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Kalki
Kalki on horse
Devanagari	कल्कि
Sanskrit transliteration	Kalki
Affiliation	Tenth avatar of Vishnu
Abode	Shambhala
Weapon	Ratna Maru (sword) (weapon of Shiva) Bow and arrow (sometimes)
Texts	Bhagavata Purana Garuda Purana Kalki Purana Padma Purana Vishnu Purana
Consort	Padma (Avatar of Lakshmi)

Kalki, also called kalkin, is the tenth avatar of Hindu god Vishnu to end the kali yuga, one of the four periods in endless cycle of existence (krita) in Vaishnavism cosmology. He is described in the Puranas as the avatar who rejuvenates existence by ending the darkest and destructive period to remove adharma and ushering in the Satya Yuga, while riding a white horse with a fiery sword. The description and details of Kalki is inconsistent among the Puranic texts. He is, for example, only an invisible force destroying evil and chaos in some texts, an actual person who kills those who persecute others and leading an army of Brahmin warriors in some. His mythology has been compared to the concepts of Messiah, Apocalypse, Frashokereti and Maitreya in other religions.

In the Tibetan Buddhism Kalachakra tradition, 25 rulers of the Shambhala Kingdom held the title of Kalki, Kulika or Kalki-king. During Vaishakha, the first fortnight in Shukla Paksha is dedicated to fifteen deities, with each day for a different god. In this tradition, the twelfth day is Vaishakha Dwadashi and is dedicated to Madhava, another name for Kalki.

Etymology

The name Kalki is derived based Kali, which means "present age" (kali yuga).

Description

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Part of a series on
Vaishnavism
Supreme deity Vishnu / Krishna / Rama
Important deities Dashavatara Matsya Kurma Varaha Narasimha Vamana Parasurama Rama Balarama Krishna Buddha Kalki Other forms Dhanvantari Guruvayurappan Hayagriva Jagannath Mohini Nara-Narayana Prithu Shrinathji Venkateshvara Vithoba Consorts Lakshmi Bhumi Sita Radha Rukmini Alamelu Related Garuda Hanuman Shesha Shasta
Holy scriptures Vedas Upanishads Vaikhanasa Pancharatra Bhagavad Gita Mahabharata Ramayana Harivamsa Divya Prabandha Gita Govinda Puranas Vishnu Bhagavata Naradiya Garuda Padma Agni
Sampradayas Sri (Vishishtadvaita, Akshar Purushottam Darshan) Rudra (Śuddhādvaita) Kumara (Dvaitadvaita) Brahma (Tattvavada or (Dvaita)), Acintyabhedabheda) Others Ekasarana Dharma Mahanubhava Pranami Radha Vallabha Ramsnehi Sant Mat Vaishnava-Sahajiya Warkari
Teachers—acharyas Chaitanya Chakradhara Dadu Dayal Harivansh Jayatirtha Jiva Goswami Jñāneśvara Kabir Madhavdev Madhvacharya Manavala Mamunigal Namadeva Nammalvar Nathamuni Nimbarka Srinivasacharya Padmanabha Tirtha Pillai Lokacharya Purandara Dasa Raghuttama Tirtha Raghavendra Tirtha Ram Charan Ramananda Ramanuja Ravidas Satyanatha Tirtha Satyabhinava Tirtha Satyabodha Tirtha Satyadharma Tirtha Satyadhyana Tirtha Samarth Ramdas Sankardev Swaminarayan Sripadaraja Tukaram Tulsidas Vallabha Vedanta Desika Vidyapati Vishnuswami Viṭṭhalanātha Vyasatirtha Vadiraja Tirtha Yamunacharya
Related traditions Bhagavatism Vaikhanasas Pancharatra Tenkalai Vadakalai Munitraya Krishnaism Jagannathism Haridasa Sahajiya Baul Pushtimarg Gaudiya ISKCON Ramanandi Kapadi Balmiki Kabir panth Dadu panth Mahanam
v t e

Kalki is an avatara of Vishnu. Avatara means "descent" and refers to a descent of the divine into the material realm of human existence. The Garuda Purana lists ten avatars, with Kalki being the tenth. He is described as the avatar who appears at the end of the Kali Yuga. He rejuvenates existence by ending the darkest and destructive yuga (period) to remove adharma and ushering in the Satya Yuga, while riding a white horse with a fiery sword.

