Agni purana .. Part 9

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Namaste

Let us Continue Reading Puranas.

Puranas are also a Treasure to Sanathana Dharma.

Agni Purana, Brahma Purana, Garuda Purana,

Markandeya Purana, Varaha Purana, Matsya Purana

Vishnu Purana, Linga Purana, Narada Purana,

Padma Purana, Shiva Purana, Skanda Purana,

Vamana Purana

Let us start read one by one .

We start with AGNIPURANA same like

before I will post Each Purana as part by part.

 

 

I Know while reading Manusmriti to read

Other puranas may be difficult , but as you know

atleast to taste our great values in

Sananthana Dharma One Human life is not enough,

so I try my level best to spread this values

to my respected friends.

If anyone miss to read or interest to read my

previous postings Chanakya Neetisastra,

Kautiliya Arthasastra , Vidura niti or

Tiruvallurs Tirukkural,and Uddhavagita or

any part of Manusmriti

pls mail to me , I will send again to you.

I humbly request you to forward this values to your family, friends and to your groups. Allow all people from different religion to understand the value of our Sanathana Dharma. At least let them learn and then let them criticize.

 

Here we Continue reading the translation of the text of the AGNIPURAN in Short at the currently available form :

I am not a scholar to modify any of this laws or puranas or its languages suitable for modern life .I Humbly request you to read it and think in a modern scientific way. Like in Bhagavadgita Chapter 18 text 63 it is said by lord Krishna Thus I have explained to you knowledge still more confidential. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do.

Or, as my guru told me One need not worry too much about the source of certain knowledge. Just adopt in our life if they are good. If needed refine the knowledge by way of addition, deletion, modification and correction.

 

 

Agni Purana part… 9

Donating the Puranas The Agni Purana now describes the benefits of giving alms along with the Puranas. The Puranas are to be donated together with cows. And in talking of the mahapurans, the Agni Purana also mentions most of their lengths, in terms of the number of sholokas (couplets) that each has. This is worth stating. The Brahma Purana twenty-five thousand The Padma Purana - twelve thousand The Vishnu Purana - thirteen thousand The Vayu Purana - fourteen thousand The Bhagavata Purana - eighteen thousand The Narada Purana - twenty-five thousand The Markandeya Purana - nine thousand The Agni Purana - twelve thousand The Brahmavaivarta Purana - eighteen thousand The

Linga Purana - eleven thousand The Varaha Purana - fourteen thousand The Skanda Purana - eighty-four thousand The Vamana Purana - ten thousand The Kurma Purana - eight thousand The Matsya Purana - thirteen thousand The Garuda Purana - eight thousand The Brahmanda Purana - twelve thousand

The only mahapurana which is missing from the above list is the Bhavishya Purana. You now have a pretty good idea of how long the Puranas are. The Skanda Purana is the longest and the Kurma and Garuda Puranas the shortest. But unfortunately, the numbers in the Agni Purana are not terribly accurate. The Padma Purana has fifty-five thousands couplets and not twelve thousand as stated. The Varaha Purana has twenty-four thousand couplets and not fourteen thousand. The Agni Purana itself has slightly over fifteen thousand couplets and not twelve thousand. But at least you have some approximate idea about the lengths of the various Puranas. The Brahma Purana is to be given in the month of Vaishakha. The Padma Purana is to be donated in the month of Jyaishtha. The Vishnu Purana is to be donated in the month of Ashada and the Vayu Purana in the month of Shravana. The Bhagavata Purana is to

