Skanda Purana

Date of composition

Haraprasad Shastri and Cecil Bendall, in about 1898, discovered an old palm-leaf manuscript of Skanda Purana in a Kathmandu library in Nepal, written in Gupta script. They dated the manuscript to 8th century CE, on paleographic grounds. This suggests that the original text existed before this time. R. Adriaensen, H.Bakker, and H. Isaacson dated the oldest surviving palm-leaf manuscript of Skanda Purana to 810 CE, but Richard Mann adds that earlier versions of the text likely existed in the 8th century CE. Hans Bakker states that the text specifies holy places and details about the 4th and 5th-century Citraratha of Andhra Pradesh, and thus may have an earlier origin. The oldest versions of the Skandapurana texts have been discovered in Nepal in the Himalayas, and Assam in northeastern India. The critical editions of the text, for scholarly studies, rely on the Nepalese manuscripts.

Additional texts style themselves as khandas (sections) of Skandapurana, but these came into existence after the 12th century.

There are a number of texts and manuscripts that bear the title Skanda Purana. Some of these texts, except for the title, have little in common with the well-known Skandapurana traced to the 1st millennium CE. The original text has accrued several additions, resulting in several different versions. It is, therefore, very difficult to establish an exact date of composition for the Skanda Purana.

Structure

Stylistically, the Skanda Purana is related to the Mahabharata, and it appears that its composers borrowed from the Mahabharata. The two texts employ similar stock phrases and compounds that are not found in the Ramayana. Some of the mythology mentioned in the present version of the Skanda Purana is undoubtedly post-Gupta period, consistent with that of medieval South India. This indicates that several additions were made to the original text over the centuries. The Kashi Khanda, for example, acquired its present form around the mid-13th century CE. The latest part of the text might have been composed in as late as the 15th century CE.

Contents

Tirtha are of three kinds, Jangam Tirtha is to a place movable, of a sadhu, a rishi, a guru, Sthawar Tirtha is to a place immovable, like Benaras, Hardwar, Mount Kailash, holy rivers, Manas Tirtha is to a place of mind, of truth, charity, patience, compassion, soft speech, soul. The whole corpus of texts which are considered as part of the Skanda Purana is grouped in two ways. According to one tradition, these are grouped in six **s, each of which consists of several **s. According to another tradition, these are grouped in seven **s, each named after a major pilgrimage region or site. The chapters are Mahatmyas, or travel guides for pilgrimage tourists.

The seven khandas

The ** consists of 3 sections:

• the (35 chapters, Kedarnath Tirtha region, north India)
• the or (66 chapters, Mahisagara-samgama-tirtha or Cambay pilgrimage region, west India) and
• the or (37 chapters, Tiruvannamalai Tirtha region, south India), further divided into two parts:
  • (13 chapters) and
  • (24 chapters)

The ** or ** consists of nine sections:

• (40 chapters, Tirupati Tirtha region, south India)
• (49 chapters, Puri Odisha Tirtha region, east India)
• (8 chapters, Badrinath Tirtha region, north India)
• (36 chapters)
• 17 chapters, Mathura Tirtha region)
• (4 chapters)
• (25 chapters)
• (10 chapters, Ayodhya Tirtha region) and
• (32 chapters)

The ** has three sections (four in some manuscripts):

• (52 chapters, Rama Setu Tirtha region, Tamil Nadu and towards Sri Lanka)
• (40 chapters) and
• or (22 chapters)

The ** (100 chapters, Varanasi and Vindhya Tirtha region) is divided into two parts:

• (50 chapters) and
• (50 chapters)

The ** consists of:

• (71 chapters, Ujjain Tirtha region)
• (84 chapters) and
• (Thought to have 232 chapters, Juergen Neuss states that the manuscripts attest this is actually the original Rewa Khanda of Vayu Purana which was wrongly included in the Skanda Purana by Veṅkateśvara Steam Press in 1910 and all publications of the Skanda after it. The one belonging to the Skanda has 116 chapters.)

