erminate the thieves and robbers amid
heart-rending cries of 'Oh, father--' 'Oh, mother!--'O son!' and the
like, and O Bharata, when sin will thus have been rooted out and virtue
will flourish on arrival of the Krita age, men will once more betake
themselves to the practice of religious rites. And in the age that will
set in, viz., the Krita, well-planted gardens and sacrificial compounds
and large tanks and educational centres for the cultivation of Brahmanic
lore and ponds and temples will re-appear everywhere. And the ceremonies
and rites of sacrifices will also begin to be performed. And the
Brahmanas will become good and honest, and the regenerate ones, devoted
to ascetic austerities, will become Munis and the asylums of ascetics,
which had before been filled with wretches will once more be homes of men
devoted to truth, and men in general will begin to honour and practise
truth. And all seeds, sown on earth, will grow, and, O monarch, every
kind of crop will grow in every season. And men will devotedly practise
charity and vows and observances, and the Brahmanas devoted to meditation
and sacrifices will be of virtuous soul and always cheerful, and the
rulers of the earth will govern their kingdoms virtuously, and in the
Krita age, the Vaisyas will be devoted to the practices of their order.
And the Brahmanas will be devoted to their six-fold duties (of study,
teaching, performance of sacrifices on their own account, officiating at
sacrifices performed by others, charity and acceptance of gifts), and the
Kshatriyas will be devoted to feats of prowess. And Sudras will be
devoted to service of the three (high) orders,

"These, O Yudhishthira, are the courses of the Krita, the Treta, the
Dwapara and the succeeding age. I have now narrated to thee everything. I
have also told thee, O son of Pandu, the periods embraced by the several
Yugas as generally known. I have now told thee everything appertaining to
both the past and the future as narrated by Vayu in the Purana (which
goes by his name and) which is adored by the Rishis. Being immortal I
have many a time beheld and otherwise ascertained the courses of the
world. Indeed, all I have seen and felt I have now told thee. And, O thou
of unfading glory, listen now with thy brothers to something else I will
presently tell thee for clearing thy doubts about religion! O thou
foremost of virtuous men, thou shouldst always fix thy soul on virtue,
for, O monarch, a person of vi