life.  And the Kshatriyas also towards the end of such a period will become the thorns of the earth.  And filled with avarice and swelling with pride and vanity and, unable and unwilling to protect (their subjects), they will take pleasure in inflicting punishments only.  And attacking and repeating their attacks upon the good and the honest, and feeling no pity for the latter, even when they will cry in grief, the Kshatriyas will, O Bharata, rob these of their wives and wealth.  And no one will ask for a girl (for purposes of marriage) and no one will give away a girl (for such purposes), but the girls will themselves choose their lords, when the end of the Yuga comes.  And the kings of the earth with souls steeped in ignorance, and discontented with what they have, will at such a time, rob their subjects by every means in their power.  And without doubt the whole world will be mlecchified.[6] And when the end of the Yuga comes, the right hand will deceive the left; and the left, the right.  And men with false reputation of learning will contract Truth and the old will betray the senselessness of the young, and the young will betray the dotage of the old.  And cowards will have the reputation of bravery and the brave will be cheerless like cowards.  And towards the end of the Yuga men will cease to trust one another.  And full of avarice and folly the whole world will have but one kind of food.  And sin will increase and prosper, while virtue will fade and cease to flourish.  And Brahmanas and Kshatriyas and Vaisyas will disappear, leaving, O king, no remnants of their orders.  And all men towards the end of the Yuga will become members of one common order, without distinction of any kind.  And sires will not forgive sons, and sons will not forgive sires.  And when the end approaches, wives will not wait upon and serve their husbands.  And at such a time men will seek those countries where wheat and barley form the staple food.  And, O monarch, both men and women will become perfectly free in their behaviour and will not tolerate one another’s acts.  And, O Yudhishthira, the whole world will be mlecchified.  And men will cease to gratify the gods by offerings of Sraddhas.  And no one will listen to the words of others and no one will be regarded as a preceptor by another.  And, O ruler of men, intellectual darkness will envelop the whole earth, and the life of man will then be measured by sixteen years, on attaining to which age death will ensue.  And girls of five or six years of age will bring forth children and boys of seven or eight years of age will become fathers.  And, O tiger among kings, when the end of the Yuga will come, the wife will never be content with her husband, nor the husband with his wife.  And the possessions of men will never be much, and people will falsely bear the marks of religion, and jealousy and malice will fill the world.  And no one will, at that time, be a giver (of wealth or anything else) in respect to any one