Kāla

Kala (काल), kɑːˈlə) is a Sanskrit term that means 'time' or 'death'. As time personified, destroying all things, Kala is a god of death, and often used as one of the epithets of Yama. In Shaivism, Kala is known as the fiery avatar of Shiva Kala Bhairava or Kalagni Rudra; and in Vaishnavism Kala is also associated with Narasimha and Pralaya. As applied to gods and goddesses, is not always distinguishable from , meaning 'black'. Monier-Williams's widely used Sanskrit-English dictionary lists two distinct words with the form : 1 means "black, of a dark colour, dark-blue ..." and has a feminine form ending in – – as mentioned in 4–1, 42. 2 means "a fixed or right point of time, a space of time, time ... destiny, fate ... death" and has a feminine form (found at the end of compounds) ending in , as mentioned in the . As a traditional Hindu unit of time, one kālá corresponds to 144 seconds. According to Monier-Williams, 2 is from the verbal root "to calculate", while the root of 1 is uncertain, though possibly the same. As applied to gods and goddesses in works such as the and the Skanda , 1 and 2 are not readily distinguishable. Thus Wendy Doniger, translating a conversation between and from the Skanda , says may mean " 'the Great Death' ... or 'the Great Black One' ". And , a Hindu translator of the , renders the feminine compound (where means "night") as "dark night of periodic dissolution". Kala appears as an impersonal deity within the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and the Bhagavata Purana. In the Mahabharata, Krishna, one of the main characters, reveals his identity as Time personified. He states to Arjuna that both sides on the battlefield of the Kurukshetra War have already been annihilated. At the end of the epic, the entire Yadu dynasty (Krishna's dynasty) is similarly annihilated. Kala appears in the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana, as the messenger of Death (Yama). At the end of the story, Time, in the form of inevitability or necessity, informs Rama that his reign on Earth is now over.