Kali

A Popular Dictionary of Hinduism

the throw of dice with one dot; the loser; Kali Yuga: the fourth (present) age in the world history, often called the dark age, but the name is probably derived from the throw of dice.

It started, according to reckoning, in 3102 B.C. with the mythical destructive battle on the described in the Mhb. Its duration is given as 432,000 years and its dawn, lasting one twentieth of its total duration, is to be relatively mild, with longer periods of peace, but its final stages will witness the complete breakdown of civilized forms of life and the total loss of spiritual and moral values which only a new divine incarnation (Kalki) will be able to remedy.