Kalpa

Kalpa designates in Hindu chronology the Brahminical period of one day and night, and corresponds to a period of 4,320,000,000 solar sidereal years, or years of mortals, measuring the duration of the world, and, according to many, including even the interval of its annihilation. The Bhavishya- Purana admits of an infinity of kalpas; other Puranas enumerate thirty. A great kalpa comprises not a day, but a life of Brahma. In Vedic literature, kalpa is a Vedanga (q.v.). See Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, p. 1 sq., 7 sq. SEE KALPA-SUTRA.