In this blog post we are dealing with the topic “What are Puranas?” Many people think that the Puranas are many years old which Composed by sages. An archaeologist on a TV channel shows that Puranas are composed around 37 thousand years ago.
The Puranas are the myth. It remembered by listening. According to the Puranas, Bedavas is a part of Lord Krishna. Moreover, He is in different diameters and appeared and wrote Puranas.
What are the Puranas?
There are two parts of the Puranas. They are: (1) Mahapurana, (2) Uppurana.
(1) Mahapurana (What are the Puranas)
There are some parts of Mahapurana, which we discussed in briefly. They are:
(a) Brahmapuran:
This Purana was first written as ‘Adi’. But Brahmapuran deals with the process of creation, the birth of gods and demons, the Sun Dynasty and the Moon Dynasty. Moreover, the second part there is a description of heaven-earth-hell and hell.
There is Sri Krishna Charita. It ends with an explanation of the scriptures.
(b) Padmapuran:
Padmapurana Divides into five parts. Creation piece, land piece, heaven piece, underworld, Pieces and North Pieces.
This Purana has some topics, they are: Gammahatmya, Vritravadha Kahini, Prithucharita, the story of Ben-Raj; the story of Nahus and Jayati, the origin of the universe, Pilgrimage account, Mahatmakirtan of Kashi-Gaya-Prayag; story of Agastya, account of Jagannath, Dadhichi anecdote, Krishna’s Nityalila, Shiva Mahatma, Ganga Mahatya; Brat Mahatmya, Bhagavat Mahatmya, Matsya-Avatar anecdote.
(c) Vishnu Purana:
This Purana Divides into six parts. (1) Origin of Vishnu-Lakshmi, Dhruvacharita, Prahladacharita. (2) The earth, the seven islands, the seven seas. (3) The division of the Vedas by the diameter and the branch division of the four Vedas again, the Ashram Dharma. (4) Sun dynasty, moon dynasty and Description of other major dynasties. (5) Krishnacharita, Vrindavanlila, Raslila. (6) Vishnu bhakti, discussion about yoga.
(d) Vayupurana:
Vayupurana has four parts. They are: (1) Creation of the universe and living things. (2) Genealogy of sages, Shaiva narration. (3) Description of animals, sun lineage and moon lineage. (4) Yagashastra and Shiva Mahatma.
(e) Bhagavata Purana:
Another name of this Purana is ‘Srimad Bhagavata’. These include, creationism, Mayabad, Brahma’s creation story, Varahabata’s story, Kapilabata’s story, Ben-Rajcharita, Dhruvacharita, Suryavamsha and Chandravamsha’s identity, Srikrishnacharita, Mathura and Vrindavanlila, the story of the destruction of the Jadu dynasty, the story of the death of Lord Krishna.
(f) Naradiya Purana:
This Purana contains Vishnustuti, Vaishnavism, Haribhakti Etc.
(g) Markandeya Purana:
This Purana begins with the questions given by Jaimini and the answers given by Markande Muni. There is also the story of the quarrel between Vasishta Muni and Bishwamitra, the story of Chandi, Durga and Krishna, the story of Harishchandra, the story of Madalsa, the story of Rudra birth, full story and jag.
(h) Agnipurana:
The main purpose of this Purana is to impart divine knowledge through fire. There is also the promotion of Shiva Mahatmya. There are rules of Vishnu worship, Shalgram signs and methods of worship, Shraddhabidhi, Tirtha Mahatmya, Prayashchittavidhi, Gayatri-Artha, Archery, Veterinary etc.
(i) Bhavishya Purana:
It contains descriptions of creation, reformation of Chaturna and Ashram Dharma, Krishna, Shambha, Vasishta, Narada, Vyas and the greatness of Surya.
(j) Brahmavaivarta Purana:
This Purana has in four parts, they are: Brahma, Prakriti, Ganesha and Krishna and Mahatmya. There are also stories of Swaha, Swadha, Suratha, Kartavirya, Savitri-Satyaban, Parashuram etc.
(k) Lingapurana:
It contains the origin of sex (Shiva), sex worship, Gender Establishment Method, Shiva’s Vows, Kashi Mahatmya, Shiva’s Thousand Names, Daksha Yajna, Madanbhasma, Shiva-Parvati marriage, Shiva’s dance, Shiva’s greatness, Shiva’s rituals etc. There are also Varahacharita, Nrsinghacharita, Abhimanyu anecdotes.
