by Bibek Debroy
872 Bhutida is mentioned twice.
873 Hymn in praise.
874 Planets are mentioned twice.
875 Hemanta. The cold season is hemanta, between autumn and winter. Winter proper is shishira. Hemanta is the months of Margashirsha (also known as Agrahayana) and Pousha. Margashirsha is roughly mid-November to mid-December, while Pousha is mid-December to mid-January. Shishira is the months of Magha (mid-January to mid-February) and Phalguna (mid-February to mid-March). Vasanta or spring is Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April) and Vaishakha (mid-April to mid-May). Grishma or summer is Jyeshtha (mid-May to mid-June) and Ashada (mid-June to mid-July). Varsha or monsoon is Shravana (mid-July to mid-August) and Bhadrapada (mid-August to mid-September), while sharad or autumn is Ashvina (mid-September to mid-October) and Kartika (mid-October to mid-November).
876 Heat and cold and so on.
877 Agni. Several names for Agni are used in the hymn. It is obvious that they are Agni’s names.
878 Anila is the wind and Anala is the fire.
879 Garhapatya, ahavaniya and dakshinagni.
880 Pavaka means the one who purifies.
881 Hiranya means gold and the word used for Agni is Hiranyagarbha, the origin of gold.
882 All these are different measures of time.
883 Agni’s seven tongues/flames have been named—Kali (dark), Karali (terrible), Manojava (swift as thought), Sulohita (extremely red), Sudhumravarna (extremely smoky in complexion), Sphulingini (with sparks) and Vishvasrija (creator of the universe).
884 Hutashana.
885 Bearer of oblations.
886 Shiva.
887 Chandra.
888 That he should have a son and that he should be friendly towards all beings.
889 The text doesn’t make it clear whether this and the subsequent sentences are a reference to Brahma or Surya (Martanda). Either is possible. However, Surya has also been described as Brahma’s own form.
890 The great sound is OUM.
891 This is thus a reference to bhuloka, bhuvarloka, svarloka, maharloka, janarloka, taparloka and satyaloka (brahmaloka).
892 That facing the east.
893 Hibiscus, Rosa sinensis.
894 Metres.
895 Abhichara.
896 Adi means first.
897 The egg.
898 OUM and the nasal tone.
899 The five elements.
900 This mention of Kaashyapa, distinct from Kashyapa, is unusual.
901 This could mean the gods, but probably refers to all the offspring.
902 Surya.
903 The maker of the day, the sun.
904 Both are Surya’s forms.
905 The three.
906 The one who heats, Surya.
907 One without birth.
908 Yama.
909 Portions can be understood as rays. The sun has one thousand rays.
910 Refrain from any more austerities.
911 A kind of fasting that follows the progress (ayana) of the moon (Chandra). On the full moon night, one only eats fifteen mouthfuls of food. For the fifteen lunar days following the full moon, this is decreased by one mouthful per day. For the fifteen lunar days following the new moon, this is increased by one mouthful per day.
912 Bhaskara.
913 Derived from maritam (killed) andam (egg).
914 He performed the role of Surya.
915 This story has already been told once, in Chapter 74.
916 Hence known as Shraddhadeva.
917 The same as Yamuna.
918 The word chhaya means shadow.
919 Vaivasvata Manu.
920 Rituals and rites.
921 Narada is also the name of a gandharva.
922 Musical instrument like a pipe.
923 Shiva.
924 Representing Dharma.
925 The sun rises from behind Mount Udaya.
926 Surya.
927 That is, Yama.
928 Meaning Skanda.
929 By his father.
930 Yama as a title, meant for someone who is the impartial judge of good deeds and bad ones. The lord of the dead and of ancestors.
931 Though not explicitly stated, these are probably addressed to Revanta.
932 There is inconsistency in the text and a confusion between Yamuna and Tapati. Yamuna, the river, has already been mentioned. Therefore, Tapati should have been mentioned now.
933 The word used in the text is dakshinatya.
934 Rajyavardhana’s.
935 The words used are dina, lagna and hora. Dina is day, lagna is the moment when the sun enters a specific rashi (zodiacal sign). Hora does mean hour loosely. More precisely, it is an auspicious moment determined through astrology.
936 A siddha kshetra is a region (kshetra) where people have obtained success (siddhi) and become Siddhas. Guru-Vishala is such a propitious region.
937 Since Kamarupa is to the east, abode can be interpreted in multiple ways.
938 This is a rare instance of Svarbhanu being used as a term for Surya.
939 The two words are ritam and satyam. Satyam is truth, while ritam can be interpreted in different ways, divine truth or divine law being one.
940 Creator of radiance.
941 There are many words for trees. Vanaspati is a large tree that grows in the forest. Specifically, it is a tree with fruit, but no visible flowers.
942 The two forms are those of Surya and Chandra.
943 Nabhaaga, the earlier one being Nabhaga.
944 Sudyumna chanced upon Shiva and Parvati while they were alone. Hence, Sudyumna was transformed into a woman. The Sudyumna to Ila transformation is one that occurs in many texts. The earlier Ila to Sudyumna transformation is rarer. The subsequent Ila to Sudyumna transformation is also mentioned in many texts.
