[Garuda Purana Pdf In Tamil Download
Melvin Amey
The Garuda Purana is one of 18 Mahāpurāṇa texts in Hinduism. It is a part of the Vaishnavism literature corpus,[1] primarily centering around the Hindu god Vishnu.[2] It was composed in Sanskrit and is today also available in various languages like Gujarati[3] and English. The earliest version of the text may have been composed in the first millennium CE,[4] but it was likely expanded and changed over a long period of time.[5][6]
The Garuda Purana text, known in many versions, contains more than 15,000 verses.[contradictory][6][7] Its chapters encyclopedically deal with a highly diverse collection of topics,[8] including cosmology, mythology, relationship between gods, ethics, good versus evil, various schools of Hindu philosophies, the theory of Yoga, the theory of "heaven and hell" with "karma and rebirth", ancestral rites, and soteriology; rivers and geography, types of minerals and stones, testing methods for gems for their quality; listing of plants and herbs,[9] various diseases and their symptoms, various medicines, aphrodisiacs, and prophylactics; astronomy, astrology, the moon and planets, and the Hindu calendar and its basis; architecture, home building, and essential features of a Hindu temple; rites of passage, charity and gift making, economy, thrift, duties of a king, politics, state officials and their roles and how to appoint them; genres of literature, and rules of grammar.[2][7][10] The final chapters discuss how to practice Yoga (Samkhya and Advaita types), personal development, and the benefits of self-knowledge.[2]
According to Pintchman, the text was composed sometime in the first millennium CE, but likely compiled and changed over a long period of time.[5] Gietz et al. place the first version of the text only between the fourth and eleventh centuries CE.[4]
Leadbeater states that the text is likely from about 900 CE, given that it includes chapters on Yoga and Tantra techniques that likely developed later.[13] Other scholars suggest that the earliest core of the text may be from the first centuries of the common era, and additional chapters were added thereafter through the sixth century or later.[14]
The version of the Garuda Purana that survives into the modern era, states Dalal, is likely from 800 to 1000 CE, with sections added in the 2nd millennium.[6] Pintchman suggests 850 to 1000 CE.[15] Chaudhuri and Banerjee, as well as Hazra, on the other hand, state that it cannot be from before about the tenth or eleventh century CE.[14]
The book Garudapuranasaroddhara, translated by Ernest Wood and SV Subrahmanyam, appeared in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[16][17] This, states Ludo Rocher, created major confusion because it was mistaken for the Garuda Purana, a misidentification first discovered by Albrecht Weber.[16] Garuda-purana-saroddhara is actually the original bhasya work (commentary) of Naunidhirama, which cites a section of the now nonexistent version of Garuda Purana as well as other Indian texts.[16] The earliest translation of one version of the Garuda Purana, by Manmatha Nath Dutt, was published in the early twentieth century.[2]
The Garuda Purana was likely fashioned after the Agni Purana, the other major medieval India encyclopedia that has survived.[7] The text's structure is idiosyncratic, in that it is a medley, and does not follow the theoretical structure expected in a historic puranic genre of Indian literature.[7] It is presented as information that Garuda (the man-bird vehicle of Vishnu) learned from Vishnu and then narrated to the sage Kashyapa, which then spread in the mythical forest of Naimisha to reach the sage Vyasa.[6]
The largest section (90%) of the text is Purvakhanda, which discusses a wide range of topics associated with life and living. The remaining is Pretakhanda, which deals primarily with rituals associated with death and cremation.[7]
The cosmology presented in Garuda Purana revolves around Vishnu and Lakshmi, and it is their union that created the universe.[19] Vishnu is the unchanging reality called Brahman, while Lakshmi is the changing reality called Maya.[19] The goddess is the material cause of the universe, the god acts to begin the process.[19]
Madan states that the Garuda Purana elaborates the repeatedly found theme in Hindu religious thought that the living body is a microcosm of the universe, governed by the same laws and made out of the same substances.[21] All the gods are inside the human body; what is outside the body is present within it as well.[21] Body and cosmos, states Madan, are equated in this theme.[21] Vishnu is presented by the text as the supreme soul within the body.[22][23]
The text describes Vishnu, Vaishnava festivals and puja (worship), and offers mahatmya (a pilgrimage tour guide)[24] to Vishnu-related sacred places.[6][25] However, the Garuda Purana also includes significant sections with reverence for Shaiva, Shakti, and Smarta traditions, including the Panchayatana puja of Vishnu, Shiva, Durga, Surya (Sun), and Ganesha.[6][26]
