The Puranas (Sanskrit Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism and Buddhism[note 1]. Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand: पुराण purāṇa, "of ancient times") are a genre of important Hindu A Hindu ( pronunciation , Devanagari: हिन्दु) is an adherent of Hinduism, a set of religious, philosophical and cultural systems that originated in the Indian subcontinent. The vast body of Hindu scriptures, divided into Śruti ("revealed") and Smriti ("remembered"), lay the foundation of Hindu beliefs, which, Jain Jainism is an ancient religion of India that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. Its philosophy and practice emphasize the necessity of self-effort to move the soul towards divine consciousness and liberation. Any soul that has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state of supreme being is called Jina ( or Buddhist Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by adherents as an religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography.[1]
Puranas usually give prominence to a particular deity, employing an abundance of religious and philosophical concepts. They are usually written in the form of stories related by one person to another. The Puranas are available in vernacular translations and are disseminated by Brahmin scholars, who read from them and tell their stories, usually in Katha sessions (in which a traveling brahmin settles for a few weeks in a temple and narrates parts of a Purana, usually with a Bhakti Bhakti in practice signifies an active involvement by the devotee in divine worship. The term is often translated as "devotion", though increasingly "participation" is being used as a more accurate rendering, since it conveys a fully engaged relationship with God. One who practices bhakti is called a bhakta, while bhakti as a perspective).
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Origins
An illustration of Varaha Varaha is the third Avatar of the Hindu Godhead Vishnu, in the form of a Boar. He appeared in order to defeat Hiranyaksha, a demon who had taken the Earth (Prithvi) and carried it to the bottom of what is described as the cosmic ocean in the story. The battle between Varaha and Hiranyaksha is believed to have lasted for a thousand years, which the avatar based on the Bhagavata Purana The Bhāgavata Purāṇa (also known as Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, or Bhāgavata) is one of the "Maha" Puranic texts of Hindu literature, with its primary focus on bhakti (devotion) to the incarnations of Vishnu, particularly Krishna. The Sanskrit text comprises twelve skandas (cantos or books) and some 18,000 verses. The Bhāgavata includesVyasa Vyasa is a central and revered figure in the majority of Hindu traditions. He is also known as Badarayana. He is also sometimes called Veda Vyasa (वेद व्यास, veda vyāsa), (the one who compiled the Vedas) or Krishna Dvaipayana (referring to his complexion and birthplace). He is considered to be the scribe of both the Vedas, and the, the narrator of the Mahabharata The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Rāmāyaṇa. The epic is part of the Hindu itihāsa (or "history"), is traditionally considered the compiler of the Puranas.[2] However, the earliest written versions date from the time of the Gupta Empire The Gupta Empire was an Ancient Indian empire which existed approximately from 320 to 550 CE and covered much of the Indian Subcontinent . Founded by Maharaja Sri-Gupta, the dynasty was the model of a classical civilization. The peace and prosperity created under leadership of Guptas enabled the pursuit of scientific and artistic endeavors. This (third-fifth century CE) and much material may be dated, through historical references and other means, to this period and the succeeding centuries. The texts were probably written all over India.
The date of the production of the written texts does not define the date of origin of the Puranas.[3] On one hand, they existed in some oral form before being written[3] while at the same time, they have been incrementally modified well into the 16th century[3][4] and perhaps down to the present day.
An early reference is found in the Chandogya Upanishad The Chandogya Upanishad is one of the "primary" Upanishads. Together with the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad it ranks among the oldest Upanishads, dating to the Vedic Brahmana period (probably before first millennium BCE) (7.1.2). (circa 500BCE.) The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad refers to purana as the "fifth Veda"[5], itihāsapurāṇaṃ pañcamaṃ vedānāṃ, reflecting the early religious importance of these myths, presumably then in purely oral form. The term also appears in the Atharvaveda The Atharvaveda (Sanskrit: अथर्ववेदः, atharvaveda, a tatpurusha compound of atharvan, an ancient Rishi, and veda is a sacred text of Hinduism, and one of the four Vedas, often called the "fourth Veda". According to tradition, the Atharvaveda was mainly composed by two groups of rishis known as the Atharvanas and the 11.7.24.[6][7]
According to Pargiter,[6] the "original Purana" may date to the time of the final redaction of the Vedas. Gavin Flood connects the rise of the written Purana historically with the rise of devotional cults centring upon a particular deity in the Gupta era: the Puranic corpus is a complex body of materials that advance the views of various competing cults.[8]
Although these texts are related to each other, and material in one is found in another, they nevertheless each present a view of ordering of the world from a particular perspective. They must not be seen as random collections of old tales, but as highly selective and crafted expositions and presentations of worldviews and soteriologies Soteriology is the study of religious doctrines of salvation, which are a feature of various religions. Salvation theory occupies a place of special significance and importance in some religions, compiled by particular groups of Brahmins to propagate a particular vision, whether it be focused on Viṣṇu, Śiva, or Devī, or, indeed, any number of deities.
