Preface. 2. The Padma Pur'ana
*
"The Vishnu Purana", translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840],
2. The Padma Purna
p. xviii
2. Padma Purna. "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 Pdma by the wise: it contains fifty-five thousand stanzas 37." The second Purna in the usual lists is always the Pdma, 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 Khandas; 1. the Srishti Khanda, or section on creation; 2. the Bhmi Khanda, description of the earth; 3. the Swarga Khanda, chapter on heaven; 4. Ptla Khanda, chapter on the regions below the earth; and 5. the Uttara Khanda, last or supplementary chapter. There is also current a sixth division, the Kriy Yoga Sra, 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 Ugraravas the Sta, the son of Lomaharshana, who is sent by his father to the Rishis at Naimishrnya to communicate to them the Purna, which, from its containing an account of the lotus (padma), in which Brahm appeared at creation, is termed the Pdma or Padma Purna. The Sta repeats what was originally communicated by Brahm to Pulastya, and by him to Bhshma. 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 Vishnu; and short accounts of the Manwantaras and regal dynasties: but these, which are legitimate Paurnik 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 Bhmi Khanda, 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 Purnas, but the greater part peculiar to itself, illustrative of Trthas 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 Khanda describes in the first chapters the relative positions of the Lokas or spheres above the earth, placing above all Vaikuntha, the sphere of Vishnu; 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 Ptla Khanda devotes a brief introduction to the description of Ptla, the regions of the snake-gods; but the name of Rma having been mentioned, esha, who has succeeded Pulastya as spokesman, proceeds to narrate the history of Rma, his descent and his posterity; in which the compiler seems to have taken the poem of Klidaa, the Raghu Vana, for his chief authority. An originality of addition may be suspected, however, in the adventures of the horse destined by Rma for an Awamedha, 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 Durvsas, a sage, to assume the equine nature, and who, by having been sanctified by connexion with Rma, is released from his metamorphosis, and dispatched as a spirit of light to heaven. This piece of Vaishnava fiction is followed by praises of the r Bhgavata, an account of Krishna's juvenilities, and the merits of worshipping Vishnu. These accounts are communicated through a machinery borrowed from the Tantras: they are told by Sadiva to Prvati, the ordinary interlocutors of Tntrika compositions.
The Uttara Khanda is a most voluminous aggregation of very heterogeneous matters, but it is consistent in adopting a decidedly Vaishnava tone, and admitting no compromise with any other form of faith. The chief subjects are first discussed in a dialogue between king Dilpa and
p. xx
the Muni Vaishtha; such as the merits of bathing in the month of Mgha, and the potency of the Mantra or prayer addressed to Lakshm Nryana. But the nature of Bhakti, faith in Vishnu--the use of Vaishnava marks on the body--the legends of Vishnu's Avatras, and especially of Rma--and the construction of images of Vishnu--are too important to be left to mortal discretion: they are explained by iva to Prvati, and wound up by the adoration of Vishnu by those divinities. The dialogue then reverts to the king and the sage; and the latter states why Vishnu is the only one of the triad entitled to respect; iva being licentious, Brahm arrogant, and Vishnu alone pure. Vaishtha then repeats, after iva, the Mhtmya of the Bhagavad Gt; the merit of each book of which is illustrated by legends of the good consequences to individuals from perusing or hearing it. Other Vaishnava Mhtmyas occupy considerable portions of this Khanda, especially the Krtka Mhtmya, 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 Purna 39.
The Kriy Yoga Sra is repeated by Sta to the Rishis, after Vysa's communication of it to Jaimini, in answer to an inquiry how religious merit might be secured in the Kl 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 Vishnu Purna--personal devotion to Vishnu: 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 Purna are in all probability as many different works, neither of which approaches to the original definition of a Purna. 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 Vaishnava marks; and they notice other subjects which, like these, are of no remote origin. The Ptla Khanda dwells copiously upon the Bhgavata, and is consequently posterior to it. The Uttara Khanda is intolerantly Vaishnava, and is therefore unquestionably modern. It enjoins the veneration of the Slgram stone and Tulas plant, the use of the Tapta-mudra, or stamping with a hot iron the name of Vishnu on the skin, and a variety of practices and observances undoubtedly no part of the original system. It speaks of the shrines of r-rangam and Venkatdri 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 Kriy Yoga Sra is equally a modern, and apparently a Bengali composition. No portion of the Padma Purna 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.
