachakra-Tantra of Tibetan Buddhism and Sikh texts.
Etymology
The name Kalki is derived from Kal, which means "time". The original term may have been Karki which morphed into Kalki. This proposal is supported by two versions of Mahabharata manuscripts that have been found, where the Sanskrit verses name the incarnation to be Karki.Description
Hindu texts
Kalki is an avatara of Vishnu. Avatar means "descent", and refers to a descent of the divine into the material realm of human existence. Kalki appears for the first time in the Mahabharata.The Garuda Purana lists ten incarnations, with Kalki being the final one. He is described as the incarnation who appears at the end of the Kali Yuga. He ends the darkest, degenerating, and chaotic stage of the Kali Yuga to remove adharma and ushers in the Satya Yuga, while riding a white horse with a fiery sword. He restarts a new cycle of time. He is described as a Brahmin warrior in the Puranas. It is mentioned in the Puranas that the immortal Chiranjivis will assist him in various stages of his life.
File:Kalki_avatar_idol_in_rani_ki_vav_patan.jpg|thumb|Statue of Kalki's incarnation on a wall of Rani Ki Vav at Patan, Gujarat, India
A minor text named Kalki Purana is a relatively recent text, likely composed in Bengal. Its dating floruit is the 18th-century. Wendy Doniger dates the Kalki Mythology containing Kalki Purana to between 1500 and 1700 CE.
In the Kalki Purana, Kalki is born into the family of Vishnuyashas and Sumati, in a village called Shambala, on the thirteenth day during the fortnight of the waxing moon. At a young age, he is taught the holy scriptures on topics such as dharma, karma, artha, jñāna, and undertakes military training under the care of the Parashurama. Soon, Kalki worships Shiva, who gets pleased by the devotion and provides him in return a divine white horse named Devadatta, a powerful sword, whereby its handle is bedecked with jewels, and a parrot named Shuka, who is an all-knower; the past, the present and the future. Other accessories are also given by other devas, devis, saints, and righteous kings. He fights an evil army and in many wars, ending evil, but does not end existence. Kalki returns to Shambala, inaugurates a new Yuga for the good, and then goes to Vaikuntha. In the Kalki Purana, there is a mention of a Buddhist city whose residents don't adhere to dharma, which Kalki fights and conquers.
The Agni Purana describes Kalki's role:
The Devi Bhagavata Purana features the devas hailing Vishnu, invoking his Kalki avatara:
Buddhist texts
In the Buddhist Text Kalachakra Tantra, the righteous kings are called Kalki living in Sammu. There are many Kalki in this text, each fighting barbarism, persecution and chaos. The last Kalki is called "Rudra Cakrin" and is predicted to end the chaos and degeneration by assembling a large army to eradicate a barbarian army. A great war, which will include an army of both Hindus and Buddhists, will destroy the barbaric forces, states the text. This is most likely borrowed from Hinduism to Buddhism due to the arrival of Islamic kingdoms from the west to the east, mainly settled in West Tibet, Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. According to Donald Lopez – a professor of Buddhist Studies, Kalki is predicted to start the new cycle of perfect era where "Buddhism will flourish, people will live long, happy lives and righteousness will reign supreme". The text is significant in establishing the chronology of the Kalki idea to be from post-7th century, probably the 9th or 10th century. Lopez states that the Buddhist text likely borrowed it from Hindu vedic texts. Other scholars, such as Yijiu Jin, state that the text originated in Central Asia in the 10th-century, and Tibetan literature picked up a version of it in India around 1027 CE.Sikh texts
The Kalki incarnation appears in the historic Sikh Texts, most notably in Dasam Granth, a text that is traditionally attributed to Guru Gobind Singh. The Chaubis Avatar section mentions Sage Matsyanra describing the appearance of Vishnu incarnations to fight evil, greed, violence and ignorance. It includes Kalki as the twenty-fourth incarnation to lead the war between the forces of righteousness and unrighteousness.Vaishno Devi and Kalki
The divine maiden, who later became known as Vaishnavi, was originally named Trikuta. She was said to be born as the daughter of Ratnakar Sagar and originated from an ansh of Lord Vishnu
. During the Treta Yuga, Lord Ram encountered Trikuta when he reached the seashore with his army of Vaanara while preparing to cross over to Lanka. Trikuta had been performing intense penance while awaiting Lord Ram. Upon being questioned by Lord Ram, Trikuta introduced herself and revealed that she was performing severe penance with the resolve to obtain him as her husband. Lord Ram replied that in his current avatar, he had resolved to be devoted only to one wife. Lord Ram promised Trikuta that she would become his consort during his Kalki avatar in Kaliyug
- Until that time, she was instructed to proceed to the beautiful cave on Manik Parvat, the dwelling place of the three Mahashaktis, and immerse herself in penance.
