Hindu History..START OF A NEW KALP

The first avatar of Lord Vishnu was MATSYA AVTAR. This took place when at the end of Kalyug, the entire life, as existed on this earth, was destroyed earlier by man-made calamities and subsequently the survivors faced the wrath of natural calamities.
The sea water rose significantly covering almost the entire land mass.
SHIPS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD WITH POWERFUL AND INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE set sail in order to wait for this flood to recede. However this journey continued for about 2.5 lac years. Several hundreds of generations of survivors, as such, spend the life over water, and with the help of Matsya Avatar also survived the onslaught of extreme conditions.
Slowly with the phenomenal rise of water levels, the sea water also became stationary .All the turbulence and so called churning of water was gone. The water became still, very still. This was never witnessed by mankind before. Even sea life started slowly vanishing .They were at the end of the kalp. Please read for further details: MATSYA AVTAR IN LIGHT OF GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS

There in the extreme hostile conditions survival was difficult. Certain rules were made to make them easier. It is only in this context Manu’s Smriti is to be looked at. One must remember that, as per Hindu history, Manu brought some people of earlier kalp to the new kalp. Whether one calls him Manu, Manush, or Man is insignificant.

The thing to remember is Manu’s Smriti is meant for those DESPERATE people who were locked in extreme condition, over land and sea, fighting for survival. It has no place in current civilized life. To that extent it has been vastly misunderstood. Rules regarding caste, behavior thereon, would start making sense in that context only. It, however, is not relevant in today’s world. It is not meant to be.

As of today, the Dharm lay down by Lord Ram and Lord Krishna need to be followed. But, unfortunately, no one tells us what the dharm is.

Subsequently, after about 2.5lac years of miseries, some more hilltops were seen. Perhaps the water had receded, but only slightly- but at least they could now end their journey over sea. They were now on their own, living over land. Slowly they also started witnessing improvement in quantity of fishes and other sea life. But the water was not receding. The water was still, very still. The survival was difficult but not as difficult as life over sea. After several hundred years, they started witnessing some wave movement over sea. They also witnessed occasionally one TORTOISE that would venture out of sea and stay on ground for some time.

They worshiped him as avatar of Lord Vishnu. After all, this Avatar of Lord Vishnu has brought a change in the totally silent and still water of sea—the water has started churning and they could see wave movement over sea. They could now also see some increase in land mass. That could mean sea water was receding. KURMA AVTAR of Lord Vishnu signifies the start of wave movement over sea. 

Every year earth was getting covered with more trees. One morning they saw a boar, a four legged animal. Seeing them, he ran back into forest. He did not go back into sea. This was the first time they had company over land. More importantly now more land was available as sea has receded significantly. They accepted him as Vishnu’s avatar-VARAHA AVTAR. This avatar signifies significant release of land by receding sea water.

Slowly they started developing settlements. Life was still difficult. Food was hard to find. During the earlier times, during there passage through sea, there were people who would commit all type of heinous deeds. They were called Shudras then, and instead of punishing them, were made to do work which no one wanted to do. The clever amongst them who were ruling ensured that the caste system remains intact. 

There were survivors from sea in other settlements who ate human flesh and offered human sacrifices to there deities. They were termed as Rakshas. They were very ferocious and abducted people from other settlements for the above mentioned purpose. In the mean time, apart from the areas in which settlements were developed, in other places large forest cover started developing. They could now see birds and other animals who ventured out of the forest. Living was getting easy after all and the settlements started calling themselves as kingdoms. They were only afraid of Rakshas. These Rakshas were living in at least one large settlement and they were a constant threat. They were also indiscriminately killing animals in the forests.

They had now lived for over 3lac years in the new kalp. The threat of Rakshas was very serious. Every kingdom now had an army of warriors who would ensure safety of its people. These warriors would also ensure safety of their kingdom from fearsome animals.