"The Vishnu Purana", translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840],
2. The Padma Purna
p. xviii
2. Padma Purna. "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 Pdma by the wise: it contains fifty-five thousand stanzas 37." The second Purna in the usual lists is always the Pdma, 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 Khandas; 1. the Srishti Khanda, or section on creation; 2. the Bhmi Khanda, description of the earth; 3. the Swarga Khanda, chapter on heaven; 4. Ptla Khanda, chapter on the regions below the earth; and 5. the Uttara Khanda, last or supplementary chapter. There is also current a sixth division, the Kriy Yoga Sra, 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 Ugraravas the Sta, the son of Lomaharshana, who is sent by his father to the Rishis at Naimishrnya to communicate to them the Purna, which, from its containing an account of the lotus (padma), in which Brahm appeared at creation, is termed the Pdma or Padma Purna. The Sta repeats what was originally communicated by Brahm to Pulastya, and by him to Bhshma. 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 Vishnu; and short accounts of the Manwantaras and regal dynasties: but these, which are legitimate Paurnik 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 Bhmi Khanda, 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 Purnas, but the greater part peculiar to itself, illustrative of Trthas 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 Khanda describes in the first chapters the relative positions of the Lokas or spheres above the earth, placing above all Vaikuntha, the sphere of Vishnu; 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 Ptla Khanda devotes a brief introduction to the description of Ptla, the regions of the snake-gods; but the name of Rma having been mentioned, esha, who has succeeded Pulastya as spokesman, proceeds to narrate the history of Rma, his descent and his posterity; in which the compiler seems to have taken the poem of Klidaa, the Raghu Vana, for his chief authority. An originality of addition may be suspected, however, in the adventures of the horse destined by Rma for an Awamedha, 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 Durvsas, a sage, to assume the equine nature, and who, by having been sanctified by connexion with Rma, is released from his metamorphosis, and dispatched as a spirit of light to heaven. This piece of Vaishnava fiction is followed by praises of the r Bhgavata, an account of Krishna's juvenilities, and the merits of worshipping Vishnu. These accounts are communicated through a machinery borrowed from the Tantras: they are told by Sadiva to Prvati, the ordinary interlocutors of Tntrika compositions.
The Uttara Khanda is a most voluminous aggregation of very heterogeneous matters, but it is consistent in adopting a decidedly Vaishnava tone, and admitting no compromise with any other form of faith. The chief subjects are first discussed in a dialogue between king Dilpa and
p. xx
the Muni Vaishtha; such as the merits of bathing in the month of Mgha, and the potency of the Mantra or prayer addressed to Lakshm Nryana. But the nature of Bhakti, faith in Vishnu--the use of Vaishnava marks on the body--the legends of Vishnu's Avatras, and especially of Rma--and the construction of images of Vishnu--are too important to be left to mortal discretion: they are explained by iva to Prvati, and wound up by the adoration of Vishnu by those divinities. The dialogue then reverts to the king and the sage; and the latter states why Vishnu is the only one of the triad entitled to respect; iva being licentious, Brahm arrogant, and Vishnu alone pure. Vaishtha then repeats, after iva, the Mhtmya of the Bhagavad Gt; the merit of each book of which is illustrated by legends of the good consequences to individuals from perusing or hearing it. Other Vaishnava Mhtmyas occupy considerable portions of this Khanda, especially the Krtka Mhtmya, 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 Purna 39.
The Kriy Yoga Sra is repeated by Sta to the Rishis, after Vysa's communication of it to Jaimini, in answer to an inquiry how religious merit might be secured in the Kl 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 Vishnu Purna--personal devotion to Vishnu: 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 Purna are in all probability as many different works, neither of which approaches to the original definition of a Purna. 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 Vaishnava marks; and they notice other subjects which, like these, are of no remote origin. The Ptla Khanda dwells copiously upon the Bhgavata, and is consequently posterior to it. The Uttara Khanda is intolerantly Vaishnava, and is therefore unquestionably modern. It enjoins the veneration of the Slgram stone and Tulas plant, the use of the Tapta-mudra, or stamping with a hot iron the name of Vishnu on the skin, and a variety of practices and observances undoubtedly no part of the original system. It speaks of the shrines of r-rangam and Venkatdri 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 Kriy Yoga Sra is equally a modern, and apparently a Bengali composition. No portion of the Padma Purna 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.
