Agni Purana

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A page from an Agni Purana manuscript (Sanskrit, Devanagari)

Template:Hindu scriptures The Agni Purana, (Template:Lang-sa, Template:IAST) is a Sanskrit text and one of the eighteen major Puranas of Hinduism.Template:Sfn The text is variously classified as a Purana related to Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Smartism, but also considered as a text that covers them all impartially without leaning towards a particular theology.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The text exists in numerous versions, some very different from others.Template:Sfn The published manuscripts are divided into 382 or 383 chapters, containing between 12,000 and 15,000 verses.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The chapters of the text were likely composed in different centuries, with earliest version probably after the 7th-century,[1][2] but before the 11th-century because the early 11th-century Persian scholar Al-Biruni acknowledged its existence in his memoir on India.Template:Sfn The youngest layer of the text in the Agni Purana may be from the 17th-century.Template:Sfn

The Agni Purana is a medieval era encyclopedia that covers a diverse range of topics, and its "382 or 383 chapters actually deal with anything and everything", remark scholars such as Moriz Winternitz and Ludo Rocher.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Its encyclopedic secular style led some 19th-century Indologists such as Horace Hayman Wilson to question if it even qualifies as what is assumed to be a Purana.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The range of topics covered by this text include cosmology, mythology, genealogy, politics, education system, iconography, taxation theories, organization of army, theories on proper causes for war, martial arts,[1] diplomacy, local laws, building public projects, water distribution methods, trees and plants, medicine,[3] design and architecture,Template:Sfn[4] gemology, grammar, metrics, poetry, food and agriculture,[5] rituals, geography and travel guide to Mithila (Bihar and neighboring states), cultural history, and numerous other topics.Template:Sfn

History

Template:Quote box Tradition has it that its title is named after Agni because it was originally recited by Agni to the sage Vasishta when the latter wanted to learn about the Brahman, and Vasishta later recited it to Vyasa – the sage who compiled all the Vedas, Puranas and many other historic texts.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Skanda Purana and Matsya Purana assert that the Agni Purana describes Isana-kalpa as described by god Agni, but the surviving manuscripts make no mention of Isana-kalpa.Template:Sfn Similarly, medieval Hindu texts cite verses that they claim are from Agni Purana, but these verses do not exist in current editions of the text.Template:Sfn These inconsistencies, considered together, have led scholars such as Rajendra Hazra to conclude that the extant manuscripts are different from the text Skanda and Matsya Puranas are referring to.Template:Sfn

The earliest core of the text is likely a post 7th-century composition, and a version existed by the 11th-century.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The chapters that discuss grammar and lexicography may be an addition in the 12th-century, while the chapters on metrics likely predate 950 CE because Pingala-sutras text by the 10th-century scholar Halayudha cites this text.Template:Sfn The section on poetics is likely a post-900 CE composition,Template:Sfn while its summary on Tantra is likely to be a composition between 800 and 1100 CE.Template:Sfn

The Agni Purana exists in many versions and it exemplifies the complex chronology of the Puranic genre of Indian literature that has survived into modern times. The number of chapters, number of verses and the specific content vary across Agni Purana manuscripts.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Dimmitt and van Buitenen state that each of the Puranas is encyclopedic in style, and it is difficult to ascertain when, where, why and by whom these were written:Template:Sfn

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Structure

The published manuscripts are divided into 382 or 383 chapters, and ranging between 12,000 and 15,000 verses.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Many subjects it covers are in specific chapters, but states Rocher, these "succeed one another without the slightest connection or transition".Template:Sfn In other cases, such as its discussion of iconography, the verses are found in many sections of the Agni Purana.Template:Sfn

Editions and translations

The first printed edition of the text was edited by Rajendralal Mitra in the 1870s (Calcutta : Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1870–1879, 3 volumes; Bibliotheca Indica, 65, 1–3). The entire text extends to slightly below one million characters.

An English translation was published in two volumes by Manmatha Nath Dutt in 1903–04. There are several versions published by different companies.

