This box: view. talk. editThe Vishnu Purana is a religious text and one of eighteen. It is considered oneof the most important Puranas and has been given the namePuranaratna (gem of Puranas). Presented as a dialogue between and his discipleand divided intosix parts, the major topics discussed include creation myths,stories of battles fought between and, the (divine descents)of and genealogy andstories of legendary kings.It is said to contain some 23,000, though the actual number of versescontained is less than seven thousand. All the copies, procuredboth in the east and in the west of India, agree; and there is noappearance of any part being wanting. There is a beginning, amiddle, and an end, in both text and comment; and the work as itstands is incontestably entire.
This is a discrepancy not easy toaccount for. Contents.ContentsThe book starts with detailed stories of creation and introducesthe concept of four.
The full text of the The Vishnu Purana in English is available here and publically accesible (free to read online). Of course, I would always recommend buying the book so you get the latest edition. You can see all this book’s content by visiting the pages in the below index: +. Puranas have defined 7 various lokas and in Bhagavata Purana and Padma Purana, they are called Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talatala, Mahatala, Rasatala and Patala Loka. Vishnu Purana narrates a story in which Vishnu’s 5th avatar (incarnation), Vamana.
The tale of Rudra, an elaboratestory of the, or the churning of theocean, the Story of, anardent devotee of Vishnu, and stories of ancient kings and are also discussed in the first section.Tales of Prithu's descendants, the Prachetas, the famous story ofand, sometopological details of the known world with mentions of lands,tribes, mountains and rivers, concepts of the universe, and thestories of the many births of are the major topics discussedin the next book. The third section discusses the stories of (cycles ofcreation and destruction), the sages and, (the sun god), (the god of the dead), devotees Shatadhanuand Shaivya, the four classes and the four stages of lifeand details of many rituals. The fourth section gives a detailedaccount of all the famous Kings from the solar and lunar dynastiesof ancient India, and also lists the names of kings who 'wouldappear' in the age of. Thesecond list contains the name of historical kings of Magadha,including kings from the, and dynasties. The next section deals indetails the different events in the life of Lord, starting from his birth, through hischildhood and up to his death and the prominent destruction of theclan. The sixth and last section mainly discusses the impending ageof Kali, the concepts of universal destruction that wouldeventually follow and explains the importance of the in general.“The kings of Kali Yug will be addicted to corruption and willseize the property of their subjects. Then property and wealthalone will confer rank; falsehood will be the only means ofsuccess.
Corruption will be the universal means of subsistence. Inthe end, unable to support their avaricious kings, the people ofthe Kali Yug will take refuge in the chasms between mountains”The, aseparate text dedicated to the arts, is a Supplement or Appendix tothe Vishnu Purana.considers it one of the oldest of the, and dates it to thefirst century BCE, thoughGavin Flood dates it later to the fourth century CE.
Although the Puranas share some of the traits of the great epics, they belong to a later period and provide a 'more definite and connected representation of the mythological fictions and the historical traditions.' Horace Hayman Wilson, who translated some Puranas into English in 1840, says that they also 'offer characteristic peculiarities of a more modern description, in the paramount importance which they assign to individual divinities, in the variety of the rites and observances addressed to them, and in the invention of new legends illustrative of the power and graciousness of those deities.' According to Swami Sivananda, the Puranas can be identified by 'Pancha Lakshana' or five characteristics they possess - history; cosmology, often with various symbolical illustrations of philosophical principles; secondary creation; genealogy of kings; and of 'Manvantaras' or the period of Manu's rule consisting of 71 celestial Yugas or 306.72 million years. All the Puranas belong to the class of 'Suhrit-Samhitas,' or friendly treatises, markedly differing in authority from the Vedas, which are called the 'Prabhu-Samhitas' or the commanding treatises. The Puranas have the essence of the and written to popularize the thoughts contained in the Vedas.
They were meant, not for the scholars, but for the ordinary people who could hardly fathom the high philosophy of the Vedas. The aim of the Puranas is to impress upon the minds of the masses the teachings of the Vedas and to generate in them devotion to God, through concrete examples, myths, stories, legends, lives of saints, kings and great men, allegories, and chronicles of great historical events. Ancient sages used these images to illustrate the eternal principles of the belief system that came to be known as Hinduism. The Puranas helped the priests to hold religious discourses in temples and on banks of holy rivers, and people loved to hear these stories. These texts are not only replete with information of all kinds but also very interesting to read.
In this sense, the Puranas play a pivotal role in Hindu theology and cosmogony. The Puranas are mainly written in the form of a dialogue in which one narrator relates a story in reply to the inquiries of another. The primary narrator of the Puranas is Romaharshana, a disciple of Vyasa, whose primary task is to communicate what he learned from his preceptor, as he had heard it from other sages. Vyasa here is not to be confused with the renowned sage Veda Vyasa, but a generic title of a compiler, which in most Puranas is Krishna Dwaipayana, the son of great sage Parasara and the teacher of the Vedas.
In the Shiva Purana, quite predictably, Shiva is eulogized over Vishnu, who is sometimes shown in poor light. In the Vishnu Purana, the obvious happens - Vishnu is highly glorified over Shiva, who is often disparaged. Despite the apparent disparity depicted in these Puranas, Shiva and Vishnu are thought to be one, and part of the Trinity of Hindu theogony. As Wilson points out: 'Shiva and Vishnu, under one or other form, are almost the sole objects that claim the homage of the Hindus in the Puranas; departing from the domestic and elemental ritual of the Vedas, and exhibiting a sectarial fervor and exclusiveness They are no longer authorities for Hindu belief as a whole: they are special guides for separate and sometimes conflicting branches of it, compiled for the evident purpose of promoting the preferential, or in some cases the sole, worship of Vishnu or of Shiva.'