The Shiva Purana is one of the s, a genre of Hindu

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 religious texts dedicated to Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

. According to a tradition which is stated in the (the Venkateshvara Press edition) of this text, the original text was known as the .

According to tradition, it originally consisted 12 s and 100,000 s (verses). After the reconstruction and the abridgement by Vedavyasa, the extant text comprises 24000 s (verses), which he taught to his disciple Romaharshana (or Lomaharshana).

The recensions of the text

Several recensions

Recension

Recension is the practice of editing or revising a text based on critical analysis. When referring to manuscripts, this may be a revision by another author...

 of this text exist. The recension presented by the edition published by the Vangavasi Press, Calcutta in 1908 consists of six s (sections):

#	s (chapters)
I		78
II		16
III		12
IV		59
V	: i. ii.	30 30
VI		65
Total:		290

The recension presented by the two other editions published by the Venkateshvara Press, Bombay in 1906 and the Pandita Pustakalaya, Kashi

Varanasi

-Etymology:The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of the two rivers Varuna and Assi, for the old city lies in the north shores of the Ganga bounded by its two tributaries, the Varuna and the Asi, with the Ganges being to its south...

 in 1963 consists of seven s:

#	s (chapters)
I		25
II	: i. ii. iii. iv. v.	20 43 55 20 59
III		42
IV		43
V		51
VI		23
VII	: i. ii.	35 41
Total:		457

According to a passage found in the first chapters of and of these recensions the original Shiva Purana comprised twelve s, which included five lost s: , (or ), , and (or ). The number of verses in these sections were as follows:

1. Vidyeshvara Samhita - 10,000
2. Rudra Samhita - 8,000
3. Vainayaka Samhita - 8,000
4. Uma Samhita - 8,000
5. Matri Samhita - 8,000
6. Rudraikadasha Samhita - 13,000
7. Kailasa Samhita - 6,000
8. Shatarudra Samhita - 3,000
9. Sahasrakotirudra Samhita - 11,000
10. Kotirudra Samhita - 9,000
11. Vayaviya Samhita - 4,000
12. Dharma Samhita - 12,000

Several other s are also ascribed to the . These are the , the , the , the and the

Haraprasad Shastri mentioned in the Notices of Sanskrit MSS IV, pp. 220–3, Nos, 298–299 about another manuscript of the , which is divided into two khandas (parts), the and the . The consists 3270 s in 51 chapters written in Nagari script and the has 45 chapters written in Oriya script. It was preserved in Mahimprakash Brahmachari Matha in Puri

Puri

Puri is district headquarter, a city situated about south of state capital Bhubaneswar, on the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal in the Indian state of Orissa. It is also known as Jagannath Puri after the Jagannath Temple . It is a holy city of the Hindus as a part of the Char Dham pilgrimages...

. The of this manuscript is same as the of the Vangavasi Press edition.

External links

• Shiv Purana – A Summary in English
• Shiva Purana in Sanskrit, Book (1–10) PDF files
• Essence of Shiva Purana - selected verses, Sanskrit and English
• शिव पुराण सारश्रेणी: Essence of Shiva Purana - selected verses
• Facebook: Shiva Purana - Essence in selected verses

Further reading

• Siva, the siva purana retold by Ramesh Menon
  Ramesh Menon
  Ramesh Menon is an Indian author.-Biography:Ramesh Menon was born 1951 in New Delhi. Studied in St Xavier's High School and St. Stephen's College. Lived and worked in Delhi, HongKong, Bangalore, Jakarta and now lives in Kodaikanal . He is the grandson of Pattom Thanu Pillai, former Chief Minister...
  
  ISBN: 81-291-0947-6