945 The father was Karusha, the sons were Kaarushas.
946 Desire and confusion.
947 Manmatha is another name for Madana.
948 The vaishya.
949 That is, you can get married.
950 The first wife must be a king’s daughter. After marrying a kshatriya lady first, the next wife can be a vaishya.
951 Nabhaga.
952 There are eight forms of marriage and one of these is the rakshasa form of marriage. In this, the maiden is captured by force and married. This is a form that is normally frowned upon.
953 Parivrat can also be taken as an adjective, someone who wanders around. The sage was travelling through the sky.
954 There is a pun that Bhalandana is using. The word go means both cattle and the earth. As a vaishya, his mother has asked him to protect the former, but he wants to protect the latter.
955 Nipa.
956 The name is also stated in the text as Bhalanda.
957 Another name for Vaishakha.
958 Sudeva.
959 Pramati’s.
960 Kripa means compassion. The two names Sudeva and Suratha may cause confusion. Kripavati was Suratha’s daughter. In her next life, she was born as Sudeva’s daughter, Suprabha.
961 One deduces that Kripavati’s friends had called Agastya’s brother a vaishya.
962 Milk, ghee, curd, urine, dung—pancha gavya.
963 Jrimbha means yawn. Kujrimbha is someone who makes the earth yawn badly.
964 Hence the mace is both strong and weak.
965 Tvashta.
966 There were two reasons for this name—the qualities of the mace Sounanda and because he was filled with joy (sananda).
967 Meaning that it is for the parents to decide.
968 If dvija is taken to mean brahmana, the other three would be inferior varnas. If dvija is taken to mean the first three varnas, the inferior varna will mean shudra.
969 Vasundhara is a name for the earth, derived as that which possesses wealth (vasu).
970 Respectively, ten thousand, ten million, ten billion.
971 Prajati.
972 The text probably has a typo. It says Munaya.
973 The word used is muni (sage) and probably refers to priest (purohita), implying that the offices of priests and ministers were hereditary.
974 Though the English sounds strange, we have translated this exactly. Khanitra is the true king. His brothers have small territories and as those territories get subdivided, their descendants progressively have smaller and smaller dominions.
975 Such as a grandson’s son.
976 Ministers are not meant to only say agreeable things.
977 Kritya. While the plural ‘four’ is used, the she-demon is referred to in the singular. She had four forms, or four faces.
978 Khanitra.
979 This probably means that those who earned a living from cattle didn’t have to pay taxes. Alternatively, it might also mean that brahmanas who kept cattle didn’t have to pay taxes.
980 As taxes from other activities and from others.
981 Three times a year.
982 Vira’s.
983 Literally, a world without a sun.
984 The word used is pashu, signifying sacrificial animal.
985 That is, Surya used to be a pashu earlier.
986 This is addressed to the first deer.
987 They lead to superior worlds in the world hereafter.
988 To the ancestors.
989 From blowing through (dhamana) the hand (kara).
990 Such as astrologers.
991 Aveksha, the word used in the text, means to look at. The preceptor of the gods is Jupiter. Shukra is Venus. Soma is the moon, Soma’s son is Budha (Mercury), Savitar is the sun, Bhouma is Mars and Shanaishchara is Saturn.
992 Saturn.
993 This is addressed to the astrologers.
994 The two Ashvins.
995 That is, Brihaspati.
996 All of us are kshatriyas.
997 The kings were speaking to each other.
998 For instance, norms of dharma required that a single person should fight against only one person at the same time. Violating this, several kings fought against him simultaneously.
999 The back is mentioned as an illustration of the violation of dharma.
1000 That is, Vaishalini.
1001 In this and the sentences that immediately follow, we have taken a few liberties with the text. Otherwise, the text is not very clear.
1002 To Vaishalini.
1003 She is addressing her father now.
1004 Literally, whatever is wanted. Whatever (kim) is wanted (ichchhaka) is given to a supplicant.
1005 The word used is Rajaraja, one of Kubera’s names.
1006 Since Avikshit had other wives, this sounds like a contradiction. What is meant is that Avikshit had given up all association with those other wives too.
1007 From not having delivered what was promised.
1008 In a battle.
1009 The danava.
1010 Avikshit.
1011 Vetasapatra means the leaf (patra) of vetasa (reed/cane). This weapon was a javelin, sharp and pointed like the leaf of a cane.
