by Bibek Debroy
Other than the five attributes, the Puranas have a considerable amount of information on geography and even geological changes (changes in courses of river) and astronomy. Therefore, those five attributes shouldn’t suggest the Puranas have nothing more. They do, and they have therefore been described as encyclopedias. Bharatavarsha is vast and heterogeneous and each Purana may very well have originated in one particular part of the country. Accordingly, within that broad compass of an overall geographical description, the extent of geographical information varies from Purana to Purana. Some are more familiar with one part of the country than with another. Though not explicitly mentioned in the five attributes, the Puranas are also about pursuing dharma, artha, kama and moksha, the four objectives of human existence, and about the four varnas and the four ashramas. The general understanding and practice of dharma is based much more on the Puranas than on the Vedas. Culture, notions of law, rituals, architecture and iconography are based on the Puranas. There is beautiful poetry too, including in parts of the Markandeya Purana.
Perhaps one should mention that there are two ways these eighteen Puranas are classified. The trinity has Brahma as the creator, Vishnu as the preserver and Shiva as the destroyer. Therefore, Puranas where creation themes feature prominently are identified with Brahma (Brahma, Brahmanda, Brahmavaivarta, Markandeya). Puranas where Vishnu features prominently are identified as Vaishnava Puranas (Bhagavata, Garuda, Kurma, Matysa, Narada, Padma, Vamana, Varaha, Vishnu). Puranas where Shiva features prominently are identified as Shaiva Puranas (Agni, Lingas, Shiva, Skanda, Vayu). While there is a grain of truth in this, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are all important and all three feature in every Purana. Therefore, beyond the relative superiority of Vishnu vis-à-vis Shiva, the taxonomy probably doesn’t serve much purpose. The second classification is even more tenuous and is based on the three gunas of sattva (purity), rajas (passion) and tamas (ignorance). For example, the Uttara Khanda of the Padma Purana has a few shlokas along these lines, recited by Shiva to Parvati. With a caveat similar to the one mentioned earlier, this should be in the 236th chapter of Uttara Khanda. According to this, the Puranas characterized by sattva are Bhagavata, Garuda, Narada, Padma, Varaha and Vishnu. Those characterized by rajas are Bhavishya, Brahma, Brahmanda, Brahmavaivarta, Markandeya and Vamana, Those characterized by tamas are Agni, Kurma, Linga, Matysa, Skanda and Shiva.
Within a specific Purana text, there are earlier sections, as well as later ones. That makes it difficult to date a Purana, except as a range. Across Purana texts, there are older Puranas, as well as later ones. Extremely speculatively, the dating will be something like the following. (1) Agni (800–1100 CE); (2) Bhagavata (500–1000 CE); (3) Brahma (700–1500 CE); (4) Brahmanda (400–600 CE); (5) Brahmavaivarta (700–1500 CE); (6) Garuda (800–1100 CE); (7) Kurma (600–900 CE); (8) Linga (500–1000 CE); (9) Markandeya (250–700 CE); (10) Matsya (200–500 CE); (11) Narada (900–1600 CE); (12) Padma (400–1600 CE); (13) Shiva (1000–1400 CE); (14) Skanda (600–1200 CE); (15) Vamana (450–900 CE); (16) Varaha (1000–1200 CE); (17) Vayu (350–550 CE); (18) Vishnu (300 BCE to 450 CE); and (19) Bhavishya (500–1900 CE). Reiterating once again that there is no great precision in these ranges, by this reckoning, the Vishnu Purana is the oldest and some parts of the Bhavishya Purana are as recent as the nineteeth century.
