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The ''Skanda Purana'' (
IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...
: Skanda Purāṇa) is the largest ''
Mukyapurana'', a genre of eighteen
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
religious texts. The text contains over 81,000 verses, and is of
Kaumara literature, titled after
Skanda, a son of
Shiva
Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...
and
Parvati
Parvati ( sa, पार्वती, ), Uma ( sa, उमा, ) or Gauri ( sa, गौरी, ) is the Hindu goddess of power, energy, nourishment, harmony, love, beauty, devotion, and motherhood. She is a physical representation of Mahadevi i ...
, who is also known as
Murugan
Kartikeya ( sa, कार्त्तिकेय, Kārttikeya), also known as Skanda, Subrahmanya, Shanmukha (), and Murugan ( ta, முருகன்), is the Hindu god of war. He is the son of Parvati and Shiva, the brother of Ganesha ...
. While the text is named after Skanda, he does not feature either more or less prominently in this text than in other Shiva-related Puranas. The text has been an important historical record and influence on the Hindu traditions related to the war-god Skanda.
The earliest text titled ''Skanda Purana'' likely existed by the 8th century CE,
but the ''Skanda Purana'' that has survived into the modern era exists in many versions. It is considered as a living text, which has been widely edited, over many centuries, creating numerous variants. The common elements in the variant editions encyclopedically cover
cosmogony
Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe.
Overview
Scientific theories
In astronomy, cosmogony refers to the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used i ...
,
mythology
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
,
genealogy
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...
,
dharma
Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...
, festivals, gemology, temples, geography, discussion of virtues and evil, of theology and of the nature and qualities of
Shiva
Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...
as the Absolute and the source of true knowledge.
The editions of Skandapurana text also provide an encyclopedic travel handbook with meticulous ''Tirtha Mahatmya'' (pilgrimage tourist guides), containing geographical locations of pilgrimage centers in India, Nepal and Tibet, with related legends, parables, hymns and stories.
This ''Mahāpurāṇa'', like others, is attributed to the sage
Vyasa
Krishna Dvaipayana ( sa, कृष्णद्वैपायन, Kṛṣṇadvaipāyana), better known as Vyasa (; sa, व्यासः, Vyāsaḥ, compiler) or Vedavyasa (वेदव्यासः, ''Veda-vyāsaḥ'', "the one who cl ...
.
Date of composition
Haraprasad Shastri
Hara Prasad Shastri ( bn, হরপ্রসাদ শাস্ত্রী) (6 December 1853 – 17 November 1931), also known as Hara Prasad Bhattacharya, was an Indian academic, Sanskrit scholar, archivist and historian of Bengali literature. ...
and
Cecil Bendall
Cecil Bendall (1 July 1856 – 14 March 1906) was an English scholar, a professor of Sanskrit at University College London and later at the University of Cambridge.
Bendall was educated at the City of London School and at the University of Cambr ...
, in about 1898, discovered an old
palm-leaf manuscript
Palm-leaf manuscripts are manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed ...
of Skanda Purana in a Kathmandu library in
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
, written in
Gupta script
The Gupta script (sometimes referred to as Gupta Brahmi script or Late Brahmi script)Sharma, Ram. '' 'Brahmi Script' ''. Delhi: BR Publishing Corp, 2002 was used for writing Sanskrit and is associated with the Gupta Empire of the Indian subcon ...
.
They dated the manuscript to 8th century CE, on
paleographic grounds. This suggests that the original text existed before this time.
R. Adriaensen, H.Bakker, and H. Isaacson dated the oldest surviving palm-leaf manuscript of Skanda Purana to 810 CE, but Richard Mann adds that earlier versions of the text likely existed in the 8th century CE.
Hans Bakker states that the text specifies holy places and details about the 4th and 5th-century Citraratha of
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
, and thus may have an earlier origin. The oldest versions of the Skandapurana texts have been discovered in the Himalayan region of South Asia such as Nepal, and the northeastern states of India such as
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
.
[ The ]critical edition
Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in da ...
s of the text, for scholarly studies, rely on the Nepalese manuscripts.[
Additional texts style themselves as ''khandas'' (sections) of Skandapurana, but these came into existence after the 12th century.][ It is unclear if their root texts did belong to the Skandapurana, and in some cases replaced the corresponding chapters of the original.][ The version of the earliest known recension was later expanded in two later versions namely the ''Revakhanda'' and ''Ambikakhanda'' recensions. The only surviving manuscript of the Revakhanda recension is from 1682. The four surviving manuscripts of the Ambikakhhnda recension are of a later period and contains much more alterations. Judit Törzsök says a similar recension to these two recensions seems to have been known to Laskhmidhara, thus it existed before 12th century.][ Ballala Sena quotes content found only in these two recensions, thus the version known at that time was similar to the ancient version of these two recensions.