The ** (279 chapters) consists of (Hāṭakeśvara-kṣetra or Vadnagar region).

The ** (491 chapters) consists of four sections:

• (365 chapters, Saurashtra and Somanatha Tirtha region, west India)
• (19 chapters, Girnar Tirtha region)
• (63 chapters, Aravalli Range Rajasthan Tirtha region) and
• (44 chapters, Dwarka Gujarat Tirtha region)

The six samhitas

The second type of division of the Skanda Purana is found in some texts like ** of the or the , ** of the , ** of the and ** of the . According to these texts, the Skanda Purana consists of six s (sections):

• the
• the
• the
• the
• the and
• the

The manuscripts of the , the , the and the are extant. A manuscript of a commentary on the by is also available. These texts discuss cosmogony, theology, philosophical questions on virtues and vice, questions such as what is evil, the origin of evil, how to deal with and cure evil.

The other texts

The manuscripts of several other texts which claim to be part of the Skanda Purāṇa are found partially or wholly. Some of the notable regional texts amongst these are: ** which contains Nepālamāhātmya (30 chapters, Nepal Tirtha region), *, , , , , * and **.

Kaverimahatmya presents stories and a pilgrim guide for the Kaveri river (Karnataka) and Coorg Tirtha region. Vivsamitrimahatmya presents mythology and a guide for the Vadodara Tirtha region.

The oldest known 1st-millennium palm-leaf manuscripts of this text mention many major Hindu pilgrimage sites, but do not describe Kailash-Manasarovar. The later versions do, particularly in Manasakhanda.

The narratives

The Skanda Purana, like many Puranas, include the legends of the Daksha's sacrifice, Shiva's sorrow, churning of the ocean (Samudra manthan) and the emergence of Amrita, the story of the demon Tarakasura, the birth of Goddess Parvati, her pursuit of Shiva, and her marriage to Lord Shiva, among others.

The central aim of the Skandapurana text, states Hans Bakker, is to sanctify the geography and landscape of South Asia, and legitimize the regional Shaiva communities across the land, as it existed at the time the edition was produced. The text reflects the political uncertainties, the competition with Vaishnavism, and the cultural developments with the Pashupata Hindus during the periods it was composed.

Manuscripts

The Skanda Purana manuscripts have been found in Nepal, Tamil Nadu (Tamil: கந்த புராணம்) and other parts of India. The Skanda Purana is among of the oldest dated manuscripts discovered in Nepal. A palm-leaf manuscript of the text is preserved at the National Archives of Nepal (NAK 2–229), and its digital version has been archived by Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project (NGMCP B 11–4). It is likely that the manuscript was copied by the scribe on Monday, March 10 811 CE, though there is some uncertainty with this date because the samvat of this manuscript is unclear. Michael Witzel dates this Nepalese manuscript to about 810 CE. This manuscript was discovered as one in a group of seven different texts bound together. The group included fourteen manuscripts mostly Buddhist, six of which are very old Saddharma Pundarika Sutra manuscripts, one of Upalisutra, one Chinese Buddhist text, and one Bhattikavya Buddhist yamaka text. The Skanda Purana found in this manuscripts collection is written in transitional Gupta script, Sanskrit.

The 1910 edition included seven **s (parts): *, * or *, Brahma, , , * and **. In 1999–2003, an English translation of this text was published by the Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi in 23 volumes. This translation is also based on a text divided into seven **s.

Critical Edition

The Skandapurāṇa, vol. I, adhyāyas 1-25, edited by Rob Adriaensen, Hans T. Bakker, and Harunaga Isaacson, 1998; vol. IIa, adhyāyas 26-31.14, ed. by Hans T. Bakker and Harunaga Isaacson, 2005; vol. IIb, adhyāyas 31-52, ed. by Hans T. Bakker, Peter C. Bisschop, and Yuko Yokochi, 2014; vol. III, adhyāyas 34.1-61, 53-69, ed. by Yuko Yokochi, 2013. Supplement to the Groningen Oriental Studies, Groningen: Egbert Forsten, and Leiden: Brill.

References

Works cited

References

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