yugas and colours

[JKirkpatrick]

A scholar who's done a good deal of work on the 'echt-colors' (if
I may call them that) 
is Nick Allen, with respect to Dumezil's tripartite IE functions.
See for ex.:

Allen, N.J. 
1998c	Varnas, colours and functions: expanding Dumézil’s
schema.  Z. für Religionswissenschaft 6: 163-177. 

Another comparative source is Berlin & Kay, Basic Color Terms:
Their Universality and Evolution.

Best,
Joanna Kirkpatrick
===============

-----Original Message-----
From: Indology [mailto:INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk] On Behalf Of
Tenzin Bob Thurman
Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2009 3:10 PM
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: Re: yugas and colours

Just noticed this discussion, and it brought to mind the not
unrelated fact that the faces of the Buddha Kaalachakra and the
dirctional colors in his mandala palace are precisely those,
front-east black, right-south red, back-west yellow, left-north
white. ince his body is supposed to represent all the "parts" of
time, fitting that his faces represent the yugas.

That mandala is the only one in the Tibetan collection that I
know of that uses those colors for the faces and directions.

Bob Thurman


Luis Gonzalez-Reimann wrote:
> The colors in 3.148, mentioned by Harunaga, are:
>
> Krta: white
> Treta: red
> Dvapara: yellow
> Kali: black
>
> But there is a different version in Mbh 3.187.31:
>
> Krta: white
> Treta: yellow
> Dvapara: red
> Kali: black
>
> Where the colors for Treta and Dvapara are reversed.
>
> I discuss this in my book /The Mahabharata and the Yugas/ (pp.
103, 
> 114-116).
>
> Luis González-Reimann
> _____
>
> on 10/31/2009 12:29 PM Harunaga Isaacson wrote:
>> And it is in the MBh, not only in passages excluded from the
critical 
>> edition (such as that which DG quoted), but also in 3.148
("sukla in 
>> vs. 16, rakta in 23, piita in 26, and k.r.s.na in 33).
>>
>> Harunaga Isaacson
>>
>>
>> Peter Bisschop wrote:
>>> It is found in the Vi.s.nudharma (edition R. Gruenendahl):
>>> 104.27 ("sukla), 104.35 (rakta), 104.38 (piita), 104.45
(k.r.s.na)
>>>
>>> Peter Bisschop
>>>
>>> Quoting Dominic Goodall <dominic.goodall at GMAIL.COM>:
>>>
>>>> Dear all,
>>>>
>>>> Can anybody tell me whether the notion that Vi.s.nu changes
colour 
>>>> in each yuga predates the Bhaagavatapuraa.na?
>>>>
>>>> BhP_10.08.013/1 aasan var.naas trayo hy asya g.rh.nato
'nuyuga.m 
>>>> tanuu.h
>>>> BhP_10.08.013/3 "suklo raktas tathaa piita idaanii.m
k.r.s.nataa.m 
>>>> gata.h
>>>>
>>>> I find it in a few passages excluded from the critical text
of the 
>>>> Mahaabhaarata, e.g.
>>>>
>>>> 13*0002_01 ya.h "svetatvam upaagata.h k.rtayuge tretaayuge 
>>>> raktataa.m
>>>> 13*0002_02 yugme ya.h kapila.h kalau sa bhagavaan
k.r.s.natvam 
>>>> abhyaagata.h
>>>>
>>>> Does anybody know of any demonstrably early references?
>>>>
>>>> Dominic Goodall
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>