In the first design, it recommends that a plot of ground should be divided into a grid of 88 (64) squares, with the four innermost squares forming the chatuskon (adytum).[27] The core of the temple, states the text, should be reachable through 12 entrances, and the walls of the temple raised touching the 48 of the squares.[27] The height of the temple plinth should be based on the length of the platform, the vault in the inner sanctum should be co-extensive with adytum's length with the indents therein set at a third and a fifth ratio of the inner vault's chord.[27] The arc should be half the height of pinnacle, and the text describes various ratios of the temple's exterior to the adytum, those within adytum and then that of the floor plan to the vimana (spire).[27][28]
The second design details a 16 square grid, with four inner squares (pada) for the adytum.[27] The text thereafter presents the various ratios for the temple design.[27] The dimensions of the carvings and images on the walls, edifices, pillars and the murti are recommended by the text to be certain harmonic proportions of the layout (length of a pada), the adytum and the spire.[27][28]
The text asserts that temples exist in many thematic forms.[27] These include the bairaja (rectangle themed), puspakaksa (quadrilateral themed), kailasha (circular themed), malikahvaya (segments of sphere themed), and tripistapam (octagon themed).[27] The text claims these five themes create 45 different styles of temples, from the Meru style to Shrivatsa style. Each thematic form of temple architecture permits nine styles of temples, and the Purana lists all 45 styles.[27] It also states that within these various temple styles, the inner edifice is best in five shapes: triangle, lotus-shaped, crescent, rectangular, and octagonal.[27] The text thereafter describes the design guidelines for the Mandapa and the Garbha Griha.[27][28][29]
The temple design, states Jonathan Parry, follows the homology at the foundation of Hindu thought, that the cosmos and body are harmonious correspondence of each other; the temple is a model and reminder of this cosmic homology.[30]
First the shape, color, defects or excellences of a gem should be carefully tested and then its price should be ascertained in consultation with a gem expert who has studied all the books dealing with the precious stones.
The Garuda Purana describes 14 gems, their varieties, and how to test their quality.[10][32] The gems discussed include ruby, pearl, yellow sapphire, hessonite, emerald, diamond, cats eye, blue sapphire, coral, red garnet, jade, colorless quartz, and bloodstone. The technical discussion of gems in the text is woven with its theories on the mythical creation of each gem, astrological significance, and talisman benefits.[32][33]
Chapter 93 of the Garuda Purvakhanda presents sage Yajnavalkya's theory on laws of virtue. The text asserts that knowledge is condensed in the Vedas, in texts of different schools of philosophy such as Nyaya and Mimamsa, in the Shastras on dharma, on making money and temporal sciences written by 14 holy sages.[35] Thereafter, through Yajnavalkya, the text presents its laws of virtue. The first one it lists is dāna (charity), which it defines as:
The Garuda Purana asserts: save money for times of distress, but be willing to give it up all to save your wife.[38] It is prudent to sacrifice oneself to save a family, and it is prudent to sacrifice one family to save a village.[38] It is prudent to save a country if left with a choice to save the country or a village.[38][43] Yet, in verses that follow, it says a man should renounce that country whose inhabitants champion prejudice, and forgo the friend who he discovers to be deceitful.[43]
The text cautions against application of knowledge which is wedded to meanness, against pursuit of physical beauty without ennobling mind, and against making friends with those who abandon their dear ones in adversity.[43] It is the nature of all living beings to pursue one's own self-interest.[38][43] Yet, do not acquire wealth through vicious means or by bowing down to your enemies.[41]
The text also asserts that: men of excellence live with honest means, are true to their wives, pass their time in intellectual pursuits and are hospitable to newcomers.[38][43] Eternal are the rewards when one weds one's knowledge with noble nature, deep is the friendship roused by connection of the soul.[44] The discussion on ethics is mixed in other chapters.[45]
The Purvakhanda, from chapter 111 onwards, describes the characteristics of a good king and good government.[47] Dharma should guide the king, the rule should be based on truth and justice, and he must protect the country from foreign invaders.[48] Taxation should be bearable, never cause hardship on the merchants or taxpayers, and should be similar in style to one used by the florist who harvests a few flowers without uprooting the plants and while sustaining the future crops.[48] A good government advances order and prosperity for all.[48]
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