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The Vayu Purana (Hindi: वायु पुराण) is a Shaiva Purana, a Hindu religious text, dedicated to the god Vayu (the wind god), containing about 24,000 shlokas.
Contents |
Date
Banabhatta refers to this work in his Kadambari and Harshacharita. In the Harshacharita he says that this text was read out to him in his native village[1]
Alberuni (973 -1048), the noted Persian scholar, describes eighteen Puranas in his works and Vayu Purana is said to have ranked as a sacred scripture, even prior to 600 AD [2].
Contents
The extant text is divided into four padas (parts): Prakriya-pada (chapters 1-6), Anushanga-pada (chapters 7-64), Upodghata-pada (chapter 65-99) and Upasamhara-pada (chapters 100-112). The Gayamahatmya (chapters 105-112), praising the Gaya tirtha in Magadha is not found in all the manuscripts of this work and also found sepaarately as an independent work.[1]
The Vayu Purana deals with the following topics: creation and re-creation of the universe; measurement of the Kala (time); Origin of Agni, Varuna and a number of gods; origin and descendants of Atri, Bhrigu, Angiras and some other sages, daityas, rakshasas, gandharvas and pitrs; origin of animals, birds, trees and creepers; genealogies of the ancient kings descended from Vaivasvata Manu and Ila and the kings of Kaliyuga ending with the Gupta dynasty; detailed geography of the earth divided into seven dvipas and further sub-divided into the varshas; accounts of inhabitants of different dvipas; names and descritption of the seven Patalas (netherworlds); description of the solar system and the movements of the celestial bodies; description of the four yugas and fourteen manvantaras. It also contains chapters on music, various shakhas of the Vedas, Pashupata-yoga, duties of the people belong to different castes and funeral rites.[1]
References
- ^ a b c Hazra, R.C. (1962). The Puranas in S. Radhakrishnan ed. The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol.II, Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, ISBN 81-85843-03-1, pp.253-5
- ^ Indian Empire The Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 2, p. 272.
Further reading
- Mani, Vettam. Puranic Encyclopedia. 1st English ed. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975.
External links
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