pralayan.
/prəˈlʌɪjə/, U.S. /ˈprələjə/ Hinduism.
The process of dissolution and destruction of the universe that takes place at the end of each age or kalpa and precedes a new creation. Also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > [noun] > of some specific thing
pralaya1678
arboricide1899
society > faith > sect > non-Christian religions > Hinduism > systems of philosophy > [noun] > concepts in
pralaya1678
akasha1768
atman1785
karma1785
maya1789
samskara1827
samsara1845
satya1879
sadhana1898
marga1926
1678 T. Tenison Of Idolatry iii. 36 This conceit is driven very far by the Indian Cabalists... The last day of the World..they call Maperle, or Pralea, when they believe that all shall be destroyed.
1791 W. Jones in Asiatick Researches 2 117 The Hindus believe the whole earth to have been drowned..by a flood... This general pralaya, or destruction, is the subject of the first Purána, or Sacred Poem.
1807 N. B. Halhed in J. H. Hindley Antient Indian Lit. 135 At the end of the first Kelp, the Prĕlĕyĕ, i.e. the dissolution, descended.
1858 C. Wright India & its Inhabitants 250 I..wish that when the pralaya takes place, I may be preserved from that destruction in which all things movable and immovable shall be involved.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xii. [Cyclops] 289 Questioned by his earthname as to his whereabouts in the heavenworld he stated that he was now on the path of pralaya or return.
1970 V. Mehta Portrait of India ii. 62 We Hindus say that the universe has a pralaya, a death—a period of withdrawal for rest. We Madrasis have our pralaya all the time.
1998 New Yorker 26 Oct. 196/3 Like many Indians, I associated the image of pralay—the mythological chaos of the end of the world—with a nuclear explosion.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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