{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vp/vp011.htm","path":"hin/vp/vp011.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp011.htm","text":"The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840]\n7. The M\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301eya Pur\u00e1\u0144a\n7. M\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301a or M\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301eya Pur\u00e1\u0144a. \"That Pur\u00e1\u0144a in which, commencing with the story of the birds that were acquainted with right and wrong, every thing is narrated fully by M\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301eya, as it was explained by holy sages in reply to the question of the Muni, is called the M\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301eya, containing nine thousand verses 55.\" This is so called from its\nbeing in the first instance narrated by M\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301eya Muni, and in the second place by certain fabulous birds; thus far agreeing with the account given of it in the Matsya. That, as well as other authorities, specify its containing nine thousand stanzas; but my copy closes with a verse affirming that the number of verses recited by the Muni was six thousand nine hundred; and a copy in the East India Company's library has a similar specification. The termination is, however, somewhat abrupt, and there is no reason why the subject with which it ends should not have been carried on farther. One copy in the Company's library, indeed, belonging to the Guicowar's collection, states at the close that it is the end of the first Kha\u0144d\u0301a, or section. If the Pur\u00e1\u0144a was ever completed, the remaining portion of it appears to be lost.\nJaimini, the pupil of Vy\u00e1sa, applies to M\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301eya to be made acquainted with the nature of V\u00e1sudeva, and for an explanation of some of the incidents described in the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata; with the ambrosia of which divine poem, Vy\u00e1sa he declares has watered the whole world: a reference which establishes the priority of the Bh\u00e1rata to the M\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301eya Pur\u00e1\u0144a, however incompatible this may be with the tradition, that having finished the Pur\u00e1\u0144as, Vy\u00e1sa wrote the poem.\nM\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301eya excuses himself, saying he has a religious rite to perform; and he refers Jaimini to some very sapient birds, who reside in the Vindhya mountains; birds of a celestial origin, found, when just born, by the Muni \u015aam\u00edka, on the field of Kurukshetra, and brought up by him along with his scholars: in consequence of which, and by virtue of their heavenly descent, they became profoundly versed in the Vedas, and a knowledge of spiritual truth. This machinery is borrowed from the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, with some embellishment. Jaimini accordingly has recourse to the birds, Ping\u00e1ksha and his brethren, and puts to them the questions he had asked of the Muni. \"Why was V\u00e1sudeva born as a mortal? How was it that Draupad\u00ed was the wife of the five P\u00e1\u0144d\u0301us? Why did Baladeva do penance for Brahmanicide? and why were the children of Draupad\u00ed destroyed, when they had Krish\u0144a and Arjuna to defend them?\" The answers to these inquiries occupy a number of chapters, and form a sort of supplement to the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata; supplying,\npartly by invention, perhaps, and partly by reference to equally ancient authorities, the blanks left in some of its narrations.\nLegends of Vritr\u00e1sura's death, Baladeva's penance, Hari\u015bchandra's elevation to heaven, and the quarrel between Va\u015bisht\u0301ha and Visw\u00e1mitra, are followed by a discussion respecting birth, death, and sin; which leads to a more extended description of the different hells than is found in other Pur\u00e1\u0144as. The account of creation which is contained in this work is repeated by the birds after M\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301eya's account of it to Krosht\u0301uki, and is confined to the origin of the Vedas and patriarchal families, amongst whom are new characters, as Duhsaha and his wife M\u00e1rsht\u0301i, and their descendants; allegorical personages, representing intolerable iniquity and its consequences. There is then a description of the world, with, as usual to this Pur\u00e1\u0144a, several singularities, some of which are noticed in the following pages. This being the state of the world in the Sw\u00e1yambhuva Manwantara, an account of the other Manwantaras succeeds, in which the births of the Manus, and a number of other particulars, are peculiar to this work. The present or Vaivaswata Manwantara is very briefly passed over; but the next, the first of the future Manwantaras, contains the long episodical narrative of the actions of the goddess Durg\u00e1, which is the especial boast of this Pur\u00e1\u0144a, and is the text-book of the worshippers of K\u00e1li, Cha\u0144d\u0301\u00ed, or Durg\u00e1, in Bengal. It is the Cha\u0144d\u0301\u00ed P\u00e1tha, or Durg\u00e1 M\u00e1h\u00e1tmya, in which the victories of the goddess over different evil beings, or Asuras, are detailed with considerable power and spirit. It is read daily in the temples of Durg\u00e1, and furnishes the pomp and circumstance of the great festival of Bengal, the Durg\u00e1 puj\u00e1, or public worship of that goddess 56.\nAfter the account of the Manwantaras is completed, there follows a series of legends, some new, some old, relating to the sun and his posterity; continued to Vaivaswata Manu and his sons, and their immediate descendants; terminating with Dama, the son of Narishyanta 57. Of most of the persons noticed, the work narrates particulars not found elsewhere.\nThis Pur\u00e1\u0144a has a character different from that of all the others. It has nothing of a sectarial spirit, little of a religious tone, rarely inserting prayers and invocations to any deity, and such as are inserted are brief and moderate. It deals little in precepts, ceremonial or moral. Its leading feature is narrative, and it presents an uninterrupted succession of legends, most of which, when ancient, are embellished with new circumstances; and when new, partake so far of the spirit of the old, that they are disinterested creations of the imagination, having no particular motive; being designed to recommend no special doctrine or observance. Whether they are derived from any other source, or whether they are original inventions, it is not possible to ascertain. They are most probably, for the greater part at least, original; and the whole has been narrated in the compiler's own manner, a manner superior to that of the Pur\u00e1\u0144as in general, with exception of the Bh\u00e1gavata.\nIt is not easy to conjecture a date for this Pur\u00e1\u0144a: it is subsequent to the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, but how long subsequent is doubtful. It is unquestionably more ancient than such works as the Brahm\u00e1, Padma, and N\u00e1rad\u00edya Pur\u00e1\u0144as; and its freedom from sectarial bias is a reason for supposing it anterior to the Bh\u00e1gavata. At the same time, its partial conformity to the definition of a Pur\u00e1\u0144a, and the tenor of the additions which it has made to received legends and traditions, indicate a not very remote age; and, in the absence of any guide to a more positive conclusion, it may conjecturally be placed in the ninth or tenth century.\nxxxv:56 A translation into English by a Madras Pandit, K\u00e1vali Venkata R\u00e1masw\u00e1mi, was published at Calcutta in 1823.\nxxxv:57 See Vish\u0144u P., p. 253. n. 22.","title":"The Vishnu Purana: Preface: 7. The M\u00e1rkan\u0301d&#...","type":"page"}