Yuga Purana
Encyclopedia
Puranas
The Puranas are a genre of important Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography.Puranas...
literature. It is considered as one of the oldest Purana, written around 250 CE. The Yuga Purana consists two chapters, within the larger text of the Gargi Samhita, also called Vriddha Gargiya Jyotisha
Jyotisha
Hindu astrology , also Jyotish or Jyotisha, from Sanskrit , from "light, heavenly body") is the ancient Indian system of astronomy and astrology...
(Astrology of the Sage Garga). It is the most extensive Indian text to describe the invasion of the country by foreign rulers (Indo-Greeks and Indo-Scythians) during the 2nd and 1st century BCE.
- "The Yuga-Purana is unique in being the only Indian text that refers in any detail to Indo-Greek and Indo-Scythian incursions into Central India. It also contains what is almost certainly the earliest account of the four Yugas—the ages of man—in a form that was later adopted by both the MahabharataMahabharataThe Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
and the PuranasPuranasThe Puranas are a genre of important Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography.Puranas...
. It is thus a key text for the study of both a period of early Indian history and the evolution of Indian ideas of time." (Jacket of the English translation, The Yuga Purana, 2002 edition)
Narrative style
Although the Yuga Purana was written during the 1st- 2nd century CE, the text itself is written in the past tense for the parts referring to the ages previous to the Kali YugaKali Yuga
Kali Yuga is the last of the four stages that the world goes through as part of the cycle of yugas described in the Indian scriptures. The other ages are Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga and Dvapara Yuga...
age, and then in the future tense from the beginning of Kali Yuga (around 3000 BCE). This is because its content is supposed to have been revealed, and all subsequent historical events predicted, at the time when Kali Yuga began.
Translations
The Yuga Purana has been fully translated into English by Dr. James Mitchiner, who was British Deputy High Commissioner in KolkataKolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
.
D. The Yavana incursion.
The invasion of the Yavana (Indo-Greeks) is described in a rather detailed account:- "After having conquered Saketa, the country of the PanchalaPanchalaPanchala is an ancient region of northern India, which corresponds to the geographical area around the Ganges River and Yamuna River, the upper Gangetic plain in particular. This would encompass the modern-day states of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. During the ancient times, it was home to a...
and the Mathuras, the Yavanas, wicked and valiant, will reach Kusumadhvaja ("The town of the flower-standard", Pataliputra). The thick mud-fortifications at Pataliputra being reached, all the provinces will be in disorder, without doubt. Ultimately, a great battle will follow, with tree-like engines (siege engines)." (Gargi-Samhita Paragraph 5, Yuga Purana.) - "The Yavanas (Greeks) will command, the Kings will disappear. (But ultimately) the Yavanas, intoxicated with fighting, will not stay in Madhadesa (the Middle CountryMadhya PradeshMadhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
); there will be undoubtedly a civil war among them, arising in their own country (BactriaBactriaBactria and also appears in the Zend Avesta as Bukhdi. It is the ancient name of a historical region located between south of the Amu Darya and west of the Indus River...
), there will be a terrible and ferocious war." (Gargi-Samhita, Yuga Purana chapter, No7).
E. Seven kings of Saketa.
After the departure of the Yavana, the Yuga Purana explains that seven kings ruled in the area of Saketa.I. The Saka incursion and defeat.
The Yuga Purana describes a powerful Saka king raiding Pushpanama (Pataliputra), where he kills a quarter of the population. He is later killed by the king of KalingaKalinga
Kalinga is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Tabuk and borders Mountain Province to the south, Abra to the west, Isabela to the east, Cagayan to the northeast, and Apayao to the north...
Shata and a group of Sabalas (Savaras).