Was Time Travel Real in Ancient India? What Hindu Texts Reveal
Ayush Singh | Jul 09, 2025, 07:00 IST
( Image credit : Freepik )
Highlight of the story: What if ancient myths held clues to time travel? Hindu mythology is full of fascinating tales where time flows differently —kings return from divine realms to find centuries have passed, sages live across ages, and gods appear in different yugas. These stories hint at concepts like time dilation, parallel timelines, and spiritual dimensions. Were they metaphors, mystical insights, or glimpses of forgotten science? This article unpacks the most intriguing episodes from Hindu texts that suggest our ancestors may have understood time in ways modern science is only beginning to explore.
Time travel—usually the stuff of science fiction movies and quantum theories—isn’t something you'd expect to find in ancient religious texts. But when you dive deep into Hindu mythology, a curious pattern emerges. Stories that mirror modern ideas of bending time, parallel realities, and cosmic speed are scattered across epics like the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and the Puranas.
Are these just metaphors, or did the ancient seers know something that modern science is only beginning to explore? Let’s take a human, non-technical look at how Hindu mythology may have toyed with time long before H.G. Wells made his “Time Machine.”
One of the clearest examples of time travel in Hindu texts is the story of King Kakudmi and his daughter Revati. Found in the Bhagavata Purana, this story tells how the king went to meet Lord Brahma to find a suitable husband for his daughter. The journey, however, was no ordinary pilgrimage.
By the time Brahma finished listening to a musical performance and turned to address the king, many ages (yugas) had passed on Earth. When Kakudmi and Revati returned, their kingdom had vanished, civilizations had changed, and human beings had evolved differently.
This isn't just about long lifespans or the concept of heavenly time. It fits eerily well with Einstein’s theory of time dilation, where time slows down in higher dimensions or faster speeds. Could the seers have known this intuitively?
Unlike the West, where time is often seen as a straight line—from birth to death, past to future—Hindu philosophy views time as cyclical. The universe is said to go through vast cycles of creation, preservation, and destruction, known as the Kalachakra or "Wheel of Time."
Each day of Brahma, the creator god, spans 4.32 billion Earth years—just one of his days. At the end of every day, the universe dissolves, only to be recreated at dawn.
Now think about this: in our everyday life, a few decades feel long. But in the timeline of Brahma, entire civilizations could rise and fall like seconds passing on a clock. This idea of multiple timelines and relative time feels strangely similar to the multiverse theories that physicists are now debating.
The Mahabharata, one of the greatest epics in the world, also gives glimpses of altered time perception.
In one lesser-known episode, Arjuna is taken to the heavens by Indra, his divine father, to receive celestial weapons. He spends what seems like a few days there, but when he returns, many years have passed on Earth.
Again, this brings up the possibility of time working differently across dimensions, which physicists believe may be possible near black holes or in wormholes—hypothetical passages in space-time.
Coincidence? Maybe. But for something written over 5,000 years ago, it’s oddly specific.
There’s another tale involving the seven great sages (Saptarishis), who are said to live across yugas, appearing in different ages, guiding humanity. Their presence is eternal, and they’re often found in various roles throughout mythological ages, almost like time-traveling guardians.
One might argue these are symbolic. But in several texts, sages like Vyasa, Vashistha, or Agastya appear again and again, with no sign of aging, often interacting with different avatars of Vishnu across time. If not literal time travel, it hints at a non-linear, interconnected reality that defies modern physics.
Let’s talk about Lord Vishnu’s ten avatars (Dashavatara). From Matsya (the fish) to Kalki (the future warrior), these avatars are believed to appear at different stages of cosmic decline to restore dharma.
But what’s fascinating is that these avatars, when viewed in order, appear to mirror the evolutionary process—from aquatic life (Matsya) to amphibians (Kurma), mammals (Varaha), human-animal hybrids (Narasimha), and eventually civilized man (Krishna, Rama).
This suggests a timeline that’s not human-centric, but universal. It makes you wonder—were these avatars jumping across cosmic stages, like time travelers correcting history?
Naimisharanya is a forest mentioned in several texts as a spiritual hub. According to legend, time behaves differently there. Sages who entered its space could meditate for centuries, and yet only moments passed outside.
Even today, Naimisharanya is visited by thousands, not just for its religious significance, but because it’s believed to be a 'center of cosmic energy'. Could this be an ancient Indian version of a time bubble?
Modern physics suggests time is affected by gravity and energy. So perhaps, in an intuitive way, the ancients had mapped these “energy spots” long before satellites or theories did.
Is It Time Travel or Spiritual Insight?
Skeptics might argue that all these stories are metaphorical—ways to explain spiritual truths rather than scientific ones. And that’s fair. In Hinduism, time is not just a physical reality, but a state of consciousness.
The more evolved a soul becomes, the more it transcends the boundaries of linear time. So when sages live for thousands of years, or when gods appear across different eras, it may not mean time travel in the sci-fi sense, but spiritual transcendence. Still, the overlap between myth and science is hard to ignore.
The very word “Kal” (time) in Sanskrit has deep spiritual and mathematical meaning. It governs not just rituals, but architecture, calendars, music (tala), and even yoga poses.
Could a civilization that measured time so precisely have also imagined what it meant to bend or travel through it?
Interestingly, some Indian scientists and physicists have acknowledged the intuitive grasp of time in ancient texts. The late Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam once remarked that Indian scriptures often described phenomena in ways that modern science is only now validating.
