Why did humans become smaller, unhealthier and more violent over the past 12,000 years?

 

Note: This article has been extracted from my book, Yuga Shift

When we read the ancient legends and folktales, we constantly hear about how the heroes of the bygone ages were big and phenomenally strong. And I am not talking about the Greek demigods here, who were supposedly as tall as 15 feet, as per the classical Greco-Roman writers. I am talking about normal human beings. Pliny the Elder wrote in Natural History,

“But it is almost a matter of observation that with the entire human race the stature on the whole is becoming smaller daily, and that few men are taller than their fathers...Moreover, the famous bard Homer nearly 1000 years ago never ceased to lament that mortals were smaller of stature than in the old days.”[1]

A similar belief was held by the ancient Indians. In the Mahabharata, the sage Markandeya tells Yudhisthira, “Know, O Yudhisthira, that the period of life, the energy, intellect and the physical strength of men decrease in every Yuga!”[2]

An interesting story in the Sanskrit text, Vishnu Purana, illustrates this. A wise king of the Satya Yuga called Raivata had a lovely daughter called Revati. Unable to find anyone worthy of her hand, King Raivata went with his daughter to the celestial realm of Brahma, in order to consult the god regarding a suitable bridegroom. When they arrived, Brahma was listening to a musical performance. So, they waited till the performance was over. After the performance, Raivata prostrated himself before Brahma, explained his purpose, and presented a list of bridegrooms with whom he would be pleased. Brahma then smiled at him graciously, and said:

“Of those whom you have named the third or fourth generation no longer survives, for many successions of ages have passed away whilst you were listening to our songsters: now upon earth the twenty-eighth great age of the present Manu is nearly finished, and the Kali period is at hand. You must therefore bestow this virgin gem upon some other husband, for you are now alone, and your friends, your ministers, servants, wife, kinsmen, armies, and treasures, have long since been swept away by the hand of time.”[3]

Brahma then told Raivata that the Creator Vishnu was incarnate on earth at that particular time in the forms of Krishna and his brother Balarama. He advised Raivata to confer the hand of his daughter to Balarama. When Raivata returned to earth, “he found the race of men dwindled in stature, reduced in vigor, and enfeebled in intellect.” Returning to the city of Kusasthali, he bestowed his daughter’s hand on Balarama. “Beholding the damsel of excessively lofty height, the chief (i.e. Balarama), whose banner is a palm-tree, shortened her with the end of his ploughshare, and she became his wife.”

Without breaking our heads over how Balarama managed to shorten Revati with his plough, let us take note of a key message in the story; and that is, Revati, a lady of the Satya Yuga, was taller than Balarama, who was a big and powerful warrior of the Dwapara Yuga. 

The reference to time dilation in this story is also intriguing. King Revati and his daughter had spent only a few minutes in Brahma’s realm, but, by that time, thousands of Earth-years had elapsed. The phenomenon of time dilation, was discovered in the early 20th century by Einstein. As per Einstein’s relativistic principles, time slows down for someone who is travelling at a high speed, or has reached a different star system with a higher gravity. But, our ancestors were aware of time dilation thousands of years before modern physicists figured it out. How do you explain that?

When I started to hunt for information about human stature in the past, I was astonished by what I found out. A wealth of scientific data from multiple regions of the world reveals the exact same trend: humans, in general, have shrunk in size by at least 10% since the end of the last Ice Age!

The measurements of height for the Eastern Mediterranean region, documented by anthropologist J.L. Angel[4] of the Smithsonian Institution in 1984, shows that a continuous decline in average height for both males and females occurred since the Paleolithic period (earlier than 9000 BCE) till the Middle People (2000 – 1500 BCE) or Middle Bronze Age, after which there has been a slight increase in average heights.

In the image below, I have done a rough mapping between the time periods in Angel’s classification to the Yuga Cycle timeline.

Figure 1: Change in Height in centimeters the Eastern Mediterranean region, mapped to the Yuga Cycle timeline. Source: Angel, 1984.

Figure 2: The complete Yuga Cycle of 25,800 years, with the 1200-year periods of Kataklysmos and Ekpyrosis. Credit: Bibhu Dev Misra.

We can make an interesting observation from the data collected by Angel. The table indicates that the average height of a female in the Paleolithic or Satya Yuga (i.e. earlier than 9000 BCE in Angel’s classification) was 166.5 cm, while that of a male in the late Neolithic (5000 – 3000 BCE) or late Dwapara Yuga was 161.3 cm. This means that, on an average, a Satya Yuga lady was taller than a Dwapara Yuga man by 5.2 cm or 2 inches. 

Why is this important? Because, as per the story in the Vishnu Purana that I had related earlier, the princess Revati, who belonged to the Satya Yuga, was taller than the heroic Balarama who lived in the late Dwapara Yuga. However, the height difference was not very significant, only around 2 inches. Which is why, in spite of being taller than Balarama, Revati got married to him. Clearly, the Vishnu Purana is spot on in this case.

Figure 3: Change in Height in the Eastern Mediterranean region, based on Angel, 1984. Credit: Bibhu Dev Misra.

