Concept of Time: Indian vs Western

Indic Lectures — session notes · Indic Warriors lecture series

How a civilization imagines time shapes everything downstream — its history-writing, its ambitions, its patience. This lecture puts the two great models side by side: the linear, once-through time of the Abrahamic and modern-scientific West, and the vast cyclical architecture of Indic cosmology — yugas, kalpas, the breathing of Brahma — with its startlingly modern comfort with deep time.

The session neither mystifies nor dismisses: it examines what the cyclical frame made possible (astronomy on great timescales, equanimity about decline, a non-apocalyptic ethics) and what the linear frame powers (progress narratives, urgency, the historical method itself). Listeners leave able to say what each model is for.

Attend or revisit: session schedules and recordings are announced on the Indic Lectures page; related reading grows on the Indian Knowledge Systems shelf.

Credits: lecture programme by Indic Warriors; notes by the editorial team.