Talk:Agnipuraṇa

By Swami Harshananda

Purāṇas have played an unenviable part in preserving religion and culture, especially among the masses. The original stuff of the purāṇas is as old as the Vedas though the extant purāṇas are later productions showing unmistakable signs of compilation, evolution or even manipulation. Some scholars feel that the purāṇas contain much historical material also. Purāṇas are narratives of ancient events.

‘Purā Bhavaṅi Purāṇam’

Though a purāṇa is said to have pañcalakṣaṇas (five characteristics) like the accounts of creation, dissolution, and geneology of kings, rarely do they conform to this pattern. They are practically encyclopaedic in character dealing with every topic under the sun.

Tradition ascribes the authorship of all the purāṇas to Vedavyāsa and divides them into two groups as follows :

1. The Mahāpurāṇas - The great or the major ones
2. The Upapurāṇas - The small or the minor ones

Each of these purāṇas contain 18 works. Agnipurāna is usually classed as the eighth among the Mahāpurāṇas. Whether the extant Agnipurāna, now available in print is the original or a purāṇa by name Vahnipurāna (vahni = agni), whose manuscript has been discovered, is the original has been a subject of scholarly disputation. Though scholars like Prof. R. C. Hazra are inclined to accord the latter, the status of the genuine or original purāṇa has gone to the first one for the obvious reason that the former has met the needs of the people to a much greater extent.

This Agnipurāna contains nearly 12,000 verses spread over 383 chapters. It is a Vaiṣṇava work of an all comprehensive character containing almost everything of general interest.

The following are some of the topics dealt with in this work :

1. Incarnations of God
2. Creation and worship of Lord Viṣṇu and Agni
3. Initiation and methods of building a temple
4. Characteristics of śāligrāma stones and their worship
5. Consecration of the deity in a newly built temple
6. Greatness of places of pilgrimage and holy rivers like Gaṅgā
7. Descriptions of the various worlds, amulets, mystic formulae, medicines
8. Duties of men during the various āśramas (stages of life)
9. Expiations for sins
10. Descriptions of hells, sandhyā ritual and Gāyatrī
11. Consecration of a king and his duties
12. Characteristics of precious stones
13. The science of archery, prosody, literature and greatness of this purāṇa.

References

• The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore