Devanagari
सन्ध्यासन्ध्यांशयोरन्तर्य: काल: शतसंख्ययो: ।
तमेवाहुर्युगं तज्ज्ञा यत्र धर्मो विधीयते ॥ २० ॥
Verse text
sandhyā-sandhyāṁśayor antar
yaḥ kālaḥ śata-saṅkhyayoḥ
tam evāhur yugaṁ taj-jṣā
yatra dharmo vidhīyate
Synonyms
sandhyā
—
transitional period before
;
sandhyā
—
aṁśayoḥ — and transitional period after
;
antaḥ
—
within
;
yaḥ
—
that which
;
kālaḥ
—
duration of time
;
śata
—
saṅkhyayoḥ — hundreds of years
;
tam eva
—
that period
;
āhuḥ
—
they call
;
yugam
—
millennium
;
tat
—
jṣāḥ — the expert astronomers
;
yatra
—
wherein
;
dharmaḥ
—
religion
;
vidhīyate
—
is performed .
Translation
The transitional periods before and after every millennium, which are a few hundred years as aforementioned, are known as yuga-sandhyās, or the conjunctions of two millenniums, according to the expert astronomers. In those periods all kinds of religious activities are performed.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The period between the sandhyās and the beginning and end of the yuga which are calculated in hundreds of devatā years is called the yuga by the wise. During this period the particular dharmas of the yuga are performed.
The juncture at the beginning is called sandhyā and the juncture at the end is called sandhyāṁśa. What are these? They are counted in hundreds of years. The period between these two is the yuga. In these yugas the special dharmas of meditation, sacrifice, deity worship and chanting are performed. The regular dharmas are secondarily performed. These are practiced as well in the sandhyā and sandhāṁśa. But even in the sandhyās, the yuga dharmas are more prominent. One year of the devatās is 360 years of humans. The four yugas are described in the scriptures to be 4, 320,000 human years. Satya-yuga is 1,728,000 human years. Treta-yuga is 1,296,000 human years. Dvāpara yuga is 864,000 human years. Kali-yuga is 432,000 human years.