The concept and the legend of Kalki is not found in the Vedic texts, nor in Sutras or other early post-Vedic text. It appears predominantly in the Puranas. For example, the Vishnu Purana mentions Kalki. The Vishnu Purana and other Puranic texts, state scholars such as Ludo Rocher, are highly inconsistent, were interpolated and revised over time. Rocher states that the "date of the Visnu Purana is as contested as that of any other Purana". Vishnu Purana like all Puranas has a complicated chronology. Dimmitt and van Buitenen state that each of the Puranas including the Vishnu Purana is encyclopedic in style, and it is difficult to ascertain when, where, why and by whom these were written. The scholarship on Vishnu Purana, and other Puranas, has suffered from cases of forgeries, states Ludo Rocher, where liberties in the transmission of Puranas were normal and those who copied older manuscripts replaced words or added new content to fit the theory that the sponsor of the manuscript wanted.

Borrowed idea

According to John Mitchiner, the Kalki concept was likely borrowed "in some measure from similar Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian and other religions". Mitchner states that some Puranas such as the Yuga Purana do not mention Kalki and offer a different cosmology than the other Puranas. The Yuga Purana mythologizes in greater details the post-Maurya era Indo-Greek and Saka era, while the Manvantara theme containing the Kalki idea is mythologized greater in other Puranas. Alf Hiltebeitel states that the idea of Kalki appears for the first time in the great war epic Mahabharata, though the details about the Kalki therein vary from those in the Puranas. According to Hiltebeitel, Kalki is an extension of the Parasurama avatar legend where a Brahmin warrior destroys Kshatriyas who were abusing their power to spread chaos, evil and persecution of the powerless. The Epic character of Kalki restores dharma, restores justice in the world, but does not end the cycle of existence. The Kalki mythology in the Puranas may have been affected by ideas from West Asia.

Iconography

The iconography of Kalki portrays him in either two or four armed forms.

People claimed to be Kalki

Several people have already claimed to be the Kalki avatar and the promised redeemer in other religions. For example, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of Ahmadiyya movement, claimed to be the Kalki Avatar, as well as the Imam Mahdi. Similarly, the Bahai faith, that emerged from Islam and is a distinct religion, has identified Bahá'u'lláh as Kalki as well as the prophesized redeeming God at the end of the world, as claimed in Babism, Islam (Mahdi), Christianity (Messiah) and Buddhism (Maitreya).

See also

• Dashavatara
• End time
• Kali
• Koka and Vikoka
• Lord of Light
• Mahabharata
• Maitreya
• Ramayana
• Suchandra

