The Shiva Purana is one of eighteen major texts of the Purana genre of Sanskrit texts in Hinduism, and part of the Shaivism literature corpus.[1] It primarily revolves around the Hindu god Shiva and goddess Parvati, but references and reveres all gods.[2][3][4]
The Shiva Purana asserts that it once consisted of 100,000 verses set out in twelve Samhitas (Books); however, the Purana adds that it was abridged by Sage Vyasa before being taught to Romaharshana.[1] The surviving manuscripts exist in many different versions and content,[5] with one major version with seven books (traced to South India), another with six books, while the third version traced to the medieval Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent with no books but two large sections called Purva-Khanda (Previous Section) and Uttara-Khanda (Later Section).[1][6] The two versions that include books, title some of the books same and others differently.[1] The Shiva Purana, like other Puranas in Hindu literature, was likely a living text, which was routinely edited, recast and revised over a long period of time.[7][8] The oldest manuscript of surviving texts was likely composed, estimates Klaus Klostermaier, around 10th- to 11th-century CE.[9][4] Some chapters of currently surviving Shiva Purana manuscripts were likely composed after the 14th-century.[6]
The Shiva Purana contains chapters with Shiva-centered cosmology, mythology, and relationship between gods, ethics, yoga, tirtha (pilgrimage) sites, bhakti, rivers and geography, and other topics.[10][2][11] The text is an important source of historic information on different types and theology behind Shaivism in early 2nd-millennium CE.[12] The oldest surviving chapters of the Shiva Purana have significant Advaita Vedanta philosophy,[6] which is mixed in with theistic elements of bhakti.[13]
In the 19th and 20th century, the Vayu Purana was sometimes titled as Shiva Purana, and sometimes proposed as a part of the complete Shiva Purana.[14] With the discovery of more manuscripts, modern scholarship considers the two texts as different,[1] with Vayu Purana as the more older text composed sometime before the 2nd-century CE.[12][15][16] Some scholars list it as a Mahapurana, while some state it is an Upapurana.[6][17]
^ abcdeDalal 2014, p. 381.
^ abJL Shastri 1950a.
^Kramrisch 1976, pp. 172–173, 229, 263–275, 326, 340–369.
^ abK P Gietz 1992, p. 323 with note 1780.
^Rocher 1986, pp. 222–224.
^ abcdK P Gietz 1992, p. 539 with note 2987.
^Pintchman 2001, pp. 91-92 with note 4.
^Arvind Sharma (2003). The Study of Hinduism. University of South Carolina Press. pp. 160–167. ISBN 978-1570034497.
^Klostermaier 2007, p. 503.
^Dalal 2014, pp. 381–382.
^JL Shastri 1950d.
^ abKlostermaier 2007, pp. 544-545 note 22.
^Klaus K. Klostermaier (1984). Mythologies and Philosophies of Salvation in the Theistic Traditions of India. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. pp. 180, 263–264. ISBN 978-0-88920-158-3. Quote: Though the basic tenor of those sections of Shiva Purana is Advaitic, the theistic elements of bhakti, gurupasati and so forth are mixed with it.
^Shastri, JL (1970). The Siva Purana. India: Motilal Banarasidass. pp. xiii.
The ShivaPurana is one of eighteen major texts of the Purana genre of Sanskrit texts in Hinduism, and part of the Shaivism literature corpus. It primarily...
feature either more or less prominently in this text than in other Shiva-related Puranas. The text has been an important historical record and influence...
shlokas (verses) from 16 – 32 of the chapter. In the ShivaPurana, after Ganesha's life was restored by Shiva, he was crowned as the leader of the ganas by the...
practices, with sections that also praise Shiva, Shakti and other gods in a secular way. The Varaha Purana includes mythology, particularly of the Varaha...
herself as Shiva in male form. Her half is Shiva. The Devi Bhagavata Purana describes Mahadevi in her form of Bhuvaneshvari. It is stated that Shiva worshipped...
the Hindu god Shiva. The word is a Sanskrit compound of jyotis ('radiance') and linga ('sign'). The Śiva Mahāpurāṇam (also ShivaPurana) mentions 64 original...
title Linga refers to the iconographical symbol for Shiva. The author(s) and date of the Linga Purana are unknown, and estimates place the original text...
dedicated to Vishnu, as well as significant sections on Shiva and Shakti. The manuscripts of Padma Purana have survived into the modern era in numerous versions...
(mind-born son) of the creator god Brahma in the Puranas, Kamadeva's most popular myth is his incineration by Shiva's third eye while the latter was meditating...
figure being praised. The Shiva Sahasranama is found in the Shiva Mahapurana, and many other scriptures, such as Linga Purana. There are at least eight...
Padma Purana. The Linga Purana, ShivaPurana, and Matsya Purana also detail the incident. Variations of the legend may be observed in later Puranas, each...
temple also has several monasteries and samadhis of saints. As per the ShivaPurana, once Brahma (the Hindu God of creation) and Vishnu (the Hindu God of...
Shiva and Parvati. His story finds mention in various Hindu texts, including the Matsya Purāṇa, the Kūrma Purāṇa, the Liṅga Purāṇa, the Padma Purana,...
Parvati. Parvati is described to be Vishalakshi in a chapter in the ShivaPurana, when Shiva sets his eye on Parvati for the first time: Then Śiva looked at...
(also known as tripundra) and other parts of the body. According to the ShivaPurana, the particles of ash which cling to the skin when tripundra is applied...
changed and they came to represent evil, vice and abuse of power. In ShivaPurana, they evolved into anti-gods and had to be destroyed because they threatened...
found in Vamana Purana, Shiva's visit to the hermitage in Deodar forests was an act of grace at Parvati's request. The ShivaPurana also describes the...
invite his youngest daughter Sati and her husband Shiva. In the Linga Purana, for insulting Shiva during this event, which caused Sati to self-immolate...
Manthana is alluded briefly in the Kurma Purana, the Linga Purana, the Brahma Vaivarta Purana and the ShivaPurana. Variations in these narratives alter...
few of them are detailed here: In the ShivaPurana, Ishana is described as a form or aspect of Shiva. The Purana states that Ishana bestows knowledge and...
and expresses reverence for Vishnu, Shiva and Shakti with equal enthusiasm. The Kurma Purana, like other Puranas, includes legends, mythology, geography...
Linga Purana lists twenty-eight avatars of Shiva. In the ShivaPurana there is a distinctly Saivite version of a traditional avatar myth: Shiva brings...
source from which she manifested herself. — ShivaPurana Uma Samhita Chapter 47, verse 15 Kalika Purana describes Kaushiki as the shakti that was born...
ShivaPurana in the chapter 1.2.10 (Shabda-Brahma Tanu) and in its Vidyeshvara samhita and in chapter 13 of the Vayaviya samhita of the ShivaPurana as...
13,000 and 15,000 verses. The Padma Purana categorizes Matsya Purana as a Tamas Purana, or one that glorifies Shiva or Agni. Scholars consider the Sattva-Rajas-Tamas...
his deeds. — Vayu Purana The Padma Purana identifies Virabhadra as the fierce form of Mangala (Mars). Virabhadra is born when Shiva, due to his anguish...
Shiva Chalisa (Hindi: शिव चालीसा, literally Forty chaupais on Shiva) is a Hindi stotra dedicated to Hindu deity Shiva. Adapted from the ShivaPurana,...
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