Part 1.1 - The Vulgate Text of the Ekāmra Purāṇa

The Vulgate text of the Ekāmra Purāṇa has been available in three printed editions (all in Oriya script). Out of the three editions the following two are incomplete and the last one is complete. In view of its completeness it is included in the critical apparatus.

(a) The Oriya edition of the text was published by Govinda Ratha at ctc. It begins with the first Adhyāya of the first aṃśa or section and ends with the completion of second section. The first section consisting of ten Adhyāyas is complete, but out of twentytwo Adhyāyas in the second section, it includes twenty Adhyāyas only and omits the Adhyāyas like nineteen and twenty. The fact is evident from the colophon to the last Adhyāya of the edition. The cause of omission is not specific. In each Adhyāya the verses are numbered.

It is an incomplete text.

It begins—

oṃ namo bhagavate vigneśvarāya/
kīrtiryasya surāsurairmunivarairāgīyate nityaśo
  nākakṣmātalavāsibhiḥ suranaraividyādharaiḥ kinnraiḥ/
pātāleṣva’pi kandareṣu ca mahīghraṇāṃ gataiḥ pannagaiḥ
  brahmopendrasavāsavānvitajagatkartre namaḥ śambhave//
purā satyayuge rājā dharmadvaja iti śrutaḥ/
sarvajñamiti papraccha satyaṃ satyavatīsutam//

It ends:

paripālayati yaścedaṃ vācā na vikarotyapi/
svavaṃśamudṛdataṃ tejaṃ Śaṃkaraḥ parituṣyati//

The colophon to the first Adhyāya:

ityekāmrapurāṇe ṣaṭsāhasrayāmaiśvaryāṃ saṃhitāyāṃ prathame’śe vastunirdeśo nāma prathmo’dhyāyaḥ/

The colophon to the last Adhyāya of the edition states—

ityekāmrapurāṇe ṣaṭsāhasrayāmaiśvaryāṃ saṃhitāyāṃ dvitīye’śe devāsurasaṃgrāme hiraṇyakaśipu-tapogamanaṃ nāma dvātriśo’dhyāyaḥ// dvitīryo’śaḥ samāptaḥ //

(b) Another Oriya edition of the Ekāmra Purāṇa was published by Ratnākara Garābaḍu and printed at Sri Radharaman Press, Ctc by Sri Lakṣmidhar Garābaḍu. the edition consists of fiftyone Adhyāyas and in the original. The first section contains ten Adhyāyas, the second section 22, the third fourteen, the fourth five Adhyāyas only and total number of Adhyāyas comes to fiftyone.

The “Ekāmra Purāṇa’ one Chandra or Śaśāṅka constructed a temple of Tribhubaneswar in Ekāmra.

Ekāmra Purāṇa was written in imitation of a Purāṇa, the name Chandra or Śaśāṅka either may not at all be historical and may be either a divine ascription or relate to a king Somavaṃśa which rule of the Somavaṃśis was the golden age in the annals of Śaivism in Odisha. The magnificent Śaivite temple of Mukteśvara, Brahmeśvara, and Liṅgarāja were built at Ekāmra or Bhubaneswar of the above three temples Mukteśvar is considered to be “the gem of Orissan architecture” by fergusson. Śiva under the Śailodbhavas, the Bhaumakars and Somavaṃśīs resulted in the culmination of the Liṅgarāja temple.

(Śaivacintāmaṇi is an authoritative text to keep up the tradition of Pūjā of Lord Liṅgarāja)