- It was revealed that upon reaching the cave, she would become immortal.
- Valiant Vanaras like Nala, Nila, Hanuman, and Jambvant would serve as her guards.
- Her glory would spread across the whole of India, and she would become renowned by the name Vaishno Devi.
Development
While there is no mention of Kalki in the Vedic literature, the epithet "Kalmallkinam", meaning "Brilliant Remover Of Darkness", is found in the Vedic Literature for Rudra, has been interpreted to be "Forerunner Of Kalki".Kalki appears for the first time in the great war epic Mahabharata. The mention of Kalki in the Mahabharata occurs only once, over the verses 3.188.85–3.189.6. The Kalki incarnation is found in the Maha Puranas such as Vishnu Purana, Matsya Purana, and the Bhagavata Purana. However, the details relating the Kalki mythologies are divergent between the epic and the Puranas, as well as within the Puranas.
In the Mahabharata, according to Hiltebeitel, Kalki is an extension of the Parashurama incarnation legend, where a Brahmin warrior destroys Kshatriyas who were abusing their power to spread chaos, evil, and the persecution of the powerless. The epic character of Kalki restores dharma, restores justice in the world, but does not end the cycle of existence. The Kalkin section in the Mahabharata is present in the Markandeya section. There, states Luis Reimann, can "hardly be any doubt that the Markandeya section is a late addition to the epic. Making Yudhishthira ask a question about conditions at the end of Kali and the beginning of Krta — something far removed from his own situation — is merely a device for justifying the inclusion of this subject matter in the epic."
According to Cornelia Dimmitt, the "clear and tidy" systematization of Kalki and the remaining nine incarnations of Vishnu is not found in any of the Maha Puranas. The coverage of Kalki in these Hindu texts is scant, in contrast to the legends of Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Vamana, Narasimha, and Krishna, all of whom are repeatedly and extensively described. According to Dimmitt, this was likely because just like the concept of the Buddha as a Vishnu Incarnation, the concept of Kalki was "somewhat in flux" when the major Puranas were being compiled.
This Kalki concept may have further developed in the Hindu texts both as a reaction to the invasions of the Indian subcontinent by various armies over the centuries from its northwest, and in reaction to the mythologies these invaders brought with them. Similarly, the Buddhist Literature dated to the late 1st millennium, a future Buddha Maitreya is depicted as Kalki. According to John Mitchiner, the Kalki concept owes "in some measure" to Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian and other concepts. Mitchiner states that some Puranas such as the Yuga Purana do not mention Kalki and offer a different cosmology than the other Puranas. The Yuga Purana mythologizes in greater details the post-Maurya era Indo-Greek and Saka era, while the Manvantara theme containing the Kalki idea is mythologized greater in other Puranas. Luis Gonzales-Reimann concurs with Mitchiner, stating that the Yuga Purana does not mention Kalki. In other texts such as the sections 2.36 and 2.37 of the Vayu Purana, states Reimann, it is not Kalkin who ends the Kali Yuga, but a different character named Pramiti. Most historians, states Arvind Sharma, link the development of Kalki mythology in Hinduism to the suffering caused by foreign invasions. Unlike other messianic concepts, Kalki's purpose is to destroy the invaders and heretics in order to reverse the current age Kali Yuga, the age of evil.