From the Vishnu Purana

Shorn of lustre, the archer Arjuna one time saw and saluted Veda-Vyasa, who said, "Have you slept with a woman illegally? Or killed a priest?" - Cf. Visnhu Purana, p. 422-23

The Vishnu Purana is part of Unesco's world heritage of literature. The work marked by simplicity, and covers topic of long-lived interest too.

A Purana is a text (from centuries ago) and treats these five subjects:

• The creation;
• Destruction and renovation of the world;
• Some royal dynasties;
• Reigns of Manus;
• Genealogies.

The Vishnu Purana is thought to be one of the oldest of the dozens of Hindu Puranas. It was supposedly composed in the first or second century AD - or possibly as late as the 300s AD - and is devoted to god Vishnu, which is also Krishna.

The work is said to contain some twenty-three thousand slokas, but the actual number of verses it contains is less than seven thousand. It is a dialogue between Parashara and his disciple Maitreya, and divided into six parts. The work abounds in stories. Its author is said to be Vyasa. There is more on Vyasa in the introduction to the Uddhava Gita.




Literature  

Vip: Dutt, Manmatha. Vishnupuranam. 2nd ed. Varanasi: Chowkhamba, 1972.



   USER'S GUIDE to abbreviations, the site's bibliography, letter codes, dictionaries, site design and navigation, tips for searching the site and page referrals. [LINK]
   © 2002–2009, Tormod Kinnes. All rights reserved. [E-MAIL] —  Disclaimer: LINK]