The Vishnu Purana - Preface - 2. The Padma Purán?a

[Anne Terri]

2. The Padma Purán?a

p. xviii

2. Padma Purán?a. "That which contains an account of the period when the world was a golden lotus (padma), and of all the occurrences of that time, is therefore called the Pádma by the wise: it contains fifty-five thousand stanzas 37." The second Purán?a in the usual lists is always the Pádma, a very voluminous work, containing, according to its own statement, as well as that of other authorities, fifty-five thousand slokas; an amount not far from the truth. These are divided amongst five books, or Khan?d?as; 1. the Srisht?i Khan?d?a, or section on creation; 2. the Bhúmi Khan?d?a, description of the earth; 3. the Swarga Khan?d?a, chapter on heaven; 4. Pátála Khan?d?a, chapter on the regions below the earth; and 5. the Uttara Khan?d?a, last or supplementary chapter. There is also current a sixth division, the Kriyá Yoga Sára, a treatise on the practice of devotion.

The denominations of these divisions of the Padma P. convey but an imperfect and partial notion of their contents. In the first, or section which treats of creation, the narrator is Ugra?ravas the Súta, the son of Lomaharshan?a, who is sent by his father to the Rishis at Naimishárán?ya to communicate to them the Purán?a, which, from its containing an account of the lotus (padma), in which Brahmá appeared at creation, is termed the Pádma or Padma Purán?a. The Súta repeats what was originally communicated by Brahmá to Pulastya, and by him to Bhíshma. The early chapters narrate the cosmogony, and the genealogy of the patriarchal families, much in the same style, and often in the same words, as the Vishn?u; and short accounts of the Manwantaras and regal dynasties: but these, which are legitimate Paurán?ik matters, soon make way for new and unauthentic inventions, illustrative of the virtues of the lake of Pushkara, or Pokher in Ajmir, as a place of pilgrimage.

The Bhúmi Khan?d?a, or section of the earth, defers any description of the earth until near its close, filling up one hundred and twenty-seven chapters with legends of a very mixed description, some ancient and common to other Purán?as, but the greater part peculiar to itself, illustrative of Tírthas either figuratively so termed--as a wife, a parent, or a

p. xix

[paragraph continues] Guru, considered as a sacred object--or places to which actual pilgrimage should be performed.

The Swarga Khan?d?a describes in the first chapters the relative positions of the Lokas or spheres above the earth, placing above all Vaikun?tha, the sphere of Vishn?u; an addition which is not warranted by what appears to be the oldest cosmology 38. Miscellaneous notices of some of the most celebrated princes then succeed, conformably to the usual narratives; and these are followed by rules of conduct for the several castes, and at different stages of life. The rest of the book is occupied by legends of a diversified description, introduced without much method or contrivance; a few of which, as Daksha's sacrifice, are of ancient date, but of which the most are original and modern.

The Pátála Khan?d?a devotes a brief introduction to the description of Pátála, the regions of the snake-gods; but the name of Ráma having been mentioned, ?esha, who has succeeded Pulastya as spokesman, proceeds to narrate the history of Ráma, his descent and his posterity; in which the compiler seems to have taken the poem of Kálida?a, the Raghu Van?a, for his chief authority. An originality of addition may be suspected, however, in the adventures of the horse destined by Ráma for an A?wamedha, which form the subject of a great many chapters. When about to be sacrificed, the horse turns out to be a Brahman, condemned by an imprecation of Durvásas, a sage, to assume the equine nature, and who, by having been sanctified by connexion with Ráma, is released from his metamorphosis, and dispatched as a spirit of light to heaven. This piece of Vaishn?ava fiction is followed by praises of the ?rí Bhágavata, an account of Krishn?a's juvenilities, and the merits of worshipping Vishn?u. These accounts are communicated through a machinery borrowed from the Tantras: they are told by Sadá?iva to Párvati, the ordinary interlocutors of Tántrika compositions.

The Uttara Khan?d?a is a most voluminous aggregation of very heterogeneous matters, but it is consistent in adopting a decidedly Vaishn?ava tone, and admitting no compromise with any other form of faith. The chief subjects are first discussed in a dialogue between king Dilípa and

p. xx

the Muni Va?isht?ha; such as the merits of bathing in the month of Mágha, and the potency of the Mantra or prayer addressed to Lakshmí Náráyan?a. But the nature of Bhakti, faith in Vishn?u--the use of Vaishn?ava marks on the body--the legends of Vishn?u's Avatáras, and especially of Ráma--and the construction of images of Vishn?u--are too important to be left to mortal discretion: they are explained by ?iva to Párvati, and wound up by the adoration of Vishn?u by those divinities. The dialogue then reverts to the king and the sage; and the latter states why Vishn?u is the only one of the triad entitled to respect; ?iva being licentious, Brahmá arrogant, and Vishn?u alone pure. Va?isht?ha then repeats, after ?iva, the Máhátmya of the Bhagavad Gítá; the merit of each book of which is illustrated by legends of the good consequences to individuals from perusing or hearing it. Other Vaishn?ava Máhátmyas occupy considerable portions of this Khan?d?a, especially the Kártíka Máhátmya, or holiness of the month Kartika, illustrated as usual by stories, a few of which are of an early origin, but the greater part modern, and peculiar to this Purán?a 39.

The Kriyá Yoga Sára is repeated by Súta to the Rishis, after Vyása's communication of it to Jaimini, in answer to an inquiry how religious merit might be secured in the Kálí age, in which men have become incapable of the penances and abstraction by which final liberation was formerly to be attained. The answer is, of course, that which is intimated in the last hook of the Vishn?u Purán?a--personal devotion to Vishn?u: thinking of him, repeating his names, wearing his marks, worshipping in his temples, are a full substitute for all other acts of moral or devotional or contemplative merit.

The different portions of the Padma Purán?a are in all probability as many different works, neither of which approaches to the original definition of a Purán?a. There may be some connexion between the three first portions, at least as to time; but there is no reason to consider them as of high antiquity. They specify the Jains both by name and practices.; they talk of Mlechchhas, 'barbarians,' flourishing in India; they commend

p. xxi

the use of the frontal and other Vaishn?ava marks; and they notice other subjects which, like these, are of no remote origin. The Pátála Khan?d?a dwells copiously upon the Bhágavata, and is consequently posterior to it. The Uttara Khan?d?a is intolerantly Vaishn?ava, and is therefore unquestionably modern. It enjoins the veneration of the Sálágram stone and Tulasí plant, the use of the Tapta-mudra, or stamping with a hot iron the name of Vishn?u on the skin, and a variety of practices and observances undoubtedly no part of the original system. It speaks of the shrines of ?rí-rangam and Venkatádri in the Dekhin, temples that have no pretension to remote antiquity; and it names Haripur on the Tungabhadra, which is in all likelihood the city of Vijayanagar, founded in the middle of the fourteenth century. The Kriyá Yoga Sára is equally a modern, and apparently a Bengali composition. No portion of the Padma Purán?a is probably older than the twelfth century, and the last parts may be as recent as the fifteenth or sixteenth 40.

Footnotes

xviii:37
Click to view

xix:38 See .

xx:39 One of them, the story of Jalandhara is translated by Col. Vans Kennedy: Affinities of Ancient and Hindu Mythology, Appendix D.

xxi:40 The grounds of these conclusions are more particularly detailed in my Analysis of the Padma P.: J. R. As. Soc. vol. V. p. 280.

---

Next-3.The Vishnu Parana

  'The Vishnu Purana', translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, is public domain in the US because it was published prior to 1923.