The Sanskrit text Garuda Purana () is one of 18 Mahapuranas in Hinduism. The Garuda Purana was likely composed in the first millennium CE, with significant expansions and revisions occurring over several centuries. Scholars estimate that the earliest core might date back to between the 4th and 11th centuries CE, with substantial additions and modifications continuing into the 2nd millennium CE.
The Garuda Purana text, known in many versions, contains more than 15,000 verses. Its chapters deal encyclopedically with a highly diverse collection of topics, including cosmology, mythology, the relationship between gods, ethics, good versus evil, various schools of Hindu philosophies, the theory of yoga, heaven and hell, karma and rebirth, ancestral rites and other soteriology topics; rivers and geography, types of minerals and stones, the testing of for their quality, lists of plants and herbs, various diseases and their symptoms, various medicines, aphrodisiacs, and prophylactics; astronomy, astrology, the moon and planets, and the Hindu calendar and its basis; architecture, home building, and the essential features of a Hindu temple; rites of passage, charity and gift making, economy, thrift, the duties of a king, politics, and state officials and their roles and how to appoint them; and genres of literature and rules of grammar.Rajendra Chandra Hazra (1938), Some Minor Puranas, Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 69–79 The final chapters discuss how to practice yoga (Samkhya and Advaita Vedanta types), personal development, and the benefits of self-knowledge.
The Padma Purana categorizes the Garuda Purana—along with the Bhagavata Purana, the Vishnu Purana and itself—as a sattva Purana (a Purana that represents goodness and purity). The text, like all Mahapuranas, is attributed to the sage Vyasa in the Hindu tradition.
Leadbeater states that the text is likely from about 900 CE, given that it includes chapters on Yoga and Tantra techniques that likely developed later. Other scholars suggest that the earliest core of the text may be from the first centuries of the common era, and additional chapters were added thereafter through the sixth century or later.
The version of the Garuda Purana that survives into the modern era, states Dalal, is likely from 800 to 1000 CE, with sections added in the 2nd millennium. Pintchman suggests 850 to 1000 CE. Chaudhuri and Banerjee, as well as Hazra, on the other hand, state that it cannot be from before about the tenth or eleventh century CE.
The text exists in many versions, with varying numbers of chapters and considerably different content. Some Garuda Purana manuscripts have been known by the titles " Sauparna Purana" (mentioned in Bhagavata Purana section 12.13), " Tarksya Purana" (the Persian scholar Al-Biruni who visited India mentions this name), and " Vainateya Purana" (mentioned in Vayu Purana sections 2.42 and 104.8).
The book Garudapuranasaroddhara, translated by Ernest Wood and SV Subrahmanyam, appeared in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This, states Ludo Rocher, created major confusion because it was mistaken for the Garuda Purana, a misidentification first discovered by Albrecht Weber. Garuda-purana-saroddhara is actually the original bhasya work (commentary) of Naunidhirama, which cites a section of the now nonexistent version of Garuda Purana as well as other Indian texts. The earliest translation of one version of the Garuda Purana, by Manmatha Nath Dutt, was published in the early twentieth century.
The Garuda Purana was likely fashioned after the Agni Purana, the other major medieval India encyclopedia that has survived. The text's structure is idiosyncratic, in that it is a medley, and does not follow the theoretical structure expected in a historic puranic genre of Indian literature. It is presented as information that Garuda (the man-bird vehicle of Vishnu) learned from Vishnu and then narrated to the sage Kashyapa, which then spread in the mythical forest of Naimisha to reach the sage Vyasa.
Like other Puranas, the cosmogenesis in Garuda Purana weaves the Samkhya theory of two realities—the Purusha (spirit) and Prakriti (matter), the masculine and feminine—presented as interdependent, each playing a different but essential role to create the observed universe. Goddess Lakshmi is the creative power of Prakriti, the cosmic seed and the source of creation. God Vishnu is the substance of Purusha, the soul and the constant. Pintchman states that the masculine and the feminine are presented by the Garuda Purana as inseparable aspects of the same divine, metaphysical truth Brahman.
Madan states that the Garuda Purana elaborates the repeatedly found theme in Hindu religious thought that the living body is a microcosm of the universe, governed by the same laws and made out of the same substances. All the gods are inside the human body; what is outside the body is present within it as well. Body and cosmos, states Madan, are equated in this theme. Vishnu is presented by the text as the supreme soul within the body.
In the first design, it recommends that a plot of ground should be divided into a grid of 8×8 (64) squares, with the four innermost squares forming the chatuskon (Adyton). The core of the temple, states the text, should be reachable through 12 entrances, and the walls of the temple raised touching the 48 of the squares. The height of the temple plinth should be based on the length of the platform, the vault in the inner sanctum should be co-extensive with adytum's length with the indents therein set at a third and a fifth ratio of the inner vault's chord. The arc should be half the height of pinnacle, and the text describes various ratios of the temple's exterior to the adytum, those within adytum and then that of the floor plan to the vimana (spire).
The second design details a 16 square grid, with four inner squares ( pada) for the adytum. The text thereafter presents the various ratios for the temple design. The dimensions of the carvings and images on the walls, edifices, pillars and the murti are recommended by the text to be certain harmonic proportions of the layout (length of a pada), the adytum and the spire.
The text asserts that temples exist in many thematic forms. These include the bairaja (rectangle themed), puspakaksa (quadrilateral themed), kailasha (circular themed), malikahvaya (segments of sphere themed), and tripistapam (octagon themed). The text claims these five themes create 45 different styles of temples, from the Meru style to Shrivatsa style. Each thematic form of temple architecture permits nine styles of temples, and the Purana lists all 45 styles. It also states that within these various temple styles, the inner edifice is best in five shapes: triangle, lotus-shaped, crescent, rectangular, and octagonal. The text thereafter describes the design guidelines for the Mandapa and the Garbha Griha.
