In India, until the arrival of Islam, everyone believed that time is circular, that we live infinite lives and we live the same life infinite times. With Islam came the notion of Qayamat, the final Day of Judgment when history ends. This was very different from the notion of pralaya, cosmic dissolution, which is essentially death of the universe before rebirth.

When the Europeans came to India, they were divided between religion and science. At one level, they believed in the beginning (Original Sin) and the end of history (Apocalypse) like the Muslims. At another level, they believed in scientific evidence.