{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vp/vp019.htm","path":"hin/vp/vp019.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp019.htm","text":"The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840]\n15. The K\u00farma Pur\u00e1\u0144a\n15. K\u00farma Pur\u00e1\u0144a. \"That in which Jan\u00e1rddana, in the form of a tortoise, in the regions under the earth, explained the objects of life--duty, wealth, pleasure, and liberation--in communication with Indradyumna and the Rishis in the proximity of \u015aakra, which refers to the Lakshm\u00ed Kalpa, and contains seventeen thousand stanzas, is the K\u00farma Pur\u00e1\u0144a 76.\"\nIn the first chapter of the K\u00farma Pur\u00e1\u0144a it gives an account of itself, which does not exactly agree with this description. S\u00fata, who is repeating the narration, is made to say to the Rishis, \"This most excellent Kaurma Pur\u00e1\u0144a is the fifteenth. Sanhit\u00e1s are fourfold, from the variety of the collections. The Br\u00e1hm\u00ed, Bh\u00e1gavat\u00ed, Saur\u00ed, and Vaish\u0144av\u00ed, are well known as the four Sanhit\u00e1s which confer virtue, wealth, pleasure, and liberation. This is the Br\u00e1hm\u00ed Sanhit\u00e1, conformable to the four Vedas; in which there are six thousand \u015blokas, and by it the importance of the four objects of life, O great sages, holy knowledge and Parame\u015bwara is known.\" There is an irreconcilable difference in this specification of the number of stanzas and that given above. It is not very clear what is meant by a Sanhit\u00e1 as here used. A Sanhit\u00e1, as observed above (p. xi), is something different from a Pur\u00e1\u0144a. It may be an assemblage of prayers and legends, extracted professedly from a Pur\u00e1\u0144a, but is not usually applicable to the original. The four Sanhit\u00e1s here specified refer rather to their religious character than to their connexion with any specific work, and in fact the same terms are applied to what are called Sanhit\u00e1s of the Sk\u00e1nda. In this sense a Pur\u00e1\u0144a might be also a Sanhit\u00e1; that is, it might be an assemblage of formul\u00e6 and legends belonging to a division of the Hindu system; and the work in question, like the Vish\u0144u Pur\u00e1\u0144a, does adopt both titles. It says, \"This is the excellent Kaurma Pur\u00e1\u0144a, the fifteenth (of the series):\" and again, \"This is the Br\u00e1hm\u00ed Sanhit\u00e1.\" At any rate, no other work has been met with pretending to be the K\u00farma Pur\u00e1\u0144a.\nWith regard to the other particulars specified by the Matsya, traces of them are to be found. Although in two accounts of the traditional communication of the Pur\u00e1\u0144a no mention is made of Vish\u0144u as one of the teachers, yet S\u00fata repeats at the outset a dialogue between Vish\u0144u, as the K\u00farma, and Indradyumna, at the time of the churning of the ocean; and much of the subsequent narrative is put into the mouth of the former.\nThe name, being that of an Avat\u00e1ra of Vish\u0144u, might lead us to expect a Vaish\u0144ava work; but it is always and correctly classed with the \u015aaiva. Pur\u00e1\u0144as, the greater portion of it inculcating the worship of \u015aiva and Durg\u00e1. It is divided into two parts, of nearly equal length. In the first part, accounts of the creation, of the Avat\u00e1ras of Vish\u0144u, of the solar and lunar dynasties of the kings to the time of Krish\u0144a, of the universe, and of the Manwantaras, are given, in general in a summary manner, but not unfrequently in the words employed in the Vish\u0144u Pur\u00e1\u0144a. With these are blended hymns addressed to Mahe\u015bwara by Brahm\u00e1 and others; the defeat of Andhak\u00e1sura by Bhairava; the origin of four \u015aaktis, Mahe\u015bwar\u00ed, \u015aiv\u00e1, \u015aat\u00ed, and Haimavat\u00ed, from \u015aiva; and other \u015aaiva legends. One chapter gives a more distinct and connected account of the incarnations of \u015aiva in the present age than the Linga; and it wears still more the appearance of an attempt to identify the teachers of the Yoga school with personations of their preferential deity. Several chapters form a K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed M\u00e1h\u00e1tmya, a legend of Benares. In the second part there are no legends. It is divided into two parts, the \u00cd\u015bwara G\u00edta 77 and Vy\u00e1sa Gita. In the former the knowledge of god, that is, of \u015aiva, through contemplative devotion, is taught. In the latter the same object is enjoined through works, or observance of the ceremonies and precepts of the Vedas.\nThe date of the K\u00farma Pur\u00e1\u0144a cannot be very remote, for it is avowedly posterior to the establishment of the T\u00e1ntrika, the S\u00e1kta, and the Jain sects. In the twelfth chapter it is said, \"The Bhairava, V\u00e1ma, \u00c1rhata, and Y\u00e1mala \u015a\u00e1stras are intended for delusion.\" There is no\nreason to believe that the Bhairava and Y\u00e1mala Tantras are very ancient works, or that the practices of the left-hand \u015a\u00e1ktas, or the doctrines of Arhat or Jina were known in the early centuries of our era.\nl:77 This is also translated by Col. Vans Kennedy (Anc. and Hindu Mythol., Appendix D. p. 444); and in this instance, as in other passages quoted by him from the K\u00farma, his MS. and mine agree.","title":"The Vishnu Purana: Preface: 15. The K\u00farma Pur&aacu...","type":"page"}