1.13: Review of Literature

For research work, the literature review plays an important role. The literature review helps us to reduce the repetition of the works. And we can find out the new aspects easily to extend the study to a new area. There are several works i.e. old and modern works which help me to do the analysis of Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa to get my thesis in this present form. The shadow of the works are given below—

1 The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, by F. Eden Pargiter Published by Parimal publications, Delhi, 3 rd edition, 2015. The Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa of F. Eden Pargiter is the great book of him. This was edited by K. L. Joshi. This book contains the text of the Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa consisting of 9000 verses divided into 134 chapters. The author includes the English translation of the whole book along with a standard translation in English with some relative references and index of the slokas alphabetically at the end of the book. This Purāṇa includes a division called Devīmāhātmya containing praises to the goddess Durgā. The text of this Purāṇa includes various topics relating to culture and religion. This book is very important for my research work.

2 Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, by Basudevsaran Agrawala. Published by Hindustani Academi, Ilahabad, 1 st edition 1961. This work, perhaps, is the most well known and widely read work of Basudevśaran agrawala. It consists of lucid Hindi translation of the Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa. As my topic of research topic is on the Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa so the Hindi translation of the text of Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa will be most important for me to understand the Sanskrit text of the Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa.

3 The Glorification of the Great Goddess by Vasudeva S. Agrawala. Published by All–India Kashiraj Trust, Varanasi, 1963. This book contains the text and English translation of the Devīmāhātmyam portion extracted from the 81 st to 93rd chapters of the Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa which now exists as an independent scripture. Besides a good introduction, he includes in it some Ṛgvedic sūktas like Vāgāṃbhṛṇīsūkta, Ratrisūta etc. along with a description of the goddess in Tantras, variant readings, a list of commentators and an index of the names of goddess etc. So, this book is considered to be very helpful for my research purpose.

4 The Agni Purāṇam by M. N. Dutta. Published by Cosmos Publication, 1904. The book contains the text and English translation of the original Agnipurāṇa comprises of, 16000 verses, which deals with imparting knowledge on all arts and sciences. The author of the present book includes some important notes and references of the relevant text and gives a description about some aspects of the original book such as the subject matter, the general character, summary, date etc. This book is also related to the topic of my research. So it is the most important book for my research work.

5 Vāyu Purāṇa by Dr. Brajamohan Charturveda. Published by Nag Publishers, Delhi, 1983. This book contains the text of the Vāyupurāṇa, containing 24000 slokas perhaps the oldest of the extant Purāṇas. This Purāṇa consists of four pādas viz. Prakriyā (chaps.1-6), Anuṣaṅga (chaps 7-64), Upodghāra (chaps. 65-99), Upasaṃhāra (chaps, 100 to the end). It deals with all the five characteristics of the old Purāṇa. Here also we have found a brief outline of the history. So this work is very important for my research.

6 Bhāgawat Purāṇa by Ganesh Vasudeo Tagare. Published by Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi,1978. This is the most popular and widely circulated of all the Purāṇa. The book is highly to valued to the devotees of Viṣṇu. It is divided into 12 Skandhas and contains 18000 slokas.Srimad Bhāgawat is regarded as a delicious fruit of Vedakalpa, the period of four yugas, during which, the Vedas are supposed to have been written. This is a contemporary of the Vedas.There is a profuse mention of karma, upasana and jñāna in the Vedas. This book has been used in the context of putting some citations related to the Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa which are also related with my topic.

7 Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa by Acharya Panchanan Tarkavatna. Published by Navabharat Publisher, Kolkata. This book contains the Bengali translation of the text of the Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa with its Sanskrit text. This book helps me to understand the meaning of the Sanskrit text.

8 The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol. II by Dr. C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar. et.al. Published by Swami Lokeswarananda, Secretary. The Ramakrishna mission Institute of Culture, Calcutta,1962. This book contains five parts. The third part deals with the Purāṇas which is related to my topic. In this part a detailed description of Purāṇas is given from which I quote some references. So it is very important for my further study.

9 History of Indian Literature (vol. I) by M. Winternitz, Published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi, 1963. This book is based on the original German work written by Professor Winternitz. This book contains 3 volumes, the 1 st of those three volumes is relates to Veda, National epics, Purāṇs and Tantras and the Literature of the ritual. The portion of the discussion on the Purāṇa will be very helpful for further study.