Physicist Michio Kaku and others have suggested that mythologies might hold coded wisdom—symbolic expressions of real phenomena observed in altered states of consciousness.
In other words, just because it’s dressed in poetry doesn’t mean it’s not pointing at truth.
So, did time travel exist in Hindu mythology? Maybe not with DeLoreans and quantum machines, but certainly in spirit. The tales speak of time as fluid, of journeys where days become centuries, of sages and gods who transcend time altogether.
Whether we interpret this as literal or symbolic, one thing is clear: our ancestors had a far more flexible and mysterious view of time than we give them credit for.
Perhaps the real message isn’t whether they could time travel—but whether we’re ready to understand what time truly is
Are these just metaphors, or did the ancient seers know something that modern science is only beginning to explore? Let’s take a human, non-technical look at how Hindu mythology may have toyed with time long before H.G. Wells made his “Time Machine.”
The Tale of King Kakudmi: A Divine Time Lag
By the time Brahma finished listening to a musical performance and turned to address the king, many ages (yugas) had passed on Earth. When Kakudmi and Revati returned, their kingdom had vanished, civilizations had changed, and human beings had evolved differently.
This isn't just about long lifespans or the concept of heavenly time. It fits eerily well with Einstein’s theory of time dilation, where time slows down in higher dimensions or faster speeds. Could the seers have known this intuitively?
Time Is Not Linear: Hinduism’s Unique Concept
Kalachakra
( Image credit : Freepik )
Unlike the West, where time is often seen as a straight line—from birth to death, past to future—Hindu philosophy views time as cyclical. The universe is said to go through vast cycles of creation, preservation, and destruction, known as the Kalachakra or "Wheel of Time."
Each day of Brahma, the creator god, spans 4.32 billion Earth years—just one of his days. At the end of every day, the universe dissolves, only to be recreated at dawn.
Now think about this: in our everyday life, a few decades feel long. But in the timeline of Brahma, entire civilizations could rise and fall like seconds passing on a clock. This idea of multiple timelines and relative time feels strangely similar to the multiverse theories that physicists are now debating.
The Mahabharata and the Quantum Puzzle
In one lesser-known episode, Arjuna is taken to the heavens by Indra, his divine father, to receive celestial weapons. He spends what seems like a few days there, but when he returns, many years have passed on Earth.
Again, this brings up the possibility of time working differently across dimensions, which physicists believe may be possible near black holes or in wormholes—hypothetical passages in space-time.
Coincidence? Maybe. But for something written over 5,000 years ago, it’s oddly specific.
A Mind-Bending Story: The Seven Sleepers of Saptarishi
Time dilation
( Image credit : Freepik )
There’s another tale involving the seven great sages (Saptarishis), who are said to live across yugas, appearing in different ages, guiding humanity. Their presence is eternal, and they’re often found in various roles throughout mythological ages, almost like time-traveling guardians.
One might argue these are symbolic. But in several texts, sages like Vyasa, Vashistha, or Agastya appear again and again, with no sign of aging, often interacting with different avatars of Vishnu across time. If not literal time travel, it hints at a non-linear, interconnected reality that defies modern physics.
Vishnu’s Avatars: Leaping Through Time?
But what’s fascinating is that these avatars, when viewed in order, appear to mirror the evolutionary process—from aquatic life (Matsya) to amphibians (Kurma), mammals (Varaha), human-animal hybrids (Narasimha), and eventually civilized man (Krishna, Rama).
This suggests a timeline that’s not human-centric, but universal. It makes you wonder—were these avatars jumping across cosmic stages, like time travelers correcting history?
The Naimisharanya Mystery: Where Time Stood Still
Vedic concept of time
( Image credit : Freepik )
Naimisharanya is a forest mentioned in several texts as a spiritual hub. According to legend, time behaves differently there. Sages who entered its space could meditate for centuries, and yet only moments passed outside.
Even today, Naimisharanya is visited by thousands, not just for its religious significance, but because it’s believed to be a 'center of cosmic energy'. Could this be an ancient Indian version of a time bubble?
Modern physics suggests time is affected by gravity and energy. So perhaps, in an intuitive way, the ancients had mapped these “energy spots” long before satellites or theories did.
Is It Time Travel or Spiritual Insight?
The more evolved a soul becomes, the more it transcends the boundaries of linear time. So when sages live for thousands of years, or when gods appear across different eras, it may not mean time travel in the sci-fi sense, but spiritual transcendence. Still, the overlap between myth and science is hard to ignore.
Ancient Temples and Astronomical Precision
Ancient temples
( Image credit : Freepik )
The very word “Kal” (time) in Sanskrit has deep spiritual and mathematical meaning. It governs not just rituals, but architecture, calendars, music (tala), and even yoga poses.
Could a civilization that measured time so precisely have also imagined what it meant to bend or travel through it?
What Modern Scientists Say
Physicist Michio Kaku and others have suggested that mythologies might hold coded wisdom—symbolic expressions of real phenomena observed in altered states of consciousness.
In other words, just because it’s dressed in poetry doesn’t mean it’s not pointing at truth.
A Myth or a Message?
Whether we interpret this as literal or symbolic, one thing is clear: our ancestors had a far more flexible and mysterious view of time than we give them credit for.
Perhaps the real message isn’t whether they could time travel—but whether we’re ready to understand what time truly is