There are a number of texts and manuscripts that bear the title ''Skanda Purana''.] Some of these texts, except for the title, have little in common with the well-known Skandapurana traced to the 1st millennium CE. The original text has accrued several additions, resulting in several different versions. It is, therefore, very difficult to establish an exact date of composition for the Skanda Purana.
Structure
Stylistically, the ''Skanda Purana'' is related to the ''Mahabharata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...
'', and it appears that its composers borrowed from the ''Mahabharata''. The two texts employ similar stock phrases and compounds that are not found in the ''Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...
''. Some of the mythology mentioned in the present version of the ''Skanda Purana'' is undoubtedly post-Gupta
Gupta () is a common surname or last name of Indian origin. It is based on the Sanskrit word गोप्तृ ''goptṛ'', which means 'guardian' or 'protector'. According to historian R. C. Majumdar, the surname ''Gupta'' was adopted by se ...
period, consistent with that of medieval South India
South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...
. This indicates that several additions were made to the original text over the centuries. The Kashi Khanda, for example, acquired its present form around the mid-13th century CE. The latest part of the text might have been composed in as late as the 15th century CE.
Contents
The whole corpus of texts which are considered as part of the ''Skanda Purana'' is grouped in two ways. According to one tradition, these are grouped in six 's, each of which consists of several 's. According to another tradition, these are grouped in seven 's, each named after a major pilgrimage region or site. The chapters are ''Mahatmyas'', or travel guides for pilgrimage tourists.
The seven khandas
The ' consists of 3 sections:
* the (35 chapters, Kedarnath
Kedarnath is a town and Nagar Panchayat in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand, India, known primarily for the Kedarnath Temple. It is approximately 86 kilometres from Rudraprayag, the district headquarter. Kedarnath is the most remote of the ...
Tirtha region, north India)
* the or (66 chapters, Mahisagara-samgama-tirtha or Cambay
Cambay, Kambay or Khambhat was a princely state in India during the British Raj. The City of Khambat (Cambay) in present-day Gujarat was its capital. The state was bounded in the north by the Kaira district and in the south by the Gulf of C ...
pilgrimage region, west India) and
* the or (37 chapters, Tiruvannamalai
Tiruvannamalai (Tamil: ''Tiruvaṇṇāmalai'' IPA: , otherwise spelt ''Thiruvannamalai''; ''Trinomali'' or ''Trinomalee'' on British records) is a city, a spiritual, cultural, economic hub and also the administrative headquarters of Tiruvanna ...
Tirtha region, south India), further divided into two parts:
** (13 chapters) and
** (24 chapters)
The ' or ' consists of nine sections:
* (40 chapters, Tirupati
Tirupati () is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Tirupati district. The city is home to the important Hindu shrine of Tirumala Venkateswara Temple and other historic temples and is refe ...
Tirtha region, south India)
* (49 chapters, Puri
Puri () is a coastal city and a Nagar Palika, municipality in the state of Odisha in eastern India. It is the district headquarters of Puri district and is situated on the Bay of Bengal, south of the state capital of Bhubaneswar. It is als ...
Odisha Tirtha region, east India)
* (8 chapters, Badrinath
Badrinath is a town and nagar panchayat in Chamoli district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. A Hindu holy place, it is one of the four sites in India's Char Dham Hindu pilgrimage, pilgrimage and is also part of India's Chota Char Dham pilgr ...
Tirtha region, north India)
* (36 chapters)
* 17 chapters, Mathura
Mathura () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Mathura district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located approximately north of Agra, and south-east of Delhi; about from the town of Vrindavan, and from Govardhan. ...
Tirtha region)
* (4 chapters)
* (25 chapters)
* (10 chapters, Ayodhya
Ayodhya (; ) is a city situated on the banks of holy river Saryu in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Ayodhya, also known as Sāketa, Saketa, is an ancient city of India, the birthplace of Rama and ...
Tirtha region) and
* (32 chapters)
The ' has three sections (four in some manuscripts):
* (52 chapters, Rama Setu
Adam's Bridge, '; ta, ஆதாம் பாலம் ' also known as Rama's Bridge or ''Rama Setu'', '; ta, ராமர் பாலம் '; sa, रामसेतु ' is a chain of natural limestone shoals, between Pamban Island, ...
Tirtha region, Tamil Nadu and towards Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
)
* (40 chapters) and
* or (22 chapters)
The ' (100 chapters, Varanasi
Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.