References

1. ^ Wendy Doniger; Merriam-Webster, Inc (1999). Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions. Merriam-Webster. p. 629. ISBN 978-0-87779-044-0.
2. Manmatha Nath Dutt, tr., The Garuda Puranam (1908), p. 4
3. ^ Roshen Dalal (2010). Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide. Penguin Books India. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-14-341421-6.
4. Klaus K. Klostermaier (2006). Mythologies and Philosophies of Salvation in the Theistic Traditions of India. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-88920-743-1.
5. Gopal, Madan (1990). K.S. Gautam (ed.). India through the ages. Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. p. 73.
6. Wilson, Horace (2001). Vishnu Purana. Ganesha Publishing. p. 72. ISBN 1-86210-016-0.
7. Rocher 1986, p. 249.
8. Dimmitt & van Buitenen 2012, p. 5.
9. Gregory Bailey (2003). Arvind Sharma (ed.). The Study of Hinduism. University of South Carolina Press. pp. 141–142. ISBN 978-1-57003-449-7.
10. Rocher 1986, pp. 49–53.
11. Avril Ann Powell (2010). Scottish Orientalists and India: The Muir Brothers, Religion, Education and Empire. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 130, 128–134, 87–90. ISBN 978-1-84383-579-0.
12. John E. Mitchiner (2000). Traditions Of The Seven Rsis. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 69–76. ISBN 978-81-208-1324-3.
13. ^ Alf Hiltebeitel (2011). Reading the Fifth Veda: Studies on the Mahābhārata - Essays by Alf Hiltebeitel. BRILL Academic. pp. 89–110, 530–531. ISBN 90-04-18566-6.
14. Alf Hiltebeitel (2011). Dharma: Its Early History in Law, Religion, and Narrative. Oxford University Press. pp. 288–292. ISBN 978-0-19-539423-8.
15. Klaus K. Klostermaier (2006). Mythologies and Philosophies of Salvation in the Theistic Traditions of India. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-88920-743-1.
16. Juergensmeyer, Mark (2006). Oxford Handbook of Global Religions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 520. ISBN 978-0-19-513798-9, ISBN (Ten digit): 0195137981.
17. Daniel E Bassuk (1987). Incarnation in Hinduism and Christianity: The Myth of the God-Man. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 146–147. ISBN 978-1-349-08642-9.
18. John M. Robertson (2012). Tough Guys and True Believers: Managing Authoritarian Men in the Psychotherapy Room. Routledge. pp. 62–63. ISBN 978-1-136-81774-8.

Bibliography

• Bryant, Edwin Francis (2007). Krishna: A Sourcebook. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-803400-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dimmitt, Cornelia; van Buitenen, J. A. B. (2012). Classical Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Puranas. Temple University Press (1st Edition: 1977). ISBN 978-1-4399-0464-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dalal, Rosen (2014). Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide. Penguin. ISBN 978-8184752779. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Flood, Gavin (1996). An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43878-0. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Ariel Glucklich (2008). The Strides of Vishnu : Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective: Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-971825-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Johnson, W.J. (2009). A Dictionary of Hinduism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-861025-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rao, Velcheru Narayana (1993). "Purana as Brahminic Ideology". In Doniger Wendy (ed.). Purana Perennis: Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-1381-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rocher, Ludo (1986). The Puranas. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3447025225. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

v t e Avatars of Vishnu
Dashavatara (for example)	Matsya Kurma Varaha Narasimha Vamana Parashurama Rama Balarama Krishna Buddha Kalki
Other avatars	Four Kumaras Narada Nara-Narayana Kapila Dattatreya Yajna Rishabha Prithu Dhanvantari Mohini Vyasa Prsnigarbha Hayagriva Hamsa
The list of the "ten avatars" varies regionally. Two substitutions involve Balarama, Krishna, and Buddha. Krishna is almost always included; in exceptions, he is considered the source of all avatars.

v t e Hindu deities and texts
Gods	Trimurti Brahma Vishnu Shiva Agni Ashvins Chandra Dattatreya Ganesha Hanuman Indra Kama Kartikeya Krishna Kubera Rama Shasta Surya Varuna Vayu Vishvakarma Yama more
Goddesses	Tridevi Saraswati Lakshmi Parvati Aditi Bhumi Chhaya Durga Ganga Shachi Kali Mahadevi Mahavidya Matangi Matrikas Radha Rati Rohini Rukmini Sanjna Sati Shakti Shashthi Sita more
Other deities	Apsaras Asuras Daitya Danava Devata Dikpāla Gandharvas Gana Kuladevatas Gramadevatas Rakshasas Vahanas Yakshas / Yakshini
Texts (list)	Vedas Rig Sama Yajur Atharva Upanishads Puranas Ramayana Mahabharata Bhagavad Gita Yoga Sutras of Patanjali more
Hinduism Hindu mythology

• Forms of Vishnu
• Hindu eschatology
• Hindu philosophical concepts
• Messianism