Note: This is an updated version of an earlier article that I had written about the connection between the Day and Night of Brahma and the cycle of mass extinctions.
The idea that human civilization has been gradually evolving over time in a linear manner, is a relatively new concept that was formulated during the period of colonization. Nearly every ancient culture believed otherwise. They said that time moves in cycles, smaller and larger, and that our civilization has gone though innumerable ups and downs over eons.