Shiva Purana

“ Shiva Purana ” is the sacred text of Hinduism in Sanskrit , one of the eighteen major Puranas (called “Mahapurans”). According to the Vayaviya-Samhita, originally the Shiva-Purana was called the Shaiva-Purana and consisted of 12 Samhita and 1 million Slokas . Then the great sage Vyasa reduced the text to 24,000 slokas and handed the “Shiva Purana” to his disciple Romaharshan (Lomaharshan).

Creation of the cosmic ocean and material elements. Illustration for Shiva Purana approx. 1828 year .

There are several editions of Shiva Purana. As amended by the Bangabasi Press in 1907 in Calcutta , Shiva-Purana consists of six Samhitas : Jnana-Samhita, Vidyeshvara-Samhita, Kailasha-Samhita, Sanatkumara-Samhita, Vayaviya-Samhita (divided into two parts - Purva-bhagu and Uttara-bhagu) and Dharma-samhita. Each of the samhit is divided into chapters (called adhyaya ), the total number of which is 260. In other editions, “Shiva-purana” consisted of seven samhit. Five other Samhitas are also sometimes referred to the Shiva-Purana: Ishana-Samhita, Ishvara-Samhita, Surya-Samhita, Tirthakshetramahatmya-Samhita and Manavi-Samhita.

Haraprasad Shastri mentions the surviving manuscript "Shiva-Purana" from one of the mats of the city ​​of Puri in Orissa . In this edition, “Shiva-Purana” consists of two main parts: Purva-kanda and Uttara-kanda. Purva-kanda consists of 3270 slokas and 51 chapters written in nagari letters, and Uttara-kanda consists of 45 chapters written in Oriya letters.