10 An Introduction to Purāṇas, By Raj Kumar Pruthi, published by UBSPD, New Delhi, 2005. This work is on the major 18 Purāṇas. It also includes the discussion on meaning, characteristics, age of the Purana, the origin and development and geography in the Purāṇa etc. It is stated the Modern Hindu religious practices are deeply indebted to the Purāṇas. All the religious practices of Hinduism, as they obtain today, find a place in the Purāṇas. Meditation and even the modes of worship of the idol of a village deity all are described also in the Purāṇas. This is the outcome of the author’s deep study on the Purāṇa literature. So, it provides me with a lot of valuable information about my study.

11 Devī-māhātmya: the crystallization of the Goddess Tradition, By Thomas B. Coburn, Published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi, 1984 .The Devi-māhātmya is well-known to both devotees and scholars of the Indian great goddess. This involves an examination of Hindu understanding of the Purāṇas in general. The contents of the book are divided into three parts. In the beginning includes a critical discussion on Devī-māhātmya, in part I he quotes the epithets of Devī, in part II some myths are discussed. In the 3rd part some hymns from the Ṛgveda, the Mahābhārata and the Harivamśa and lastly the Devī-māhātmya with a conclusion. This scholarly work is very essential for understanding the various aspects of the Māhātmya of Devī. It provides me a lot of valuable information regarding my research topic. It gives us appropriate knowledge about the Devī-māhātmya.

12 Purāṇic Encyclopaedia, Vettam Mani, Published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi, 1975. This voluminous work, a store-house of information about the Epics , Purāṇas and allied literature, which proves its author’s devoted study. This Version is to meet the growing demand of scholars interested in the study of the Purāṇas. This stupendous work, in the form of an exhaustive descriptive index, covers the vast and varied field of ancient Indian culture in all aspects like history, geography, religion, philosophy, myths, beliefs and practices as depicted in the Purāṇa. All modern critical apparatus has been utilized in the preparation of this comprehensive work. So, this book is important for my research purpose.

13 Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa By B.K.Chaturvedi , published by Diamond Pocket Books Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi,2009. The description of prominent kings of the solar dynasty, glories of the goddess mahāmāyā delineated in this book is useful to me for my research work.

14 Studies in the Purāṇic Records on Hindu Rites and Customs is a work authored by R.C. Hazra and Published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi, 1975. The study of the purāṇas is of immense importance for a clear understanding of the whole course of the development. This book reflects the Purāṇic records of rites and customs that prevailed in the Hindu Society. Divided into two parts, it contains 4 chapters in the 1 st part and 5 chapters in the 2nd part. Almost all the topics delineated to it are beneficent for the progress of my research work. So this book is important for my work.

15 An Anthology of the Epics and Purāṇas, by S.K.De and R.C.Hazra, published by Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 1959.This consists of selections from elements from Itihāsa and Purāṇa, the former comprising the two Great Epics of India, namely the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa, and the latter including the Purāṇas and Upapurāṇas. This book also sows many related things about my topic. So this book is most useful for my research work.

16 Some Graphical Purāṇic texts on Brahmā, By Dr. Mohammad Israil Khan, publish by Crescent publishing House, Ghaziabad, U.P., 1981. Brahmā is an important Purāṇic deity, for he forms a Purāṇic triad with Viṣṇu and Śiva. The Rājasa Purāṇas highly extol Brahmā, for he is primarily held responsible for the creation of the world. He is a great god and is next to Brahmā, i.e. Brahmā’s manifestation. Brahmā is a post-vedic deity, who is not mentioned in the Vedas, but emerged as a great god during the Purāṇic age. The Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa has far more to say on the birth of Brahmā than any other Purāṇas. This book is related to my topic.

17 Aṣṭādaśa Purāṇa Parichaya, by Dr. Srikrishnamoni Tripathi, published by Chowkhamba Saraswatibhawan, Varanasi, 1980 is a very vast book. It contains many Chapters, and this book shows the details of the 18 th Mahāpurāṇa and the other topics related to the Purāṇas like character of Purāṇas, introduction of the Purāṇas, types of the Purāṇas etc. This book is most important for my research topic.

18 Ancient Indian Society, Religion and Mythology as Depicted in the Mārkaṇḍeya-Purāṇa by Naleshvari Y. Desai, Published by M.S. University of Baroda, Baroda; 1968. Though this book discusses many points relating to society, culture, religion reflected in the Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa, some topics are yet to be discussed thoroughly. This book is very helpful for my research work. Besides the aforesaid books, there are many works which help me in doing this research work successfully. But all these works could not be included here due to limitation of space.