(l) Varahapurana:
It contains the story of the incarnation of Vishnu as Varaha. There are also sraddhavidhi, vows, origin of Gauri, for killing Mahisasura. We can see the origin of goddess and the greatness of the goddess in this purana.
(m) Skandhapurana:
It has seven parts. (1) Maheshwarkhand, (2) Vaishnavkhand, (3) Brahmakhand, (4) Kashikhand, (5) Avantikhand, (6) Nagarkhand, (7) Prabhaskhand.
(n) Bamanpuran:
Vishnu’s dwarf is a story of deception with the king Chief. There also stories, Mahisasur’s slaughter, Daksha Yajna, Madanbhasma, Shiva-Umar description of marriage, and pilgrimage.
(o) Karmapurana:
The story of the incarnation of Vishnu as Karmapurana is the main one. Besides, there thousands names Parvati, Vyasgita, Ishvaragita, Tirtha Mahatmya, discussion on caste system and caste.
(p) Matsya Purana:
The main subject Matsya Purana is the incarnation of Vishnu as Matsya with Manu conversation of fishing etc.
(q) Garuda Purana:
Garuda Purana is the birth story of Garuda in the womb of Binta, Vishnu’s thousand name, Yam, Shraddha, description of what happens after death. But, it the law of initiation, the law of penance is talking about Ayurveda.
(s) Brahmandapurana:
The Brahmandapurana divides into four parts. (1) process, (2) adjunct, (3) subtraction, (4) conclusion. It tells the story of the creation of the universe, epochs, dynasty identities and scared of various islands including India.
(2) Uppurana (What are the Puranas)
Apart from above Puranas, there are 16 sub-Puranas, which known as Uppurana. They are: (1) Sanatkumar, (2) Nar-Singh, (3) Naradiya, (4) Shiva, (5) Durbasa, (6) Kapil, (7) Manab, (8) Effons, (9) Varun, (10) Kalika, (11) Sha, (12) Nandi, (13) Solar, (14) Parashar, (15) Aditya, (18) Maheshwar, (18) Bhagwat ( 16) Vasishta.
Finally, these Puranas and Uppuranas the greatness of male deities; and sages has prevailed. But the goddesses almost non-existent. Even from this section of Vedic literature. Moreover, it is not difficult to understand that the society of that time completely patriarchal.
Four Yugas (Eras)
Satya, Treta, Dwapar and Kali – these are the four Yugas (eras). The description of these four eras is Purana and the Manuscripts are different. But both are the creation of God!
Satya yuga (era)
Among these four eras Satya Yuga is the first era. According to the Manusanghita, the divine amount is four thousand years. In the Satya Era the Human life is four hundred years. According to the Puranas, the duration of Satya Yuga is 16 lakh 26 thousand years.
But in this age no one dies in will death, anger etc. This age is full of virtue. There was no sin. All of them were pious. The people were twenty one hands tall in Satya Yuga. Life expectancy was millions of years.
The kings of this age were Boli, Ben, Mandhata, Pururaba, Dhundhumar and Kartavirya. Four incarnations appeared in this era They are: Matsya, Kurma, Varaha and Narsingh-Bhagavan.
Treta Yuga
The second era is Tretayuga. According to Manu, the period of Tretayuga is divine three thousand years. Human life is three hundred years.
According to the Puranas, the Treta age was 12 lakh 96 thousand years. But in this age people were fourteen cubits long. Their lifespan was ten thousand years. Harishchandra, Sagar, Raghu, Dasaratha, Ramchandra and other kings ruled in this era.
Dwapar Yuga
The third age is the Dwapar Yuga. The Manusanghita contains the period of Dvaparayuga. The Human life is two hundred years in this period. According to the Puranas, the human beings lived a thousand years in the Dwapar era; but they had seven hands.
The amount of this age was 6 lakh 64 thousand years. In this era there were kings like Yudhisthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakul, Sahadeva, Duryodhana Rashatbhai etc.
Kali Yuga (era)
The Kali Yuga (era) is comes after Dwapar era. This Kali era is going on now.