How did the people from the olden days keep milk fresh and not spoilt?

 I grew up in south india (Chennai) in the 1980’s. We lived in a tiled roof house that was 170+ years old. The walls were made of clay and calcium and our drainage at best, was cosmetic.

Chennai summers

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 are brutal and humidity is high. Not to mention, cleanliness in the kitchen is impossible. We prevailed and we were a happy lower middle class joint family of 13 living on the salary of 1, my father.

Milk was purchased from the local milk vendor (Aavin

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) at 4.30 AM in the morning, by my grandfather or one of my aunts from a place that looked much worse, than this…

Image Source: Aavin Milk Booth

The only way to keep milk fresh till the evening was to cover it with a lid, keep it constantly heated up, once every few hours and also to use it up every day and never have left overs. If we did have left overs, we made curd

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 out of the milk to prevent it from getting spoiled.

As the eldest child in the house, much to the wrath of my grandparents and other women in the house, who took severe offence at a “male child” being in the kitchen, (thanks to the 80’s internalised misogyny of our women in those times) i used to take an interest in all things cooking and kitchen related.

I used to warm up the milk, sweep the floors, pre-heat the food in the evening after i came back from school, so that it remained fresh till dinner time, at 7.30 PM.

Will history repeat itself after Kali Yuga ends? Has everything that happened in Treta Yuga and Dwapara Yuga happened again (like Ramayan and Mahabharat)?

 Short answer is NO. To answer this question, one must be aware of what is meant by Manvantara and Kalpa along with Yuga.

What is meant by Manvantara and Kalpa?

There are 4 four yugas in 1 yuga cycle and the length of the four yugas is 43,200,00 years.

Satya Yuga equals 1,728,000 Human years

Treta Yuga equals 1,296,000 Human years

Dvapara Yuga equals 864,000 Human years

Kali Yuga equals 432,000 Human years

1 cycle of four Yugas is called as Mahayuga or Chaturyuga

71 Mahayugas is called as Manvantara

14 Manvantaras is called as Kalpa

1 Kalpa is equal to 12 hours in Satya Loka of Lord Brahma

2 Kalpas is equal to 1 full day (24 hours) of Lord Brahma

Bhagavata explains the duration of Yugas as follows:

catvāri trīṇi dve caikaṁ
kṛtādiṣu yathā-kramam
saṅkhyātāni sahasrāṇi
dvi-guṇāni śatāni ca

Translation

The duration of the Satya millennium equals 4,800 years of the years of the demigods; the duration of the Tretā millennium equals 3,600 years of the demigods; the duration of the Dvāpara millennium equals 2,400 years; and that of the Kali millennium is 1,200 years of the demigods.

Purport

As aforementioned, one year of the demigods is equal to 360 years of the human beings. The duration of the Satya-yuga is therefore 4,800 × 360, or 1,728,000 years. The duration of the Tretā-yuga is 3,600 × 360, or 1,296,000 years. The duration of the Dvāpara-yuga is 2,400 × 360, or 864,000 years. And the last, the Kali-yuga, is 1,200 × 360, or 432,000 years.

Ref: Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 3: The Status Quo CHAPTER ELEVEN

Lord Brahma has 360 days in a year. 100 years of Lord Brahma is called as Mahakalpa and on reaching 100 years, Lord Brahma gets Moksha(salvation). The entire three worlds (Devaloka,Bhuloka and Asuraloka) are destroyed by fire emanating from the mouth of Lord Vishnu's serpent Adisesha. This annihilation is overseen by Shiva who engages in his cosmic dance (Tandava) in order to direct all this destruction. Then Brahma is reborn marking the start of a new Mahakalpa and then the cycle begins again.

Now coming back to two questions:

Will history repeat itself after Kali Yuga ends?

Yes, the yuga cycle is endless and will keep repeating.

Will Ramayan and Mahabharat happen again?

There has been countless Treta Yuga and Dwapara Yuga before this current Kali Yuga. We are currently living in Shveta-Varaha Kalpa. Within this Brahma’s day, six manvantaras have already elapsed and this is the seventh manvantara named as Vaivasvata manvantara.

Ramayana happened in the 24th Treta Yuga of present Vaivasvata Manvantara. Here is what the Matysa Purana(oldest of all puranas) says while enumerating various incarnations of Lord Vishnu in the Vaivasvata Manvantara in chronological order:

In the 24th Treta Yuga, the seventh manifestation was that of Sri Ramchandra, as the son of Dasharatha, and with Vasishta as the priest, to kill Ravana.

Ref: Matsya Purana

Vayu Purana (70.48) says:

Tretayuge chaturvinshe ravanastapasah kshayat

Ramam Dasharathim prapya saganah kshayamiyavan

Which means that Ravana met Rama, the son of Dasaratha in a battle field during treta yuga of 24th mahayuga. Skanda Purana also confirms the same. Parashurama was born on 19th Treta Yuga not the same Treta Yuga which Lord Rama belongs.

Next avatar of Lord Vishnu which is Krishna took place in 28th Dvapara Yuga. This is when Mahabharata happened. Lord Vishnu doesn’t take incarnations on every Yuga. He himself told in Bhagavad Gita that:

yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham

TRANSLATION

Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion—at that time I descend Myself.

Ref: Bhagavad Gita

The future incarnations of Lord Vishnu in the upcoming 7 manvantaras is given in Bhagavatam. All of them are partial incarnations. Nothing is known about incarnations of Lord Vishnu in future kalpas.

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