The temple design, states Jonathan Parry, follows the homology at the foundation of Hindu thought, that the cosmos and body are harmonious correspondence of each other; the temple is a model and reminder of this cosmic homology.
The text describes the characteristics of the gems, how to clean and make jewelry from them, and cautions that gem experts should be consulted before buying them. For example, it describes using jamvera fruit juice (contains lime) mixed with boiled rice starch in order to clean and soften pearls, then piercing them to make holes for jewelry. A sequential vitanapatti method of cleaning, states the text—wherein the pearls are cleaned with hot water, wine, and milk—gives the best results. It also describes a friction test by which pearls should be examined. Similar procedures and tests are described for emerald, jade, diamonds, and all other gems included in the text.
The text similarly discusses the following virtues—right conduct, damah (self-restraint), ahimsa (non-killing, non-violence in actions, words, and thoughts), studying the , and performing rites of passage. The text presents different set of diet and rites of passage rules based on the class and stage of life of a person. . In one version of the Garuda Purana, these chapters on laws of virtue are borrowed from and duplicates of nearly 500 verses found in the Yajnavalkya Smriti.Ludwik Sternbach (1966), A New Abridged Version of the Bṛhaspati-saṁhitā of the Garuḋa Purāṇa, Journal: Puranam, Volume 8, pp. 315–431 The various versions of Garuda Purana show significant variations.
The Garuda Purana asserts that the highest and most imperative religious duty is to introspect into one's own soul, seeking self-communion.
The Garuda Purana asserts: save money for times of distress, but be willing to give it up all to save your wife. It is prudent to sacrifice oneself to save a family, and it is prudent to sacrifice one family to save a village. It is prudent to save a country if left with a choice to save the country or a village. Yet, in verses that follow, it says a man should renounce that country whose inhabitants champion prejudice, and forgo the friend who he discovers to be deceitful.
The text cautions against application of knowledge which is wedded to meanness, against pursuit of physical beauty without ennobling mind, and against making friends with those who abandon their dear ones in adversity. It is the nature of all living beings to pursue one's own self-interest. Yet, do not acquire wealth through vicious means or by bowing down to your enemies.
The text also asserts that: men of excellence live with honest means, are true to their wives, pass their time in intellectual pursuits and are hospitable to newcomers. Eternal are the rewards when one weds one's knowledge with noble nature, deep is the friendship roused by connection of the soul. The discussion on ethics is mixed in other chapters.
The Purvakhanda, from chapter 111 onwards, describes the characteristics of a good king and good government. Dharma should guide the king, the rule should be based on truth and justice, and he must protect the country from foreign invaders. Taxation should be bearable, never cause hardship on the merchants or taxpayers, and should be similar in style to one used by the florist who harvests a few flowers without uprooting the plants and while sustaining the future crops. A good government advances order and prosperity for all.
A stable king is one whose kingdom is prosperous, whose treasury is full, and who never chastises his ministers or servants. He secures services from the qualified, honest and virtuous, rejects the incapable, wicked and malicious, states chapter 113. A good government collects taxes like a bee collecting honey from all the flowers when ready and without draining any flower.
Parts of the pathology and medicine-related chapters of Garuda Purana, states Ludo Rocher, are similar to Nidanasthana of Vagbhata's Astangahridaya, and these two may be different manuscript recensions of the same underlying but now lost text. Susmita Pande states that other chapters of Garuda Purana, such as those on nutrition and diet to prevent diseases, are similar to those found in the more ancient Hindu text Sushruta Samhita.
The text includes various lists of diseases, agricultural products, herbs, and formulations with claims to medicinal value. For example, chapters 202 and 227 of the Purvakhanda list Sanskrit names of over 450 plants and herbs, along with claims to their nutritional or medicinal value.
The text describes a variety of Asana (postures), then adds that the postures are means, not the goal.
The goal of Yoga is meditation, samadhi, and self-knowledge.Ian Whicher states that the Garuda Purana in chapter 229 recommends using saguna Vishnu (with form like a murti) in the early stages of Yoga meditation to help concentration and draw in one's attention with the help of the gross form of the object. After this has been mastered, states the text, the meditation should shift from saguna to nirguna, unto the subtle, abstract formless Vishnu within, with the help of a guru (teacher).
These ideas of Garuda Purana were influential, and were cited by later texts such as in verse 3.3 of the 17th-century Arthabodhini.
The text specifies the following for last rites:
The Pretakhanda is the second and minor part of Garuda Purana. Rocher states that it is "entirely unsystematic work" presented with motley confusion and many repetitions in the Purana, dealing with "death, the dead and beyond". Monier Monier-Williams wrote in 1891 that portions of verses recited at cremation funerals are perhaps based on this relatively modern section of the Garuda Purana, but added that Hindu funeral practices do not always agree with guidance in the Garuda Purana.Monier Monier-Williams (1891), Brahmanism and Hinduism, 4th edition, Macmillan & Co, p. 288 Three quite different versions of the Pretakhanda of the Garuda Purana are known, and the variation between the chapters, states Jonathan Parry, is enormous.
The Pretakhanda also talks in details about the various types of hell and the sins that can lead one into them. It gives a detailed description of what a soul goes through after death, having met the yamaduta and the journey to naraka in the year following the death.The Garuda Purana by Earnest Wood and S.V. Subrahmanyam (1911), Chapter 2: An Account of the Ways of Yama, 2019 edition, Global Grey publication
The form and the contents of this section prove its later origin, a fact further substantiated by the absence of any reference to this section in other Puranas such as the Narada Purana.
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