Historical PeriodEra
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📷 Raja Ravi Varma · Public domain · source
Deities
Kalki
Kalki — tenth avatar of Vishnu, the Future Horse-Rider
Kalki — tenth avatar of Vishnu, the Future Horse-Rider
No primary scriptures are catalogued for this entry yet. If you know of scriptural references we have missed, please contribute them.
Kalki is the tenth and final avatar of Vishnu — prophesied to appear at the end of the current Kali Yuga, riding a white horse, wielding a blazing sword, to destroy the forces of evil and inaugurate a new Satya Yuga.
Kalki is described in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa Book 12 and the Kalki Purāṇa: he will be born to a Brahmin family in the village of Sambhala (often identified with modern Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh), at the end of the Kali Yuga. His future coming gives Hindu eschatology its messianic dimension, and parallels the Second Coming of Christ, the Maitreya Buddha, the Saoshyant of Zoroastrianism, and the Mahdi of Islam — making Kalki part of a shared Indo-Iranian / Abrahamic redeemer archetype.
Modern new construction of a Kalki temple at Sambhal is proceeding with political-religious support. The primary iconography: a young man riding a white horse with raised sword, urging the horse to full gallop — the inevitability of righteous time.