As mentioned earlier, there is no Critical Edition for the Puranas. Therefore, one has to choose a Sanskrit text one is going to translate from. If one is going to translate all the Puranas, it is preferable, though not essential, that one opts for a common source for all the Purana texts. The common source for the Markandeya Purana, and all the Purana translations, is the one brought out by Nag Publishers, with funding from the ministry of human resource development. 8 To the best of my knowledge, other than this translation, there are two unabridged translations of the Markandeya Purana in English. The first was by Manmatha Nath Dutt in 1896. 9 The second was by F.E. Pargiter in 1904. 10 For the record, there were partial translations by B. Hale Wortham in 1881 and Charu Chandra Mukherjee in 1893. Broadly, there were three editions of the Sanskrit text—Bombay, Poona and Calcutta. The Bombay and Poona editions differ marginally from each other, and essentially this is the text we have followed. Manmatha Nath Dutt followed the Calcutta edition. Pargiter also followed the Calcutta edition, but incorporated chapters from the Bombay/Poona editions. Our Sanskrit text is very similar to the Pargiter Sanskrit text, with some differences. There are 6,449 shlokas, nowhere near the 9,000 the Markandeya Purana is believed to have had. Sometimes, it is also a question of how one counts a shloka. Even if the content is identical, the text may be counted as one shloka is one place and as two shlokas elsewhere. Our numbering is exactly the same as in the Sanskrit text we have followed. Even then, there are some 2,500 shlokas fewer than the 9,000. Indeed, Chapter 134 of the Markandeya Purana tells us it had 6,800 or 6,900 shlokas. If those missing shlokas ever existed, they have simply got lost.
In his introduction to the translation of the Markandeya Purana, Pargiter quotes from Horace Hayman Wilson’s translation of the Vishnu Purana, where Wilson had comments about the Markandeya Purana, though the translation was of the Vishnu Purana. 11 ‘This Purana 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 Puranas in general, with exception of the Bhagavata.’ This might generally be true, but it is not true of the Devi Mahatmya section.
The K.M. Banerjea introduction identified five segments into which the 134 chapters can be divided. (1) Chapters 1–9, with Markandeya answering the four questions posed to him by Jaimini; (2) Chapters 10–41, with further questions asked by Jaimini, but answered by Sumati/Jada and not by Markandeya directly; (3) Chapters 42–77, with a conversation between Markandeya and Kroushtuki; (4) Chapters 78–90, the Devi Mahatmya section; and (5) Chapters 91–134, a continuation of the conversation between Markandeya and Kroushtuki, which was left dangling in Chapter 77. There is a discontinuity in the text and scholars agree that the original Markandeya Purana had segments (3) and (5). In the second stage, segments (1) and (2) were composed and pre-fixed to segments (3) and (5). In segment (2), in the Alarka and Madalasa account, there is an excellent exposition of yoga and some beautiful poetry that no translation can aspire to accurately convey. Finally, in the third stage, segment (4), the Devi Mahatmya was added. At least three stages in the composition of the Markandeya Purana can thus be discerned. Scholars also agree that the text originated in the western parts of India, the valleys of the Narmada and the Tapti and the region around the Vindhyas. This is also true of the Devi Mahatmya segment. ‘The Devi-mahatmya must have originated in some place dedicated to the goddess in her terrible form. The poem has now become a text-book of the worshippers of Kali throughout Northern India and in Bengal, especially at the great Durga-puja festival, but it did not originate in Bengal.’ 12
Pargiter can also be quoted on the date of composition. ‘The question of the date of the Purana is more difficult, since all questions of chronology in Sanskrit writings are most uncertain. One definite and important date may be first noticed. Mahamahopadhyaya Haraprasad Sastri found a copy of the Devi-mahatmya in old Newari characters in the Royal Library in Nepal, and it is dated 998 A.D. (See his Catalogue). It may be safely inferr
ed therefrom, that this poem must have been composed before the beginning of the 10th century at the latest. The Devi-mahatmya cannot therefore be later than the 9th century and may be considerably earlier. Since it is the latest part of the Purana, the other parts must have been composed earlier, and the question for consideration is, how much earlier? . . . Prof. Wilson in his preface to his Translation of the Visnu Purana pointed out that this Purana is later than the Mahabharata but anterior to the Brahma, Padma, Naradiya and Bhagavata Puranas, and conjectured that it may be placed in the ninth or tenth century A.D. This, as already noticed, is too recent, moreover it has been discovered since that his estimates of the composition of the several Puranas under-reckon their age, and that the periods assigned by him should be moved some centuries earlier . . . Mahamahopadhyaya Haraprasad Sastri found in the Royal Library in Nepal a copy of the “Skanda Purana” written in the later Gupta characters of the 6th or 7th century A.D. From that it is obvious that the composition of the Skanda Purana must have taken place four or five centuries earlier than Prof. Wilson’s estimate. Hence it is possible that a corresponding modification of his estimate regarding the Markandeya Purana should be made, and that would place it about the 4th century A.D. . . . From all these considerations it seems fair to draw the following conclusions. The Devi-mahatmya, the latest part, was certainly complete in the 9th century and very probably in the 5th or 6th century A.D. The third and fifth parts, which constituted the original Purana, were very probably in existence in the third century, and perhaps even earlier; and the first and second parts were composed between those two periods.’ This explains the dating of 250–700 CE we cited for the Markandeya Purana.