1012 As in a human woman.
1013 The Maruts.
1014 The god of the wind.
1015 Avikshit.
1016 Karandhama’s.
1017 Samvarta did this, through the power of his austerities.
1018 Belonging to Marutta.
1019 The offerings were given so that they did not create such a nuisance.
1020 After that, they have duties as kings.
1021 Kings must constantly think about such things.
1022 The king obtains one-sixth the share of merits or demerits earned by subjects.
1023 Samvartaka is the fire of universal destruction.
1024 Marutta.
1025 Ourva was born in the Bhargava lineage. Bhargava means Ourva.
1026 Presumably indicative of Avikshit getting angry.
1027 He should have let go of the bow before this act. In other words, Marutta was intractable.
1028 Avikshit.
1029 Kama (desire), krodha (anger), lobha (avarice), moha (delusion), mada (arrogance) and matsarya (jealousy).
1030 An officiating priest was required for donating from within the altar.
1031 Indrasena.
1032 The word dama means self-control.
1033 The past, the present and the future.
1034 We have corrected the typo in the text. The text says, king of the suras.
1035 Was the svayamvara an act of dharma or adharma, not the seizure?
1036 The gandharva form.
1037 Therefore, since she is already married, the rakshasa form cannot apply.
1038 Dakshinatya.
1039 Dama.
1040 Dama.
1041 This is clearly the same Vapushman, but the Sankrandana must be different from the one mentioned earlier.
1042 The yavana’s.
1043 Yama.
1044 Vapushman’s.
1045 The solar dynasty.
1046 Not as inferior species.
1047 The Vedas are mentioned twice.
Acknowledgements
The corpus of the Puranas is huge—in scope, coverage and size. The Mahabharata is believed to contain 1,00,000 shlokas. The Critical Edition of the Mahabharata, edited and published by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (Pune), doesn’t contain quite that many shlokas. But no matter, this gives us some idea of the size. To comprehend what 1,00,000 shlokas mean in a standard word count, the 10-volume unabridged translation I did of the Mahabharata amounts to a staggering 2.5 million words. After composing the Mahabharata, Krishna Dvaipayana Vedavyasa composed the eighteen mahapuranas, or major Puranas. So the belief goes. Collectively, these eighteen Puranas amount to 4,00,000 shlokas, translating into a disconcerting and daunting number of 10 million words. After translating the Bhagavadgita, the Mahabharata, the Harivamsha and the Valmiki Ramayana, it was but natural to turn one’s attention to the Puranas. (All these translations have been, and will be, published by Penguin India.) As the most popular and most read Purana, the Bhagavata Purana chose itself as the first to be translated. That the translation was well-received was encouragement along the intimidating journey of translating the remaining Puranas and I am indebted to the reviewers of these various translations, including that of the Bhagavata Purana.
Without realizing it at the time, I had grown up with the Markandeya Purana. When I was a child, interpreted as less than ten years of age, I spent a fair bit of time with my maternal grandparents, waiting for my parents to pick me up on their way home after work. In their house, my grandparents had a puja room. They performed their own individual pujas, not together. Especially with my grandmother, her cat and I sat and watched her perform the puja. My grandmother fondly believed the cat was a great devotee. However, every day, there was a little bit of prasad, a banana and some milk. The cat got the milk, I got the banana. As both of us waited, we heard her recite from ‘Chandi’, a part of the Markandeya Purana. Each of my maternal grandparents possessed their own individual copies of ‘Chandi’. These books were illustrated and I was fascinated by images of the goddess destroying demons. In particular, the picture of Raktabija’s severed head has stuck with me. Growing up, like many Bengalis, for me the advent of Durga Puja was announced through the voice of Birendra Krishna Bhadra, chanting from the Markandeya Purana. The Durga iconography owes a lot to the 15–16th century scholar, Raghunandan Bhattacharya. But the liturgy and mantras are from the Markandeya Purana, read in the eastern parts of the country as ‘Chandi’ and in the northern parts as ‘Durga Saptashati’. Even while I was translating the Bhagavata Purana, it was almost as if an unseen hand was guiding me towards the choice of the next Purana to be translated. Through chance, rather than by design, my wife and I got opportunities to visit a succession of temples dedicated to the goddess, from the west to the east and from the north to the south. The Markandeya Purana isn’t only about the goddess though. There is a lot more. For example, I hope this or other translations motivate readers to read Madalasa�
�s song in the original Sanskrit.
The journey of translation hasn’t been an intimidating one only for me. Penguin India must also have thought about it several times, before deciding to go ahead, especially with the Purana translations. Most people have some idea about the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. But the Puranas are typically rendered in such dumbed down versions that the market has to be created. However, Penguin India also believed in the Purana Project, which still stretches into some interminable horizon in the future, almost two decades down the line. For both author and publisher, this is a long-term commitment. Bhagavata Purana and Markandeya Purana have been published, Brahma Purana comes next. I am indebted to Penguin India. In particular, Meru Gokhale and Ambar Sahil Chatterjee have been exceptionally patient, persevering and encouraging. But for them, the Purana Project might not have taken off. Paloma Dutta has been the editor since the days of the Mahabharata translation. That makes life a whole lot easier. She knows my style and I know hers, just as I have come to know the Vedavyasa style. There is a Paloma hand in the product, even though it won’t be detected and isn’t meant to be. These Purana volumes have been brought alive by the wonderful cover designs and illustrations and I thank the illustrators and the designers.