Kāla, time, is set in motion with the appearance of the first being, Brahmā. The life span of this first creation then becomes a yardstick in the measurement of the life span of all creation. Brahmā is said to remain created for a period of a hundred years that is referred to as ‘param’. However, these hundred years are not comprised of what we popularly understand to be a year. A day in Brahmā’s life span is not the classic day known to us, that is made up of twenty-four hours. For the sake of better understanding – A day in Brahmā’s life is the duration during which the three worlds of Bhū, Bhuva and Suva are said to be sustained. Purāṇas state that these three worlds are destroyed when night falls upon Brahmā and sleep takes over. In other words, the hundred years spoken of as the life span of Brahmā, are, for want of a better expression, divine years. Let us now start with the basic unit of time in mortal terms and build up to ‘param’, the life span of Brahmā.

The time taken for the blinking of the eyes of a resting man is said to be a nimeśa or a mātrā. Fifteen nimeśas comprise a kāṣṭha. Thirty Kāṣṭhas make a kalā, and thirty kalās are said to make a muhūrta. Thirty muhūrtas constitute one day and one night of a mortal. Fifteen days are comprised in a fortnight and two fortnights or thirty days make a month. Six such months make an ayana (or the time taken by the sun to progress north or south of the ecliptic). Two ayanas comprise a year in the mortal world.

Uttarāyaṇa or the time taken by the sun to progress north is said to be the day of the devas or celestials, and dakṣiṇāyana or the six months taken by the sun to progress south, is said to be a night. In other words, approximately three hundred and sixty-five mortal days comprise a day in celestial terms. Twelve thousand celestial years make a caturyuga or a cycle of four epochs. A thousand such caturyugas constitute a day in the life span of Brahmā, and seventy-one caturyugas are collectively called a Manvantara, or the time when a particular divine entity under the title ‘Manu’, reigns. It must be borne in mind that, three lower worlds are destroyed and recreated with every new day in the life of Brahmā.

It is stated that the worlds of Bhū, Bhuva and Suva are consumed in fire when Brahmā falls asleep, and that the denizens of the next world, Maha, resort of the higher world of Janaloka, unable to bear the heat of annihilation. Brahmā then awakens the subsequent morning and creates the three lower worlds afresh. Brahmā’a life span is said to be a hundred years of such days. The hundred years are collectively known as a Param and are subdivided into two parārdhas (or half-paras). The first parārdha is called the Padma-kalpa, and the second parārdha is termed Varāha-kalpa. At the end of a Param, Brahmā too returns to the state of non-existence in what is termed the Mahāpralaya or absolute cataclysm. All fourteen worlds are reduced to the state of non-existence then. After a period of abysmal non-existence, it is stated in the Vedas that the Supreme wills for creation to take place all over again, and the cycle beginning from a nimeśa to the Param commences all over again. Thus, Kāla is both cyclic and an illusion in the Bhāratīya tradition and a reflection of the Supreme Being. It is also the eternal fabric upon which creation is sustained.