be given in the month of Bhadra, the Narada Purana in the month of Ashvina, the Markandeya Purana in the month of Kartika, the Agni Purana in the month of Margashirsha and the Bhavishya Purana in the month of Pousha. The Brahmavaivarta Purana is for the month of Magha, the Linga Purana for the month of Falguna and the Varaha Purana for the month of Chaitra. The Skanda Purna is to be given to brahmans. The Vamana Purana is to be given in the autumn. The Kurma Purana is to be given together with a golden urn. The Matsya Purana is to be donated together with a golden swan. The Brahmanada Purana is to be given to brahmanas. Great benefits are also to be derived from hearing the Puranas recited. The reciter has to be given alms and the brahmanas must be given cows, rice and land at the time of the recitation. If one arranges for a recitation of the Puranas, one lives long, stays healthy and attains heaven. Dynasties Brahma was born from Vishnu’s navel. Brahma’s son was Marichi, Marichi’s son Kashyapa and Kashyapa’s son Vivasvana. From this line was descended Pururava and Pururava’s descendants were the kings of the surya (solar) dynasty. Brahma also had a son named Atri and Atri had a son named Soma. Soma performed a rajasuya yajna (royal sacrifice). Having performed the sacrifice, Soma became the ruler of all the worlds. This made him very arrogant and he abducted the sage Brihaspati’s wife Tara. This led to a terrible war between devas and the asuras. Tara was eventually to restored to Brihaspati, but Soma and Tara had a son named Budha. From Budha were descended the kings of the chandra (lunar) dynasty. There were twelve major wars between the devas and the

asuras. The first of these was known as the Narasimha War. This took place when Hiranyakashipu was the king of the asuras. Vishnu adopted the form of Narashimha and killed Hiranyakashipu. He then made Prahlada the king of the demons. The second war was the Vamana War and it took place when Bali was the king of the demons. Vishnu adopted the form of a dwarf (vamana) to subjugate the demons. The third war was the Varaha War and this took place when Hiranyaksha was the king of the demons. Vishnu adopted the form of a wild boar (varaha) and killed Hiranyaksha. The fourth war was the Amritamanthana War and this took place over the manthana (churning ) of the ocean for amrita (nectar). The fifth war between the devas and the asuras took place over the abduction of Tara and this came to be known as the Tarakamaya War. The sixth war was known as the Ajivaka War. The seventh war took

place when Tripura led the asuras and this was known as the Tripuraghatana War. It was Shiva who killed the demon Tripura in this war. The eighth war, the Andhaka War, took place when Andhaka led the asuras. It was Vishnu who engineered that Andhaka be killed when Andhaka expressed a desire to abduct Shiva’s wife. The ninth war was known as Vritrasambhara and took place when Vritra led the demons. The tenth war was simply known as Jita. In this war, Vishnu killed Shalva and the other demons, and Parashurama killed the evil kshatriyas. The eleventh war was known as Halahala. An asura named Halahala (poison) had invaded Shiva’s body and flooded it with poison. But Vishnu managed to destroy the demon. In the twelfth war, known as Kolahala, Vishnu destroyed an asura named Kolahala (tumult). Medicine Dhanvantari was the physician of the gods and he taught Sushruta the art of

ayurveda (medicine). The Agni Purana now describes what the sage Sushruta had learnt, that is, the treatment for various diseases. This does not simply mean the treatment of human illnesses. There is a section known as vriksha ayurveda, which describes what tree are to be planted where. It describes how a garden is to be constructed and maintained. The chapters on medicine also describe the treatment of elephants, horses and cattle. The mantras (incantations) which are the remedy for snake poison are also related.

Literature and Grammar Therafter, the Agni Purana has many chapters on literature and grammar. It describes the different types of chhanda (metres) that are used in poetry. Next it discusses the alphabet. There are sixty-four letters (varna) in the alphabet, of which twenty-one are vowels (svara varna). There are three tones (svara) in which the letters of the alphabet may be uttered. Their names are udatta, anudatta and svarita. There are eight places from which the letters may be pronounced. These are the chest, the throat, the head, the back of the tongue, the teeth, the nose, the lips and the palate. Pronunciations should be clear and audible. They should not be nasal and mumbled. The Agni Purana then

