Verse 18

¹⁸In the Krta age dharma walks on four feet and is held up by the men of it. Truth, pity, austerity and giving are the feet of the mighty one, king. ¹⁹The people then are content, kind, friendly, quiet, ruled in themselves, patient; they take their pleasure in the self and look on all alike, and for the most part they are men who work at it. ²⁰In the Treta a quarter of the feet of dharma falls away little by little, through the feet of wrongdoing: lying, harm, discontent and quarrelling. ²¹Then men are set on rites and on austerity, not too cruel and not greedy, holding to the three ends and grown strong on the three Vedas; and among the classes the brahmin comes first, king.

²²In the Dvapara austerity, truth, pity and giving fall away by half, through the marks of wrongdoing laid on dharma: harm, dissatisfaction, lying and hate. ²³Men are then well spoken of, with great houses, glad to study and to teach, rich, householders, cheerful; and among the classes the kshatriya and the twice-born come first. ²⁴In the Kali only a quarter of the feet of dharma is left, and it is worn down by the causes of wrongdoing as those grow, until at the end that quarter too will be destroyed. ²⁵In that age the people are greedy, badly behaved, without pity, at enmity over nothing, luckless and full of thirst; and among them sudras and fishermen come first.