major kalpa ［大劫］ ( dai-kō): The period required for a world to undergo the entire four-stage cycle of formation, continuance, decline, and disintegration. These four stages themselves constitute periods called the kalpa of formation, the kalpa of continuance, the kalpa of decline, and the kalpa of disintegration. According to ancient Indian cosmology, a world perpetually repeats this four-stage cycle, and the four kalpas from formation through disintegration together constitute a major kalpa. Each of these four kalpas lasts for twenty small kalpas, and so a major kalpa consists of eighty small kalpas. One small kalpa equals 15,998,000 years, which makes a major kalpa approximately 1,280 million years. See also four kalpas; kalpa.