*
*
*
* The city has a syncretic t ...
and Vindya Tirtha region) is divided into two parts:
* (50 chapters) and
* (50 chapters)
The ' consists of:
* (71 chapters, Ujjain
Ujjain (, Hindustani language, Hindustani pronunciation: Help:IPA/Hindi and Urdu, d͡ːʒɛːn is a city in Ujjain district of the States and territories of India, Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the fifth-largest city in Madhya Prad ...
Tirtha region)
* (84 chapters) and
* (Thought to have 232 chapters, Juergen Neuss states that the manuscripts attest this is actually the original ''Reva Khanda'' of Vayu Purana
The ''Vayu Purana'' ( sa, वायुपुराण, ) is a Sanskrit text and one of the eighteen major Puranas of Hinduism.
''Vayu Purana'' is mentioned in the manuscripts of the Mahabharata and other Hindu texts, which has led scholars to pr ...
which was wrongly included in the Skanda Purana by Veṅkateśvara Steam Press in 1910 and all publications of the Skanda after it. The one belonging to the Skanda has 116 chapters.)
The ' (279 chapters) consists of .
The ' (491 chapters) consists of four sections:
* (365 chapters, Saurashtra and Somanatha Tirtha region, west India)
* (19 chapters, Girnar
Girnar is an ancient hill in Junagadh, Gujarat, India.
Geology
Mount Girnar is a major igneous plutonic complex which intruded into the basalts towards the close of the Deccan Trap period. The rock types identified in this complex are gab ...
Tirtha region)
* (63 chapters, Aravalli Range
The Aravalli Range (also spelled ''Aravali'') is a mountain range in Northern-Western India, running approximately in a south-west direction, starting near Delhi, passing through southern Haryana, Rajasthan, and ending in Ahmedabad Gujarat. ...
Rajasthan Tirtha region) and
* (44 chapters, Dwarka
Dwarka () is a city and a municipality of Devbhumi Dwarka district in the state of Gujarat in Western India. It is located on the western shore of the Okhamandal Peninsula on the right bank of the Gomti river at the mouth of the Gulf of Kut ...
Gujarat Tirtha region)
The six samhitas
The second type of division of the ''Skanda Purana'' is found in some texts like ' of the or the , ' of the , ' of the and ' of the . According to these texts, the ''Skanda Purana'' consists of six s (sections):
* the
* the
* the
* the
* the and
* the
The manuscripts of the , the , the and the are extant. A manuscript of a commentary on the by is also available. These texts discuss cosmogony, theology, philosophical questions on virtues and vice, questions such as what is evil, the origin of evil, how to deal with and cure evil.
The other texts
The manuscripts of several other texts which claim to be part of the ''Skanda Purāṇa'' are found partially or wholly. Some of the notable regional texts amongst these are: ' which contains ''Nepalamahatmya'' (30 chapters, Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
Tirtha region), '', , , , , '' and '.
Kaverimahatmya presents stories and a pilgrim guide for the Kaveri
The Kaveri (also known as Cauvery, the anglicized name) is one of the major Indian rivers flowing through the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Kaveri river rises at Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri range in the Western Ghats, Kodagu dis ...
river (Karnataka) and Coorg Tirtha region. Vivsamitrimahatmya presents mythology and a guide for the Vadodara
Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...
Tirtha region.
The oldest known 1st-millennium palm-leaf manuscripts of this text mention many major Hindu pilgrimage sites, but do not describe Kailash-Manasarovar.[ The later versions do, particularly in ''Manasakhanda''.][
]
The narratives
The ''Skanda Purana'', like many Puranas, include the legends of the Daksha's sacrifice, Shiva's sorrow, churning of the ocean (Samudra manthan
The Samudra Manthana ( sa, समुद्रमन्थन; ) is a major episode in Hinduism that is elaborated in the Vishnu Purana, a major text of Hinduism. The Samudra Manthana explains the origin of the elixir of eternal life, amrita.
Nom ...
) and the emergence of Amrita
''Amrita'' ( sa, अमृत, IAST: ''amṛta''), ''Amrit'' or ''Amata'' in Pali, (also called ''Sudha'', ''Amiy'', ''Ami'') is a Sanskrit word that means "immortality". It is a central concept within Indian religions and is often referred to i ...
, the story of the demon Tarakasura, the birth of Goddess Parvati, her pursuit of Shiva, and her marriage to Lord Shiva, among others.
The central aim of the Skandapurana text, states Hans Bakker, is to sanctify the geography and landscape of South Asia, and legitimize the regional Shaiva communities across the land, as it existed at the time the edition was produced. The text reflects the political uncertainties, the competition with Vaishnavism, and the cultural developments with the Pashupata Hindus during the periods it was composed.