Contents

The extant manuscripts are encyclopedic. The first chapter of the text declares its scope to be such.Template:Sfn Some subjects covered by the text include:[6]

Encyclopedic subjects in Agni Purana
Subject Chapters Illustrative content Reference
Book summary 21-70 Pancaratra texts, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Pingala-Sutras, Amarakosha, etc. Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Regional geography 114-116 Mithila (now Bihar), rivers, forests, towns, culture Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Medicine 279-286, 370 Ayurveda, herbs, nutrition Template:Sfn[7]
Buddhist incantations 123-149 Summary of the Buddhist text Yuddhajayarnava, mantras of Trailokyavijaya Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn[8]
Politics 218-231 Structure of a state, education and duties of a king and key ministers,
organization of army, theory of just war, ambassadors to other kingdoms,
system of administration, civil and criminal law, taxation,
local administration and court system 		Template:Sfn[9][10]
Agriculture, planning 239, 247, 282, 292 Fortification, trees and parks, water reservoirs Template:Sfn[11][12]
Martial arts, weapons 249-252 32 types of martial arts, making and maintaining weapons [13]
Cow 310 Holiness of cow, breeding and taking care of cows [14]
Hindu temple, monastery 25, 39-45, 55-67, 99-101 Design, layout, construction, architecture [15]
Metrics, poetics, art of writing 328-347 Summary of different schools on poetics, music, art of poetry,
Alamkara, Chandas, Rasa, Riti, language, rhetoric 		Template:Sfn[16][17]
Yoga, moksha 372-381 Eight limbs of yoga, ethics, meditation, samadhi,
soul, non-dualism (Advaita), summary of Bhagavad Gita 		Template:Sfn[18][19][20]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Thomas Green (2001). Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, Template:ISBN, page 282
  2. ↑ Phillip B. Zarrilli. Paradigms of Practice and Power in a South Indian Martial Art. University of Wisconsin-Madison.
  3. ↑ Ancient Indian Tradition & Mythology: The Agni Purana, Part 4{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Motilal Banarsidass(1970). ISBN 978-81-208-0306-0
  4. ↑ The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Yale University Press(1994). ISBN 978-0-300-06217-5
  5. ↑ History of Agriculture in India, Up to C. 1200 A.D.{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Routledge(2008). ISBN 978-81-8069-521-6
  6. ↑ Shastri, P. (1995) Introduction to the Puranas, New Delhi: Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, pp.98–115
  7. ↑ Medical information in Agnipurana. Bull Indian Inst Hist Med Hyderabad({Template:Year).
  8. ↑ Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afd. Letterkunde{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. North-Holland(1969)
  9. ↑ Ancient Indian Kingship From the Religious Point of View. Numen({Template:Year).
  10. ↑ Polity in the Agni Purāṇa{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Punthi Pustak(1965)
  11. ↑ Ethno-ornithology: Birds, Indigenous Peoples, Culture and Society{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Earthscan(2010). ISBN 978-1-84977-475-8
  12. ↑ MN Dutt, Agni Purana Vol 2, pages 853-858
  13. ↑ MN Dutt (1967), Agni Purana, Vol 1, Template:Oclc, Template:ISBN, pages 102-109
  14. ↑ MN Dutt, Agni Purana Vol 2, pages 1075-1081 (Note: Dutt's manuscript has 365 chapters, and is numbered differently)
  15. ↑ The Hindu Temple{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Motilal Banarsidass(1976). ISBN 978-81-208-0224-7
  16. ↑ The Alaṃkāra-section of the Agni-purāṇa{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Firma KLM(1976). ISBN 9780883869116
  17. ↑ Literary History: Towards a Global Perspective: Volume 1{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Walter de Gruyter(2006). ISBN 978-3-11-089411-0
  18. ↑ MN Dutt (1967), Agni Purana, Template:Oclc, Template:ISBN, pages 433-457
  19. ↑ MN Dutt, Agni Purana Vol 2, pages 1313-1338 (Note: Dutt's manuscript has 365 chapters, and is numbered differently)
  20. ↑ The "Yoga Sutra of Patanjali": A Biography{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Princeton University Press(2014). ISBN 978-1-4008-5005-1

Bibliography

  • The Study of Hinduism{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. University of South Carolina Press(2003). ISBN 978-1-57003-449-7
  • Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide. Penguin.
  • Classical Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Puranas{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Temple University Press (1st Edition: 1977)(2012). ISBN 978-1-4399-0464-0
  • Epic and Puranic Bibliography (Up to 1985) Annoted and with Indexes: Part I: A - R, Part II: S - Z, Indexes. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.
  • Studies in the Puranic Records on Hindu Rites and Customs{{#if:Hazra|, Hazra}. Motilal Banarsidass (1987 Reprint)(1940). ISBN 978-81-208-0422-7
  • [{{{url}}} The Hindu Temple, Volume 1 & 2]. Motilal Banarsidass.
  • [{{{url}}} The Puranas]. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.
  • The Vishnu Purana: A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition (Volume 1: Introduction, Book I){{#if:Wilson|, Wilson}. Read Country Books (reprinted in 2006)(1864). ISBN 1-84664-664-2
  • History of Indian Literature Vol 1 (Original in German, translated into English by VS Sarma, 1981){{#if:Winternitz|, Winternitz}. Motilal Banarsidass (Reprint 2010)(1922). ISBN 978-8120802643

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