Introduction
Kalki is the tenth and final avatar of Vishnu in the Dashavatara. Unlike the other avatars, Kalki has not yet appeared, and the Puranas foretell that he will come at the end of the Kali Yuga, the present age of moral decline, to destroy the wicked and begin a new age.
Avatars (avataras, "descents") are the forms in which Vishnu is said to come to the world when dharma is in decline. The idea is stated in the Bhagavad Gita (4.7 to 4.8), where Krishna says that he takes birth in every age to protect the good, destroy the wicked and restore dharma. The most widely accepted list, the Dashavatara, has ten avatars: Matsya (fish), Kurma (tortoise), Varaha (boar), Narasimha (man-lion), Vamana (dwarf), Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Kalki. Other lists exist, for example with Balarama in place of Buddha, and the Bhagavata Purana speaks of twenty-two avatars and says they are innumerable. The Dashavatara is the subject of many temples and works of art, from the rock-cut reliefs of Ellora (the Dashavatara cave) and Mahabalipuram, to Jayadeva's twelfth-century poem the Gita Govinda, which opens with a hymn to the ten avatars.
Family
- Incarnation of: Vishnu
The four ages
In Hindu cosmology, time is divided into four ages (yugas): Krita or Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali. Each is shorter and more corrupt than the one before. The Kali Yuga is traditionally said to have begun in 3102 BCE, and to last 432,000 years.
Sources
Kalki appears in the Mahabharata (Vana Parva), where a Brahmin called Kalki Vishnuyashas will destroy the barbarians at the end of the age, and in the Vishnu, Bhagavata (12.2) and other Puranas. A separate work, the Kalki Purana, dedicated to him, is a late text.
The prophecy
According to the Bhagavata Purana, Kalki will be born in the village of Shambhala, as the son of a Brahmin named Vishnuyashas. He will ride a white horse, named Devadatta in the Kalki Purana, with a sword blazing like a comet, and will destroy those who have become corrupt. After this, the Krita Yuga will begin, and a new cycle of ages.
Iconography
Kalki is shown mounted on a white horse, holding a sword. Sometimes he is shown as a horse-headed man. The Kalki Temple in Jaipur, built by Jai Singh II in the eighteenth century, is one of the few dedicated to him. Kalki Jayanti is celebrated on the sixth day of the bright half of Shravana.
In other traditions
Buddhist Kalachakra tradition speaks of a future war led by the rulers of Shambhala, called Kalki kings. The name Shambhala is used both in Hindu and Buddhist traditions for a legendary kingdom. In Sikh tradition, the Dasam Granth includes a passage on the Kalki avatar, whose authorship is debated.
Meaning
Kalki embodies the hope for renewal after decay. In traditional Hindu thought, the destruction at the end of an age is a step in an endless cycle, not a final end.