The Markandeya Purana (Study)
by Chandamita Bhattacharya | 2021 | 67,501 words
This page relates ‘1.14-15: Scope of the Study and Methodology’ of the study on the Markandeya Purana, one of the oldest of the eigtheen Mahapuranas preserving the history, civilisation, culture and traditions of ancient India. The Markandeyapurana commences with the questions raised by Rishi Jaimini (a pupil of Vyasa), who approaches the sage Markandeya with doubts related to the Mahabharata. This study examines various social topics such as the status of women, modes of worship, yoga, etc.
1.14-15: Scope of the Study and Methodology
Scope of the Study:
The Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa is a vast book containing 9000 verses. This purāṇa contains many fold topics. But it is not possible to cover all these topics in the present study. Hence only the topics relating to social, cultural, religious and philosophical aspects have been taken to be discussed in this thesis. Although many editions of the Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa are available at present, the F. E. Pargiter’s book has been accepted as the standard edition for this research project. At present many scholarly works, thesis and discussions have been made on this Purāṇa. Most of which are specially with text translation in different languages. Some of these works have been quoted in the review portion. But all these books do not cover all the topics delineated in the Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa and only a few research works on some of these topics have been found. Hence, through a deep glance many scopes to study, analyse and evaluate have been found which have given me the privilege to do research work on these topics. The religious, social, cultural and philosophical aspects of this Purāṇa have been considered to be discussed thoroughly. The scope of the present research work is quite massive, and it would be nearly impossible on the part of the researcher to complete the work unless the scope is clearly delimited.
Methodology:
In this research work, the descriptive and analytical methods have been used. It is called descriptive while one tries to give meaning to certain experiences by describing cultural phenomena, human behaviour and belief system etc. In the context of elaborating the social, cultural aspects, mostly the descriptive method has been used. It includes the responses about the pattern of behaviour or social phenomena etc. In an analytical research one can use facts or information already available. For describing and analysing different aspects both the primary and secondary data have been used which are collected from different books, journals and also from the internet. In the last part i.e. philosophical part of this thesis, the analytical research method has been used. This part is discussed as per rule established by the philosophers.