In the translations of the Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabharata, the Harivamsha, the Valmiki Ramayana and the Bhagavata Purana, 13 we followed the principle of not using diacritical marks. The use of diacritical marks (effectively the international alphabet of Sanskrit transliteration) makes the pronunciation and rendering more accurate, but also tends to put off readers who are less academically inclined. Since diacritical marks are not being used, there is a challenge of rendering Sanskrit names in English. Sanskrit is a phonetic language and we have used that principle as a basis. Applied consistently, this means that words are rendered in ways that may seem unfamiliar. Hence, Kraushtuki will appear as Kroushtuki here. This is true of proper names, and, in a few rare cases, of geographical names. The absence of diacritical marks causes some minor problems. How does one distinguish Vasudeva Krishna from Krishna’s father, Vasudeva? Often, the context will make the difference clear. If not, we have written the son as Vaasudeva and the father as Vasudeva. In translating, the attempt has been to provide a word for word translation, so that if one were to hold up the Sanskrit text, there would be a perfect match. In the process, the English is not as smooth as it might have been, deliberately so.
The intention is also to offer a translation, not an interpretation. That sounds like a simple principle to adopt, and for the most part, is easy to follow. However, there is a thin dividing line between translation and interpretation. In some instances, it is impossible to translate without bringing in a little bit of interpretation. Inevitably, interpretation is subjective. We have tried to minimize the problem by (a) reducing interpretation; (b) relegating interpretation to footnotes; and (c) when there are alternative interpretations, pointing this out to the reader through those footnotes.
But all said and done, there is no substitute to reading these texts in the original Sanskrit.
The Markandeya Purana
Chapter 1: 54 shlokas
Chapter 2: 66 shlokas
Chapter 3: 86 shlokas
Chapter 4: 59 shlokas
Chapter 5: 26 shlokas
Chapter 6: 37 shlokas
Chapter 7: 69 shlokas
Chapter 8: 286 shlokas
Chapter 9: 33 shlokas
Chapter 10: 97 shlokas
Chapter 11: 32 shlokas
Chapter 12: 48 shlokas
Chapter 13: 21 shlokas
Chapter 14: 96 shlokas
Chapter 15: 82 shlokas
Chapter 16: 183 shlokas
Chapter 17: 43 shlokas
Chapter 18: 58 shlokas
Chapter 19: 106 shlokas
Chapter 20: 51 shlokas
Chapter 21: 118 shlokas
Chapter 22: 46 shlokas
Chapter 23: 62 shlokas
Chapter 24: 34 shlokas
Chapter 25: 37 shlokas
Chapter 26: 48 shlokas
Chapter 27: 25 shlokas
Chapter 28: 67 shlokas
Chapter 29: 39 shlokas
Chapter 30: 17 shlokas
Chapter 31: 121 shlokas
Chapter 32: 97 shlokas
Chapter 33: 10 shlokas
Chapter 34: 43 shlokas
Chapter 35: 20 shlokas
Chapter 36: 65 shlokas
Chapter 37: 42 shlokas
Chapter 38: 26 shlokas
Chapter 39: 17 shlokas
Chapter 40: 83 shlokas
Chapter 41: 43 shlokas