Manuscripts
The ''Skanda Purana'' manuscripts have been found in Nepal, Tamil Nadu (Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
: கந்த புராணம்) and other parts of India. The ''Skanda Purana'' is among of the oldest dated manuscripts discovered in Nepal. A palm-leaf manuscript
Palm-leaf manuscripts are manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed ...
of the text is preserved at the National Archives of Nepal (NAK 2–229), and its digital version has been archived by Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project (NGMCP B 11–4). It is likely that the manuscript was copied by the scribe on Monday, March 10 811 CE, though there is some uncertainty with this date because the ''samvat'' of this manuscript is unclear.[;A 38-5 Saddharmapuṇḍarīka(sūtra)]
University of Hamburg, Germany Michael Witzel
Michael Witzel (born July 18, 1943) is a German-American philologist, comparative mythologist and Indologist. Witzel is the Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University and the editor of the Harvard Oriental Series (volumes 50–80).
Witze ...
dates this Nepalese manuscript to about 810 CE. This manuscript was discovered as one in a group of seven different texts bound together. The group included fourteen manuscripts mostly Buddhist, six of which are very old ''Saddharma Pundarika Sutra'' manuscripts, one of ''Upalisutra'', one Chinese Buddhist text, and one ''Bhattikavya'' Buddhist yamaka text. The ''Skanda Purana'' found in this manuscripts collection is written in transitional Gupta script, Sanskrit.[
The 1910 edition included seven 's (parts): '', '' or '', Brahma, , , '' and '.][Shastri, P. (1995) ''Introduction to the Puranas'', New Delhi: Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, pp.118–20] In 1999–2003, an English translation of this text was published by the Motilal Banarsidass
Motilal Banarsidass Publishing House (MLBD) is an Indian academic publishing house, founded in Delhi, India in 1903. It publishes and distributes serials, monographs, and scholarly publications on Asian religions, Buddhology, Indology, Easte ...
, New Delhi in 23 volumes. This translation is also based on a text divided into seven 's.
Critical Edition
''The Skandapurāṇa'', vol. I, adhyāyas 1-25, edited by Rob Adriaensen, Hans T. Bakker
Hans T. Bakker (born 1948) is a cultural historian and Indologist, who has served as the Professor of the History of Hinduism and Jan Gonda Chair at the University of Groningen. He currently works in the British Museum as a researcher in project ...
, and Harunaga Isaacson, 1998; vol. IIa, adhyāyas 26-31.14, ed. by Hans T. Bakker and Harunaga Isaacson, 2005; vol. IIb, adhyāyas 31-52, ed. by Hans T. Bakker, Peter C. Bisschop, and Yuko Yokochi, 2014; vol. III, adhyāyas 34.1-61, 53-69, ed. by Yuko Yokochi, 2013. Supplement to th
Groningen Oriental Studies
Groningen: Egbert Forsten, and Leiden: Brill.
See also
*Bhagavata Purana
The ''Bhagavata Purana'' ( sa, भागवतपुराण; ), also known as the ''Srimad Bhagavatam'', ''Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana'' or simply ''Bhagavata'', is one of Hinduism's eighteen great Puranas (''Mahapuranas''). Composed in Sa ...
*Devi Mahatmya
The ''Devi Mahatmya'' or ''Devi Mahatmyam'' ( sa, देवीमाहात्म्यम्, devīmāhātmyam, Glory of the Goddess) is a Hindu philosophical text describing the Goddess as the supreme power and creator of the universe. It is ...
* Kandapuranam
*Shiva Purana
The ''Shiva Purana'' is one of eighteen major texts of the ''Purana'' genre of Sanskrit texts in Hinduism, and part of the Shaivism literature corpus. It primarily revolves around the Hindu god Shiva and goddess Parvati, but references and reve ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
* Mani, Vettam. ''Puranic Encyclopedia''. 1st English ed. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975.
* G. V. Tagare, Dr. ''The Skanda-Purana (23 Vols.)'', Motilal Banarsidass. 2007.
*
External links
The Skanda Purana
Proofread (full) English translation by G. V. Tagare, 1950 (includes glossary and IAST diacritics)
Excerpts from Skanda Purana
The Skandapurāṇa Project
''Skandapurana'' : Devanagari
A SARIT Initiative, P. C. Bisschop
The Complete Skanda Purana
The complete 20 volumes of Skanda Purana English translation by G. V. Tagare, 1950
{{Authority control
Puranas
Shaiva texts
Kaumaram