The Skanda Purana is the largest Mahāpurāṇa, a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts. The text contains over 81,000 verses, and is part of Shaivite literature, titled after Skanda, a son of Shiva and Parvati, who is also known as Kartikeya and Murugan. While the text is named after Skanda, he does not feature either more or less prominently in this text than in other Shiva-related Puranas. The text has been an important historical record and influence on the Hindu traditions related to war-god Skanda.
The earliest text titled Skanda Purana likely existed by the 6th-century CE, but the Skanda Purana that has survived into the modern era exists in many versions. It is considered by scholars, in a historic sense, as among the "shiftiest, living" texts which was widely edited, over many centuries, creating numerous variants. The common elements in the variant editions encyclopedically cover cosmogony, mythology, genealogy, dharma, festivals, gemology, temples, geography, discussion of virtues and evil, of theology and of the nature and qualities of Shiva as the Absolute and the source of true knowledge.
The editions of Skanda Purana text also provide an encyclopedic travel handbook with meticulous Tirtha Mahatmya (pilgrimage tourist guides), containing geographical locations of pilgrimage centers in India, Nepal and Tibet, with related legends, parables, hymns and stories.
This Mahāpurāṇa, like others, is attributed to the sage Vyasa.
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 7th 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 6th-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 Skanda Purana texts have been discovered in the Himalayan region of South Asia such as Nepal, and the northeastern states of India such as Assam. The critical editions of the text, for scholarly studied, rely on the Nepalese manuscripts.
Additional texts style themselves as khandas (sections) of Skanda Purana, but these came into existed after the 12th-century. It is unclear if their root texts did belong to the Skanda Purana, and in some cases replaced the corresponding chapters of the original. Some recensions and sections of the Skanda Purana manuscripts, states Judit Torzsok, have been traced to be from the 17th-century or later, but the first 162 chapters in many versions are the same as the older Nepalese editions except for occasional omissions and insertions.
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 Skanda Purana 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.
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 the 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 15th century CE.
Tirtha: Holy Pilgrimage
Tirtha are of three kinds: (1) Jangam Tirtha is to a place movable, of a sadhu, a rishi, a guru, (2) Sthawar Tirtha is to a place immovable, like Benaras, Hardwar, Mount Kailash, holy rivers, and (3) Manas Tirtha is to a place of mind, of truth, charity, patience, compassion, soft speech, soul.
—Skanda Purana
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 saṁhitās, each of which consists of several khaṇḍas. According to another tradition, these are grouped in seven khaṇḍas, each named after a major pilgrimage region or site. The chapters are Mahatmyas, or travel guides for pilgrimage tourists.
The seven khandas
The Maheśvara Khaṇḍa consists of three sections:
the Kedāra Khaṇḍa (35 chapters, Kedarnath Tirtha region, north India)
the Kaumārikā Khaṇḍa or Kumārikā Khaṇḍa (66 chapters, Mahisagara-samgama-tirtha or Cambay pilgrimage region, west India) and
the Arunācala Khaṇḍa or Arunācala Māhātmya (37 chapters, Tiruvannamalai Tirtha region, south India), further divided into two parts:
Pūrvārdha (13 chapters) and
Uttarārdha (24 chapters)
The Viṣṇu Khaṇḍa or Vaiṣṇava Khaṇḍa consists of nine sections:
Veṅkaṭācalamāhātmya (40 chapters, Tirupati Tirtha region, south India)
Puruṣottamakṣetramāhātmya (49 chapters, Puri Odisha Tirtha region, east India)
Badarikāśramamāhātmya (8 chapters, Badrinath Tirtha region, north India)
Kārttikamāsamāhātmya (36 chapters)
Mārgaśirṣamāsamāhātmya (17 chapters, Mathura Tirtha region)
Bhāgavatamāhātmya (4 chapters)
Vaiśākhamāsamāhātmya (25 chapters)
Ayodhyāmāhātmya (10 chapters, Ayodhya Tirtha region and
Vāsudevamāhātmya (32 chapters)
The Brahma Khaṇḍa has three sections (four in some manuscripts):
Setumāhātmya (52 chapters, Rama Setu Tirtha region, Tamil Nadu and towards Sri Lanka)
Dharmāraṇya Khaṇḍa (40 chapters) and
Uttara Khaṇḍa or Brahmottara Khaṇḍa (22 chapters)
The Kāśī Khaṇḍa (100 chapters, Varanasi and Vindya Tirtha region) is divided into two parts:
Pūrvārdha (50 chapters) and
Uttarārdha (50 chapters)
The Āvantya Khaṇḍa consists of:
Avantikṣetramāhātmya (71 chapters, Ujjain Tirtha region)
Caturaśītiliṅgamāhātmya (84 chapters) and
Revā Khaṇḍa (232 chapters, Narmada river Tirtha region)
The Nāgara Khaṇḍa (279 chapters) consists of Tirtha-māhātmya.
The Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa (491 chapters) consists of four sections:
Prabhāsakṣetramāhātmya (365 chapters, Saurashtra and Somanatha Tirtha region, west India)
Vastrāpathakṣetramāhātmya (19 chapters, Girnar Tirtha region)
Arvuda Khaṇḍa (63 chapters, Aravalli Range Rajasthan Tirtha region) and
Dvārakāmāhātmya (44 chapters, Dwarka Gujarat Tirtha region)
The six samhitas
The second type of division of the Skanda Purana is found in some texts like Hālasyamāhātmya of the Agastya Saṁhitā or the Śaṁkarī Saṁhitā, Sambhava Kāṇḍa of the Śaṁkarī Saṁhitā, Śivamāhātmya Khaṇḍa of the Sūta Saṁhitā and Kālikā Khaṇḍa of the Sanatkumāra Saṁhitā. According to these texts, the Skanda Purana consists of six saṁhitās (sections):
the Sanatkumāra Saṁhitā
the Sūta Saṁhitā
the Śaṁkarī Saṁhitā
the Vaiṣṇavī Saṁhitā
the Brāhmī Saṁhitā and
the Saura Saṁhitā
The manuscripts of the Sanatkumāra Saṁhitā, the Śaṁkarī Saṁhitā, the Sūta Saṁhitā and the Saura Saṁhitā are extant. A manuscript of a commentary on the Sūta Saṁhitā by Madhavācārya 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: Himavat Khaṇḍa which contains Nepalamahatmya (30 chapters, Nepal Tirtha region), Kanakādri Khaṇḍa, Bhīma Khaṇḍa, Śivarahasya Khaṇḍa, Sahyādri Khaṇḍa, Ayodhyā Khaṇḍa, Mathurā Khaṇḍa and Pātāla Khaṇḍa.
Kaverimahatmya presents stories and pilgrim guide for Kaveri river (Karnataka) and Coorg Tirtha region. Vivsamitrimahatmya presents mythology and a guide for Vadodara Tirtha region.
The oldest known 1st-millennium palm-leaf manuscripts of this text mention many major Hindu pilgrimage site, 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 (Ambrosia), 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.
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