Chapter 42: 73 shlokas
Chapter 43: 44 shlokas
Chapter 44: 37 shlokas
Chapter 45: 45 shlokas
Chapter 46: 80 shlokas
Chapter 47: 97 shlokas
Chapter 48: 123 shlokas
Chapter 49: 31 shlokas
Chapter 50: 43 shlokas
Chapter 51: 32 shlokas
Chapter 52: 23 shlokas
Chapter 53: 26 shlokas
Chapter 54: 64 shlokas
Chapter 55: 81 shlokas
Chapter 56: 29 shlokas
Chapter 57: 15 shlokas
Chapter 58: 79 shlokas
Chapter 59: 31 shlokas
Chapter 60: 65 shlokas
Chapter 61: 19 shlokas
Chapter 62: 29 shlokas
Chapter 63: 42 shlokas
Chapter 64: 7 shlokas
Chapter 65: 46 shlokas
Chapter 66: 69 shlokas
Chapter 67: 39 shlokas
Chapter 68: 29 shlokas
Chapter 69: 42 shlokas
Chapter 70: 16 shlokas
Chapter 71: 61 shlokas
Chapter 72: 77 shlokas
Chapter 73: 59 shlokas
Chapter 74: 42 shlokas
Chapter 75: 35 shlokas
Chapter 76: 13 shlokas
Chapter 77: 11 shlokas
Chapter 78: 78 shlokas
Chapter 79: 70 shlokas
Chapter 80: 44 shlokas
Chapter 81: 38 shlokas
Chapter 82: 79 shlokas
Chapter 83: 20 shlokas
Chapter 84: 26 shlokas
Chapter 85: 61 shlokas
Chapter 86: 39 shlokas
Chapter 87: 28 shlokas
Chapter 88: 51 shlokas
Chapter 89: 38 shlokas
Chapter 90: 17 shlokas
Chapter 91: 31 shlokas
Chapter 92: 26 shlokas
Chapter 93: 48 shlokas
Chapter 94: 38 shlokas
Chapter 95: 10 shlokas
Chapter 96: 71 shlokas
Chapter 97: 45 shlokas
Chapter 98: 27 shlokas
Chapter 99: 22 shlokas
Chapter 100: 15 shlokas
Chapter 101: 38 shlokas
Chapter 102: 27 shlokas
Chapter 103: 65 shlokas
Chapter 104: 11 shlokas
Chapter 105: 29 shlokas
Chapter 106: 78 shlokas
Chapter 107: 43 shlokas
Chapter 108: 18 shlokas
Chapter 109: 25 shlokas
Chapter 110: 37 shlokas
Chapter 111: 36 shlokas
Chapter 112: 23 shlokas
Chapter 113: 76 shlokas
Chapter 114: 51 shlokas
Chapter 115: 21 shlokas
Chapter 116: 19 shlokas
Chapter 117: 39 shlokas
Chapter 118: 23 shlokas
Chapter 119: 30 shlokas
Chapter 120: 27 shlokas
Chapter 121: 65 shlokas
Chapter 122: 32 shlokas
Chapter 123: 47 shlokas
Chapter 124: 39 shlokas
Chapter 125: 36 shlokas
Chapter 126: 39 shlokas
Chapter 127: 25 shlokas
Chapter 128: 51 shlokas
Chapter 129: 34 shlokas
Chapter 130: 63 shlokas
Chapter 131: 37 shlokas
Chapter 132: 15 shlokas
Chapter 133: 38 shlokas
Chapter 134: 42 shlokas
Total 6449
Chapter 1
I bow down to the illustrious Vasudeva. 1 Hari manifested himself and his lotus feet strode over earth, heaven and the intervening region. 2 Those feet possess the power to destroy the fear of the cycle of worldly existence. Yogis and those who are detached in their minds approach and greatly worship them. May they purify us. He is accomplished in purifying us of all our sins. In his embodied form, he lies down in the coils of the serpent 3 in the ocean of milk. The serpent’s breathing makes the dreadful spray from the water tremble and the agitated ocean seems to keep company and dance. May he save us. I bow down before Narayana. I bow down before Nara, supreme among men. I bow down before the goddess Sarasvati. I then bow down to Vyasa and recite the account of victory. 4