These warriors also started reporting about some large group of two-legged animals inside the forest, who, although, had never threatened the warriors, looked very ferocious. Even Rakshas were more interested in them as they liked their meat and the amount of meat was more in them then in the abducted settlement people. The kingdoms were now interested in these two legged animals. They thought they would be of some use to them too, apart from fighting the Rakshas. On contacting them, they found them very simple. They agreed to fight Rakshas. The king of Rakshas, Hirnakashyap was killed by the two legged animal called Narsingh. They also destroyed there kingdom/settlement. The human civilization was once again the dominant civilization on the earth. NARSINGH is still remembered as the incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

However human civilization has always been cruel on other beings. They started exploiting these two legged animals as slaves, and as animals. They refused to recognize them as human beings although they were now developing into same. The exploitation was cruel and inhuman to say the least. Here was the first batch of human beings of the new kalp-very pure and innocent (Aryans as one would like to call them in Sanskrit), and the batch of survivors of the older kalp-whose antecedents were not known, were torturing them instead of welcoming them.

On the other front the Rakshas once again reorganized themselves and started attacking human settlement as well as Vanars(the new human race- two legged animals as called earlier).Only those who accepted there supremacy were spared. They were very cruel and ruthless in there approach. Their king Bali soon became the undisputed lord of the entire earth. The entire human race untidily prayed for help-and Lord Vishnu obliged. This time as Vaaman-a small dwarfy Brahman he requested Bali for only three footsteps of earth. It was known that King Bali would never go back on his words, and so when Bali promised him the land, he measured the entire earth, or perhaps the picture of earth at the pooja place, in two steps and since there was no land left to fulfill the wow of Bali to give three paces, he ordered Bali to go and live in Pataallok. The earth was once again free for human habitation. Lord Vishnu is also remembered as VAMAN AVTAR for this help to mankind.

But as soon as the threat of Rakshas subsided, the civilized people started their unending exploitation of Vanars. They conveniently forgot how twice they have helped them decisively against Rakshas. They even refused to allow there settlement beyond forests. The exploitation was unending-rather it was increasing. 

Lord Vishnu in the form of PARASHURAM came on this earth and dealt with these warriors. These warriors also kept females without marriages. He destroyed them several times, however there was no respite. It was then that he threatened to destroy the civilized life in the kingdoms as well, that an accord was reached through the intervention of King Janak, who had the reputation of being peace loving man. On the intervention of King Janak it was decided that the civilized kingdom will now have no relation –good or bad- with the vanars and all warriors will keep females only through marriage. Once assured of there behavior, Parashuram also handed King Janak the Shiv Dhanush, a weapon of mass destruction, for safe keeping.

However Parashuram could not succeed in persuading Brahmins/Dharm gurus to end exploitation of females, and vanars. In fact he realized that the society was extremely religious and can only be exploited by religious leaders, and not by Shatriyas or Warriors. Further proof of this is in the fact that Parashuram’s father a saint asked his sons to kill their mother, and secondly if Parashuram was so anti-Shatriyas why did he ask Janak for safe keeping of Shiv Dhanush, the weapon of Mass destruction. No Avatars, in the first place do not discriminate between Brahmin and Shatriyas, and  do not come one after another till absolutely necessary.

Once the peace was established between kingdoms and vanars, kingdoms started flourishing. Also the vanars started multiplying. They also started having their own settlements on the edge of the forests after clearing part of the forest. But on the other hand in Patallok after the demise of Bali, Rakshas were once again organizing themselves to take revenge for the way Lord Vishnu ‘cheated’ them. This time their target was vanars. But they had a problem. Shiv Dhanush, the ultimate weapon of mass destruction was with King Janak and it could be used against them. They also knew about the animosity between kingdoms and vanars. So they assured the kingdoms that their fight was not against them, but against vanars who were claiming that they were the purest form of human being, and that their fight was also against King Kuber of Lanka, who was supporting the vanars. Assured by the kingdoms that they will not interfere, the king of Rakshas, Raavan, captured Lanka, and declared it his kingdom and from there on waged assaults on vanars and all living being in jungle. It was then that Lord Vishnu came on this earth as Lord Ram, son of Ayodhya King Dashrath. 

Rest is all known history—the battle between Shri Ram and Raavan. While on the subject of religion, it is extremely important to know what dharm was preached by Shri Ram, which resulted in RamRajya