Common ideas are found throughout the corpus but it is not possible to trace the lines of influence of one Purana upon another so the corpus is best viewed as a synchronous whole.[8]
The All India Kashiraj Trust, formed under Vibhuti Narayan Singh, the Maharaja of Kashi, dedicated itself to publishing editions of the Puranas.[9]
Content
According to Matysa Purana,[10] they are said to narrate five subjects, called Pancha Lakshana pañcalakṣaṇa ("five distinguishing marks", though some scholars have suggested that these are shared by other traditional religious scriptures):[11][12]
- Sarga: the creation of the universe.
- Pratisarga: secondary creations, mostly recreations after dissolution.
- Vamśa: genealogy of the gods and sages.
- Manvañtara: the creation of the human race and the first human beings. The epoch of the Manus In Hindu traditions, Manu is a title accorded to the progenitor of mankind, and also the very first king to rule this earth, who saved mankind from the universal flood. He was absolutely honest which was why he was initially known as "Satyavrata",' rule, 71 celestial Yugas or 308,448,000 years.
- Vamśānucaritam: the histories of the patriarchs of the lunar and solar dynasties.
The Puranas also lay emphasis on keeping a record of genealogies, as the Vayu Purana says, "to preserve the genealogies of gods, sages and glorious kings and the traditions of great men."[13] The Puranic genealogies indicate, for example, that Sraddhadeva Manu lived 95 generations before the Bharata war.[14] In Arrian Lucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon' , known in English as Arrian (Ἀρριανός), and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Roman (ethnic Greek) historian, public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the 2nd-century Roman period. As with other authors of the Second Sophistic, Arrian wrote primarily in Attic (Indica is in Herodotus' Ionic's Indica Indica is the name of an ancient book about India written by Arrian, one of the main ancient historians of Alexander the Great. The book mainly tells the story of Alexander's officer Nearchus’ voyage from India to the Persian Gulf after Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Indus Valley. However, much of the importance of the work comes from, Megasthenes Megasthenes was a Greek ethnographer in the Hellenistic period, author of the work Indica. He was born in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) and became an ambassador of Seleucus I of Syria to the court of Sandrocottus, who possibly is Chandragupta Maurya in Pataliputra, India. However the exact date of his embassy is uncertain. Scholars place it is quoted as stating that the Indians counted from "Dionysos Dionysus or Dionysos is the ancient Greek god of wine, wine cups, wineskin, grapes, theater, and fertility. The god who inspires ritual madness, joyful worship, and ecstasy, carnivals, celebration and a major figure of Greek mythology. He is included as one of the twelve Olympians in some lists. Dionysus is typical of the god of the epiphany, &" (Shiva Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and the Destroyer or transformer of the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. In the Shaiva tradition of Hinduism, Shiva is seen as the Supreme God. In the Smarta tradition, he is regarded as one of the five primary forms of God) to "Sandracottus" (Chandragupta Maurya) "a hundred and fifty-three kings over six thousand and forty-three years."[15] The list of kings in Kalhana Kalhana (c. 12th century), a Kashmiri Brahmin, was the author of Rajatarangini, an account of the history of Kashmir. He wrote Rajatarangini in Sanskrit during 1147-1149 CE's Rajatarangini The Rājatarangiṇī is a metrical chronicle of the kings of Kashmir from earliest time written in Sanskrit by Kalhaṇa. It is believed that the book was written sometime during 1147-1149 CE. The work generally records the heritage of Kashmir, but 120 verses of Rājatarangiṇī describe the misrule prevailing in Kashmir during the reign of King goes back to the 19th century BCE.[16]
Pargiter has argued that the Puranic Krta Yuga—in the Vayu Purana the four Yugas are divided into 4800, 3600, 2400, and 1200 years—"ended with the destruction of the Haihayas [by Rama Jamadagnya]; the Treta began approximately with Sagara and ended with Rama Dasarathi's destruction of the Raksasas; and the Dvapara began with his reinstatement at Ayodhya and ended with the Bharata battle".[17][18]
Texts
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Fortnightly Tenerife News, Spain
"The Ganga is extolled in india; it has a relevant mention in holy books such as the Vedas, the Puranas and in the famous Indian epics - the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. "The river Ganga has also been a symbol of india's age long culture and ...
Modasattva
Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:31:00 GM
When European Indologists were groping to date Indian history during the nineteenth century (after having arbitrarily rejected the various . Puranas. ), the Megasthenes account came in very useful. How Chandragupta Maurya was Equated with ...
