The Challenge of the Concept Time in Hinduism

Man always faced the question as to what time or history is. He asks himself, “what is time or history is?” And “What is our relationship with them?” This research seeks to answer this question in the light of the view of Hinduism by using an analytical-theoretical approach. In Hinduism two patterns: linear and circle are challenged and finally the circle plan of time (Kaleh) has a clearer representation. In circle time, time is a cycle in which the events of a, b, c etc. take place. One of the patterns of circle time is the pattern of transmigration which is a cycle of life and death. In the Avestan notion time is circle, too, but like Hinduism, it has no way for eternal return; rather a return to an eternal origin. The full period of limited time, which, according to Hinduism, lasts for twenty thousand years, comes after the last three thousand years of body resurrection and is a return to the origin. The second kind of time is linear and horizontal. The important point of linear idea is that it is a filamentary idea, according to which everything has one beginning and one end and these two cannot be alike and their movement is not possible. The present research, investigating the concept of time in Veda, Etheroda and Opehnished and their divisions and also philosophical schools of India, shows that history (Eity Hasa) has lost its general and common meaning and definition in the linear religions; because the Hindus do not take care of historical experiments and past events, rather they pay special attention to the meaning and doctrines in their religious texts.