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The Skanda Purana (IAST: Skanda Purana) is the biggest of eighteen Hindu holy scriptures known as Mahpuras. The book is of Kaumara literature and is named after Skanda, a son of Shiva and Parvati who is also known as Murugan. It comprises approximately 81,000 lines.
The poem has had a significant historical impact on Hindu rituals around the war-god Skanda. The earliest Skanda Purana text was most likely written in the 8th century CE, although there are several copies of the Skanda Purana that have survived into the present day.
In around 1898, Haraprasad Shastri and
Cecil Bendall unearthed an ancient palm-leaf copy of the Skanda Purana written
in Gupta script in a Kathmandu library in Nepal. Paleographic evidence led them
to date the book to the eighth century CE. This indicates that the original
text predates this period. The earliest surviving palm-leaf manuscript of the
Skanda Purana was dated to 810 CE by R. Adriaensen, H. Bakker, and H. Isaacson,
however Richard Mann believes that older copies of the book existed in the 8th
century CE. According to Hans Bakker, the manuscript mentions sacred locations
and facts about Andhra Pradesh's Citraratha in the 4th and 5th centuries, and
so might have an older provenance.The earliest copies of the Skandapurana
writings have been unearthed in South Asia's Himalayan area, such as Nepal, and
India's northeastern regions, such as Assam. The Nepalese manuscripts are used
in critical editions of the book for scholarly research.
Additional writings refer to themselves as
Skandapurana khandas (parts), although they were written after the 12th
century. It's uncertain if their base texts belonged to the Skandapurana, and
in some cases, they supplanted the original chapters. The Revakhanda and
Ambikakhanda recensions, two subsequent variants of the first known recension,
were later extended.
The Revakhanda recension's only surviving manuscript dates from
1682. The four surviving manuscripts of the Ambikakhhnda recension are from a
later period and have many more changes. According to JuditTörzsök,
Laskhmidhara was aware of a recension comparable to these two recensions,
indicating that it existed prior to the 12th century. BallalaSena cites solely
the information found in these two recensions, implying that the version known
at the time was close to the ancient version of these two recensions.
The title Skanda Purana appears in a variety of books and manuscripts. Except for the title, several of these writings have little in common with the well-known Skandapurana, which dates from the first millennium.Numerous changes have been made to the original text, resulting in several distinct variants. As a result, determining a precise date of creation for the Skanda Purana is quite difficult.
The legends of the Daksha's sacrifice, Shiva's sorrow, the churning of the ocean (Samudra manthan) and the emergence of Amrita, the storey of the demon Tarakasura, the birth of Goddess Parvati, her pursuit of Shiva, and her marriage to Lord Shiva are all included in the Skanda Purana, as are many other Puranas.
The Skanda Purana is stylistically linked to the Mahabharata, and it indicates that its authors borrowed from it. The two manuscripts share a lot of standard words and compounds that the Ramayana doesn't have. Some of the mythology contained in the current Skanda Purana is unquestionably post-Gupta, and corresponds to that of mediaeval South India. This shows that the original text has undergone many revisions throughout the years. For example, the Kashi Khanda took on its current form about the mid-13th century CE. The text's final section might have been written as late as the 15th century CE.
The whole corpus of works believed to be
part of the Skanda Purana is divided into two categories. These are divided
into six sahits, each of which contains many khaas, according to one source.
These are divided into seven khaas, each named after a prominent pilgrimage
destination or location, according to another source. The chapters are
Mahatmyas, which are pilgrimage travel manuals.
The second kind of Skanda Purana division
is seen in writings such as the Hlasyamhtmya of the Agastya Sahit or the
akarSahit, Sambhava Ka of the akarSahit, ivamhtmyaKhaa of the Sta Sahit, and
KlikKhaa of the SanatkumraSahit. The Skanda Purana, according to these
scriptures, is divided into six sahits (sections):
The second kind of Skanda Purana division
is seen in writings such as the Hlasyamhtmya of the Agastya Sahit or the
akarSahit, Sambhava Ka of the akarSahit, ivamhtmyaKhaa of the Sta Sahit, and
KlikKhaa of the SanatkumraSahit. The Skanda Purana, according to these
scriptures, is divided into six sahits (sections).
Several additional writings that purport
to be part of the Skanda Pura have fragmentary or complete copies. HimavatKhaa,
which contains Nepalamahatmya (30 chapters, Nepal Tirtha area), KanakdriKhaa,
BhmaKhaa, IvarahasyaKhaa, SahydriKhaa, AyodhyaKhaa, Mathur Khaa, and PtlaKhaa
are some of the significant regional writings.
Kaverimahatmya tells stories about the
Kaveri River in Karnataka and the Coorg Tirtha area, as well as providing a
pilgrim guide. The mythology and a guide for the Vadodara Tirtha area are
presented in Vivsamitrimahatmya.Many important Hindu pilgrimage locations are
mentioned in the oldest known 1st-millennium palm-leaf manuscripts of this
book, however Kailash-Manasarovar is not mentioned. Later versions, especially
in Manasakhanda, do.
The legends of the Daksha's sacrifice, Shiva's sorrow, the
churning of the ocean (Samudra manthan) and the emergence of Amrita, the storey
of the demon Tarakasura, the birth of Goddess Parvati, her pursuit of Shiva,
and her marriage to Lord Shiva are all included in the Skanda Purana, as are
many other Puranas.
According to Hans Bakker,
the fundamental goal of the Skandapurana text is to sanctify the geography and
scenery of South Asia, as well as to legitimate the regional Shaiva groups that
existed at the time the edition was published. During the times when the book
was written, political uncertainty, conflict with Vaishnavism, and cultural
changes with the Pashupata Hindus were all present.
Paperback – 4 November 2019
152 pages
Gitapress Team. Binding. Hardbound. Publishing Date. 2015. Publisher. Gita Press. Edition. 1. Number of Pages. 1372.
The Skanda Purana (IAST: Skanda Purāṇa)
is the largest Mahāpurāṇa, a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts. The text
contains over 81,000 verses, and is of Kaumara literature, titled after Skanda,
a son of Shiva and Parvati, who is also known as Murugan.
20 x 14 x 4 cm
Hindi, Sanskrit
This Mahāpurāṇa, like others, is attributed to the sage Vyasa. Haraprasad Shastri and Cecil Bendall, in about 1898, discovered an old palm-leaf manuscript of Skanda Purana in a Kathmandu library in Nepal, written in Gupta script. They dated the manuscript to 7th century CE, on paleographic grounds.
Gita Press
Wendy Doniger dates the Matsya Purana to have
been composed between 250 to 500 CE.
4 November 2019
2015.