The graph based on Angel’s data for the Eastern Mediterranean region shows a gradual decline in heights of both males and females till the Late Bronze Age, which is exactly what you would expect as per the Yuga Cycle doctrine. However, there are a couple of anomalies in the trend. Firstly, there was a temporary dip in only male heights between 5000 to 3000 BCE, which may be due to lack of proper sample data for males. 

Second, there was a distinct spike in both average male and female heights around 1450 BCE. How do we explain this? Going by the Yuga Cycle model, average height should have gradually decreased till around 1000 BCE, since the period of transition between the descending and the ascending Kali Yuga extended from 976 - 676 BCE, overlapping with the Greek Dark Ages. After that, the average heights should steadily increase in the ascending Kali Yuga. The second part of the hypothesis is clearly reflected in the data. In case of both males and females, the mean heights show a gradual upward trend since the Classic Period (c.650 BCE) till the Roman Period. 

The only anomaly is the small bump in the graph for both males and females at around 1450 BCE. What could be the reason for this? 

I believe this is probably due to gene flow into the Eastern Mediterranean region from other parts of the world, which altered the local trend. Around 2800 BCE, the Yamnaya – a group of nomads from the steppes of southern Russia and eastern Ukraine – began to move west with their wagons and cattle herds. Within a few centuries, Yamnaya DNA had spread all over Europe. In some places, such as Britain and Germany, there was a substantial replacement of the Neolithic farmers by the Yamnaya. The Yamnaya also spread out over the Eastern Mediterranean region. Since they were of a tall built, it is possible that they increased the average height of the population, which caused the small spike in the graph at around 1450 BCE. Within a few generations, however, the effect of this sudden gene infusion smoothened out, and the average heights reverted back to the local trend. 

Overall, the data for the Eastern Mediterranean region shows a striking correlation with an important tenet of the Yuga Cycle. There is clear decline in average height for both males and females, since the end of the Satya Yuga till the middle part of the descending Kali Yuga, followed by an upward trend in average height after the beginning of the ascending Kali Yuga. 

In the modern day, the average height of males in the Eastern Mediterranean countries such as Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Greece and Egypt is close to 170 cm for males, which is just 1 cm more than that during the Imperial Roman period.[5] This, means average height has continued to increase throughout the ascending Kali Yuga, albeit at a very slow rate. 

The reason why average height increased during the ascending Kali Yuga is because, it is an important determinant of our wealth and prosperity. If you are bigger and stronger, you can work harder and accumulate more wealth. The ascending Kali Yuga brings about an increase in our material prosperity, but the decline in the state of our consciousness continues unabated throughout the entire Kali Yuga. 

This demonstrates the importance of the Yuga Cycle model in correctly understanding and interpreting many aspects of our prehistory, which may, otherwise, be appear to be a confusing mess when looked though the lens of the linear model of human progress and evolution.

A similar reduction in height took place during the Holocene period in Central and Northeast Europe. Michael Hermanussen notes in his paper “Stature of early Europeans” that,

“Upper Paleolithic males (before 16,000 BC) were tall and slim (mean height 179 cm, estimated average body weight 67 kg)…Late Upper Paleolithic males (8000 – 6600 BC) were of medium stature and robusticity (mean height 166 cm, estimated average body weight 62 kg)…Stature further decreased to below 165 cm with estimated body weight of 64 kg in Neolithic males of the Linear Band Pottery Culture (5500–4500 BC)…The body stature of European males remained within the range of 165 to 170 cm up to the end of the 19th century.”[6]

Putting this data in the context of the Yuga Cycle, we can see that the mean height of European males declined from 179 cm in the ascending Satya Yuga (c.16000 BCE) to less than 165 cm towards the end of the descending Dwapara Yuga (c.4500 BCE), paralleling the reduction in male height in the Eastern Mediterranean region during this period. 

Michael Hermanussen writes that, “The reasons for the shortening of body stature during the Warming of the European climate are essentially unknown.” Of course they are unknown! Because, we have deliberately painted the ancients as primitives, and discarded their sacred doctrines. And yet, when we look at the hard, scientific data, we find that they fit in snugly with Yuga Cycle model. We would find it a lot easier to understand our past if we gave our ancestors the respect that they deserve.

Not only did humans become shorter in the descending Yuga Cycle, there was a decline in strength and athleticism. Michael Hermanussen writes in his paper that, “Upper Paleolithic humans not only were taller and had more robust bones in comparison with the Linear Band Pottery Culture Neolithic people, they also had longer limbs, a shorter trunk and, similar to modern African people, very long forearms.” Hermanussen’s observations on nutrition and diseases is equally revealing:

“Paleolithic population density was small, there was enough food for everybody, and there is no evidence of major endemic diseases...During the Mesolithic, population density did not significantly increase, but there is evidence of increased migration, with multiple documents of violent deaths and new endemic diseases (malaria, hookworm).”[7]

As I mentioned, Paleolithic is the period prior to the Holocene (c.9600 BCE), which corresponds to the Satya Yuga. So, what the data shows is that, in the Satya Yuga or Golden Age, there was enough food for everybody, and there weren’t any major endemic diseases. Now where have we heard this before? In practically every ancient doctrine about the Yuga Cycle or the Cycle of the Ages of Man! In the Satya Yuga or Golden Age, there was no scarcity, everyone easily obtained the necessities of life, and there were no diseases, old age or suffering.

