Kālikāpurāṇa
From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia
By Swami Harshananda
Kālikāpurāṇa is one of the eighteen Upapurāṇas.
Two Kālikāpurāṇas have been discovered. One is assigned to the period A. D. 1000 and the other is dated as A. D. 1600. The one available in print now has 7375 verses in 93 chapters. It seems to have been composed in Kāmarupa (Assam) and considered as an authoritative text quoted by later nibandhas like Krtyakalpataru and Dānasāgara.
The purāṇas deals with the exploits and worship of Kālī or Kālikā. She is primarily the Yoganidrā or Vaiṣṇavīmāyā of Viṣṇu reborn as Satī first and later as Pārvatī. The work contains a plethora of subjects connected with:
- Pilgrimage
- Worship of the various aspects of the Devi
- Various methods of pujā
- Lot of information regarding mantras
- Puraścaraṇa
- Yantras
- Spells
- Etc.
Lot of information might have been drawn from works extant then, but not available now.
References[edit]
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore