{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vp/vp016.htm","path":"hin/vp/vp016.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp016.htm","text":"The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840]\n12. The Var\u00e1ha Pur\u00e1\u0144a\n12. Var\u00e1ha Pur\u00e1\u0144a. \"That in which the glory of the great Var\u00e1ha is predominant, as it was revealed to Earth by Vish\u0144u, in connexion, wise Munis, with the M\u00e1nava Kalpa, and which contains twenty-four thousand verses, is called the V\u00e1r\u00e1ha Pur\u00e1\u0144a 68.\"\nIt may be doubted if the Var\u00e1ha Pur\u00e1\u0144a of the present day is here intended. It is narrated by Vish\u0144u as Var\u00e1ha, or in the boar incarnation, to the personified Earth. Its extent, however, is not half that specified, little exceeding ten thousand stanzas. It furnishes also itself\nevidence of the prior currency of some other work, similarly denominated; as, in the description of Mathur\u00e1 contained in it, Sumantu, a Muni, is made to observe, \"The divine Var\u00e1ha in former times expounded a Pur\u00e1\u0144a, for the purpose of solving the perplexity of Earth.\"\nNor can the Var\u00e1ha Pur\u00e1\u0144a be regarded as a Pur\u00e1\u0144a agreeably to the common definition, as it contains but a few scattered and brief allusions to the creation of the world, and the reign of kings: it has no detailed genealogies either of the patriarchal or regal families, and no account of the reigns of the Manus. Like the Linga Pur\u00e1\u0144a, it is a religious manual, almost wholly occupied with forms of prayer, and rules for devotional observances, addressed to Vish\u0144u; interspersed with legendary illustrations, most of which are peculiar to itself, though some are taken from the common and ancient stock: many of them, rather incompatibly with the general scope of the compilation, relate to the history of \u015aiva and Durg\u00e1 69. A considerable portion of the work is devoted to descriptions of various T\u00edrthas, places of Vaish\u0144ava pilgrimage; and one of Mathur\u00e1 enters into a variety of particulars relating to the shrines of that city, constituting the Mathur\u00e1 M\u00e1h\u00e1tmyam.\nIn the sectarianism of the Var\u00e1ha Pur\u00e1\u0144a there is no leaning to the particular adoration of Krish\u0144a, nor are the Rath-y\u00e1tr\u00e1 and Janm\u00e1sht\u0301am\u00ed included amongst the observances enjoined. There are other indications of its belonging to an earlier stage of Vaish\u0144ava worship, and it may perhaps be referred to the age of R\u00e1m\u00e1nuja, the early part of the twelfth century.\nxlv:69 One of these is translated by Col. Vans Kennedy, the origin of the three \u015aaktis, or goddesses, Saraswat\u00ed, Lakshm\u00ed, and P\u00e1rvati. Ancient and Hindu Mythology, p. 209. The Tri \u015aakti M\u00e1h\u00e1tmya occurs, as he gives it, in my copy, and is so far an indication of the identity of the Var\u00e1ha Pur\u00e1\u0144a in the different MSS.","title":"The Vishnu Purana: Preface: 12. The Var\u00e1ha Pur&aac...","type":"page"}