The Mesolithic is the period between Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic, which extended from roughly 9600 – 4500 BCE in Europe. So, it basically includes nearly the whole of the Treta and the Dwapara Yugas in the descending cycle. According to Hermanussen, multiple instances of violent deaths and endemic diseases were found during the Mesolithic. This corresponds exactly to what Hanuman had related to Bhima; that, in the Dwapara Yuga, due to the prevalence of sin, men suffer from various diseases and natural calamities. In the Ramayana and Mahabharata, as well as in Hesiod’s description of the Ages of Man, we find that people became aggressive and warlike in the Treta (Silver) and Dwapara (Bronze) Yugas.

In a study done at the Cambridge University in 2014, researchers found that the leg bones of male farmers 7300 years ago (5300 BCE), were just as good as those of modern day cross-country runners.[8] “Even our most highly trained athletes pale in comparison to these ancestors of ours,” Dr. Colin Shaw told the Outside Magazine. But, by 2300 BCE, leg bone structures had degraded so much that they resembled those of the couch potatoes of the Netflix-watching generation. 

In the context of the Yuga Cycle this means that the average farmer of the Dwapara Yuga could have easily outrun a highly trained modern athlete. An earlier study by the Cambridge University in 2011 had found that modern-day people are on an average 10 per cent shorter than their hunter-gatherer ancestors.

Let me summarize the key points that we just discussed, which are in perfect alignment with the tenets of the Yuga Cycle, but contradict the Darwinian principle of gradual evolution by natural selection:

• The data from the Eastern Mediterranean region indicates that, since the end of the Satya Yuga (prior to 9000 BCE) till the middle of the descending Kali Yuga (2000 - 1500 BCE), the average height of males reduced by 4.3 inches, while that of females by 5.1 inches. In the ascending Kali Yuga, average height has been gradually increasing, but even now they are significantly less than that of our Satya Yuga ancestors.
• In Eastern and Central Europe, the mean height of males declined from 179 cm in the ascending Satya Yuga (c.16000 BCE) to less than 165 cm towards the end of the descending Dwapara Yuga (c.4500 BCE). The body stature of European males remained within the range of 165 to 170 cm up to the end of the 19th century. On an average, modern-day people are 10 per cent smaller and shorter than their Satya Yuga ancestors.
• The people of the ascending Satya Yuga (c.16000 BCE) had stronger bones, longer limbs, and very long forearms. The average farmer of the Dwapara Yuga (c.5300 BCE) could have easily outrun a highly trained modern athlete.
• During the ascending Satya Yuga (c.16000 BCE), there was enough food for everybody, and there weren’t any major diseases. In the Treta and Dwapara Yugas (9600 – 4500 BCE), food scarcity increased and multiple instances of violent deaths and endemic diseases were found.

This is an almost word-for-word validation of the key tenets of the Yuga Cycle doctrine. And yet, hardly anybody knows about it. The scientists who study the data are so baffled by the progressive deterioration of the human race since the last Ice Age that they prefer to keep silent about it, for they are unable to explain this trend by taking recourse to their favored model of gradual evolution by natural selection. 

The truth is that, evolution by natural selection is simply a myth that was invented without any verifiable scientific evidence and turned into an incontrovertible fact by continuous repetition. When we look at the hard scientific data, it becomes obvious that human physical size as well as the environmental conditions – as reflected in the availability of food and presence of diseases – fluctuates in a sinusoidal manner over the 25,800-year Yuga Cycle or precession cycle of the earth. 

All the ancient cultures knew about this, and it is only because we are languishing in the Kali Yuga – the age of darkness and ignorance – that we have lost sight of this basic truth, and there is, in fact, a deliberate effort to keep this information hidden from the public at large, and propagate the lie that we are standing at the pinnacle of human evolution and human civilization. As we head towards a tumultuous period of transition following the end of the Kali Yuga in 2025, it is time to recover the ancient wisdom and remember our true origins and purpose.

References

[1] Pliny, Natural History 7.73 -74.
[2] Mahabharata 3.189, https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03189.htm
[3] Vishnu Purana 4.1, http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp093.htm
[4] Angel, 1984, taken from Michael Hermanussen, “Stature of early Europeans”, Hormones, 2003, Vol.2, No.3, pp. 175-178, http://www.hormones.gr/pdf/Stature_europeans.pdf
[5] “Average human height by country”, Wikipedia.
[6] Michael Hermanussen, “Stature of early Europeans”, op. cit.
[7] Michael Hermanussen, “Stature of early Europeans”, op. cit.
[8] Sara Malm, Ellie Zolfagharifard, “How modern humans have become WEAKLINGS compared with our ancient ancestors who could outrun and outlift today's top athletes”, Daily Mail, 28 April 2014.