discusses the alamkaras (rehetoric) that are used in poetry and plays. Poetry is entirely different from the shastras (sacred texts) and itihasa (history). The sacred texts are full of words and historical texts are full of narrations of incidents that took place. But that does not constitute poetry. Real men are difficult to find on this earth. Among the learned men, it is not easy to find some who have a poetic sense. And amongst those who have poetic sense, it is difficult to find a few who can compose poetry. Poetry is impossible without a knowledge of the rules of poetry and even more important, without a sense of feeling. Sanskrit is the language of the gods. The language of humans is Prakrita. Poetry can be either in Sanskrit or in Prakrita. There are three types of poetry. These are gadya (prose), padya (poetry) or mishra ( a mixture of the two), Genuine poetry is, however, only padya. Gadya can be of three types¾

churnaka, utkalika and vrittagandhi. Churnaka prose is easy on the ears, it has very few compound words. Utkalika prose is hard on the ears, it is full of compound words. Vrittagandhi prose is somewhere between churnaka and utkalika. An epic must always be split up into sections (sarga). It has to be written in Sanskrit, although some mixture of Sanshkrit words with Prakrita onces is permissible. The theme of an epic must always be good and historical elements may be introduced if the author so desires. Literature is useless without the flavour of sentiments (rasa). There are nine sentiments that are used. The first is hasya rasa (humour). The second is karuna rasa (pathos). The third is roudra rasa (that which is wrathful and awe-inspiring). The fourth is vira rasa (heroic themes). The fifth is bhayanaka rasa (horror). The sixth is bibhatsa rasa (vulgar and obscene themes). The seventh is adbhuta rasa (that which is strange).

The eighth is shanta rasa (placidity). And the ninth is shringara rasa (amorous themes). But the sentiments must be used with feeling. Without feeling, all literature becomes mediocre. Particularly in a play, sentiments can be supplemented with skills (kala). These skills are normally associated with women and there are sixty-four of them. The more important ones are singing, playing musical instruments, dancing, acting, drawing, making garlands, sewing, hairdressing and using magic. Grammatical rules of sandhi and samasa (rules for forming compound words) are next described. The difference between the two is that in sandhi, the two words that are being joined retain their original senses in the compound word. The case of samasa is different. Sandhi occurs when two varnas (letters) meet. Samasa is a condensation or conversation of two or more words into one. Sandhi does not create any new word. Samsa leads to the formation of a

third word which refers to something related to but distinct from either or any of the words combined. Pita (yellow) and ambara (cloth) combined by way of sandhi are pronounced pitambara and mean cloth that is yellow. The same two words combined by way of samasa result in the third word pitambara which means "the one dressed in yellow," that is Krishna. There are several possible declensions of words, depending on the vachana and the vibhakti. The vachana refers to the number. Eka-vachana is when there is only one (phalam, a fruit), dvivachana when there are two (phale, two fruits) and vahu-vachana when there are more than two (phalani, more than two fruits). There are three genders, pumlinga (masculine), strilinga (feminie) and klivalinga (neuter). Deva, asura, Vishnu are, for example, masculine in gender. Devi, Kalika or maya are feminine. Pushpa (flower) or phala (fruit) are neuter. There are

six karakas (cases) and seven vibhaktis (case-endings). The agent who performs the action indicated by the kriya (verb), is the kartri or doer. To the kartri karaka or Nominative Case, the prathama vibhakti or first case-ending is attached. The object of the action is karma and to the karma karaka or Objective Case, the second (dvitiya) case-ending is attached. The means or instruments by which the action is performed takes on the karana karaka or Instrumental Case and the third (tritiya) case-ending. When a gift is given irrevocably, the recipient takes on the sampradana karaka or Dative Case and the case-ending in question is the fourth (chaturthi). That which is the source of something takes on the apadana karaka or Ablative Case and the fifth (panchami) case-ending. When there is a relation of possession, the possessor takes on the shashthi vibhakti (sixth case-ending). There is no counterpart of the Possessive case of English grammar because the

relation of possession is not directly related to the verb (kriya) and therefore to the doer (karaka). In case of the location in which the action takes place, the karaka is adhikarana (Locative Case) and the case-ending the seventh (saptami).

Will be continue on part 10

with regards

dilip