Kalika Purana
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The Kalika Purana (
Content
The text starts off with the legends of Devi trying to bring Shiva back from ascetic life into that of a householder's by making him fall in love again.[1] According to Ludo Rocher, Markandeya describes how Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu are "one and the same" and that all goddesses (Sati, Parvati, Menaka, Kali and others) are manifestation of the same feminine energy.[1][2] It glorifies goddess Kamakhya, or Kamakshi, and details the ritual procedures required for worshiping her. It also describes in detail the rivers and mountains at Kamarupa tirtha and mentions the Brahmaputra River and the Kamakhya Temple.[1][5]
Rudhiradhyaya
Chapters 67 through 78 of the text constitute the Rudhiradhyaya which discusses bali (animal sacrifice) and of
History
The work belongs to the goddess-oriented Shakta branch of Hinduism. Most probably it was composed in or near medieval Kamarupa (modern Assam). It is a late work, states Hazra, by Nibandha writers regarding Shakti worship.[3] It is also one of the rare Hindu texts that actually mentions the word "Hindu".
Date
According to Hazra, there existed a text that was older than the extant one, and that the origin of that text was Bengal.[3] This is denied by Shastri, who claims that the evidence provided by Hazra for an earlier text can be explained by other means, without invoking an older text.[7] According to Shastri, the local descriptions; the exposition of the myth of Naraka from who all the dynasties of Kamarupa drew their lineage; the description of the myth of Brahmaputra river; and the claim in the text that Kamarupa was holier than even Varanasi points to the text having been composed in Kamarupa.[8]
References to
Printed editions
The earliest printed edition of this text was published by the Venkateshvara Press, Bombay in 1829
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Rocher (1986), pp. 179–183.
- ^ a b Dalal (2010), p. 187.
- ^ a b c Hazra (2003), p. 280.
- ^ (Rosati 2017, p. 5): "This story is recounted also in the Kālikāpurāṇa—the earliest text devoted to the worship of Kāmākhyā, probably compiled no later than the tenth–eleventh century in a region between Assam and Koch Bihar (a district of West Bengal)."
- ^ Dowson (1984), p. 143.
- ^ Lawrence (1976), pp. 232–234, with footnotes
- ^ Shastri (1994), p. 23.
- ^ a b Shastri (1994), p. 24.
- ^ a b Shastri (1994), p. 25.
- ^ Shin 2018, p. 32.
Bibliography
- Dalal, Roshen (2010). Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-341421-6.
- Dowson, John (1984) [1879]. A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology, and Religion, Geography, History. Calcutta: Rupa & Co.
- Hazra, R.C. (2003) [1962]. "The Upapuranas". In Radhakrishnan, S. (ed.). The Cultural Heritage of India. Vol. 2. Kolkata: The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture. ISBN 81-85843-03-1.
- Lawrence, Bruce B. (1976). Shahrastani on the Indian Religions. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-080099-9.
- Shastri, Biswanarayan (1994). Kalikapurane Murtivinirdesah. Motilal Banarsidass Publications.
- Rocher, Ludo (1986). The Purāṇas. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-02522-5.\
- Rosati, Paolo (2017), "The Goddess Kāmākhyā: Religio-political Implications in the Tribalisation Process", History and Sociology of South Asia, 11 (2): 137-155, S2CID 157265661
- Shin, Jae-Eun (2018), "Region Formed and Imagined: Reconsidering temporal, spatial and social context of Kamarupa", in Dzüvichü, Lipokmar; Baruah, Manjeet (eds.), Modern Practices in North East India: History, Culture, Representation, London & New York: Routledge, pp. 23–55