Shiva · the Siva Purana Retold

Pages: 340

About the Book:

'One day of Brahma has 14 Indras: his life has 54,000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Siva.'

There are eighteen Mahapuranas, great Puranas, and the Siva Purana is one of them. Siva is a vivid retelling of the Siva Purana for today's reader. The book contains all the major legends of Siva, bringing them alive again for a new generation.

The characters and events one encounters here are awesome, many are cosmic. Siva himself is the Auspicious One He is Mahadeva, the greatest God.

About the Author:

Ramesh Menon was born in 1951 in New Delhi. He has also written modern renderings of Mahabharata and Ramayana.

Introduction

THE SACRED PURANAS HAVE COME DOWN TO US IN THE GREAT ORAL traditional of the rishis, the sages of bharatavarsha. Once, the peerless Vyasa composed them from ancient material': ancient for him . Traditionally , a Purana deals with five subjects , called panchalakshana: the primary creation of the universe; secondary creation after periodic destruction ; the genesis of the Gods and right s; great epochs of time , the kalpas, manvantras, yugus; and the history of some royal dynasties of the earth.

More recently , after BC 4000 until AD 1000, roughly , a lot of other material has grown around the central Purana. These concern rituals for sacrifices, other customs, festival s, Caste customs , specifications for temple construction , etcetera. There are eighteen principal surviving mahapuranas, great puranas. The Siva Purana is one of these . They are Collections of revelation , in the from of stories, or otherwise, usually narrated to some rishis by a Suta , who heard them from V