Agni Purana

01From Agni to Naimisharanya

Agni Deva spoke it first, to Maharshi Vasishtha. Vasishtha passed it to Vyasa, and Vyasa, at Badarikashrama, gave it to Suta with Shuka and Paila beside him. Suta then tells it in the Naimisha forest to Shaunaka and the rishis, who ask him for the sara of all saras, the one thing worth knowing. His answer in the fourth verse sets the tone of the whole book: Bhagwan Vishnu is that sara, and knowing him as one's own Self, one knows everything. Because Agni is its first speaker it is also called the Agneya Purana. The Bhagavata counts it at 15,400 shlokas.

02A library in one binding

In the edition most often used, the Agni Purana runs to some 382 adhyayas in one unbroken series, with no khandas or parvas. What it lacks in divisions it makes up in range. The closing chapter lists its own contents with pride: the avatars, the Ramayana, the Harivamsha and the Mahabharata, the Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta and Saura agamas, puja, diksha and pratishtha, the signs of images and temples, mandalas and vastu. Then come jyotisha, law, kingship, war, medicine, metre, poetics, grammar and a lexicon. Nothing on earth is harder to find, it says, than a book like this.

03Avatars and the Itihasas

Vasishtha asks for Brahma vidya, and Agni begins with the avatars, from Matsya rescuing Manu and the Vedas to Kalki at the end of the Kali Yuga. Seven short adhyayas then carry the whole Ramayana, kanda by kanda, as Narada once told it to Valmiki. One adhyaya gives the Harivamsha, three give the Mahabharata, from the birth of the Kauravas and Pandavas to the ascent to heaven. For someone who wants the two Itihasas in an evening's reading, these chapters are a gift, and they show how the tradition itself summarised its great kathas.

04The five marks

The Agni keeps all five marks of a Purana, though it scatters them through the book. Sarga follows the avatars: the ninefold creation, Svayambhuva Manu and the bhuvana kosha of dvipas, oceans and Bharatavarsha. The manvantaras are counted in a single adhyaya. Much later, after the chapters on law and the Veda, come the vamshas: the Solar line, the Lunar line, the Yadavas and the Pauravas, with the twelve great wars of the devas and asuras. Pratisarga is held for the end, where Agni describes the daily, occasional, natural and final pralaya before turning to the body, the narakas and yoga.

05Temples and images

A long stretch of the Agni Purana is a manual for the temple, and here it follows the Pancharatra and the Shaiva agamas closely. It tells how to take possession of the ground and test it, lay the first stone, raise the prasada to its proportions, and set the deities of the doorway and the walls. Then the lakshanas of images: Vasudeva and the twenty-four forms of Vishnu, the Shalagrama, the avatars, Devi, Surya, the yoginis, the Linga and its pitha. Then pratishtha, the installation that brings the deity into the murti, for Vishnu, Shiva, Gauri and Surya, and the renewal of a worn image.

06Tirthas, Gaya and the vratas

The tirtha chapters are short and sure. Ganga, Prayaga, Varanasi and the Narmada each have their adhyaya, and Gaya has three, with the full order of the Gaya yatra and the shraddha offered there for the pitris. Families who go to Gaya for pinda-dana walk a route these chapters already describe. The vratas follow the tithis, from Pratipada through Ekadashi and Dvadashi to Chaturdashi, then the nights of Shivaratri, the vows of the weekdays, the nakshatras and the months, the Bhishma Panchaka of Kartika, and the arghya to Agastya. Long chapters on dana close the cycle.

07Kingship, the bow and medicine

Rajadharma takes some twenty adhyayas: the coronation and its mantras, forts, the daily work of a king, the six measures of foreign policy and the circle of twelve kings, and a chapter of statecraft taught by Shri Rama himself. Then the signs of good weapons and the testing of gems. Four adhyayas give dhanurveda, the stances of the archer and the use of sword and noose. Then vyavahara, the law of witnesses, ordeals, inheritance and boundaries. The Ayurveda chapters treat people, trees, horses, elephants and cows, and then snakebite and the ailments of children.

08Metre, poetics and grammar

Here the Agni becomes a teacher of letters. Chhandas follows Pingala, with the prastara that sets out every pattern of long and short syllables, and shiksha follows. Then the whole of kavya: what poetry is, the forms of drama, the rasas, the ritis, dance and abhinaya, the alankaras of sound and of sense, the gunas and the doshas. Even where wit of speech leads, it says, rasa is the life of poetry. A one-syllable dictionary, a grammar after Panini's system and a lexicon arranged by subject complete the section, and writers on alankara have cited these chapters for centuries.

09Yoga, the Gita and Yama

The Purana ends where Vasishtha's question began. After pralaya and the narakas, Agni teaches the eight limbs of yoga one after another, yama and niyama, asana, pranayama and pratyahara, dhyana, dharana and samadhi, and then Brahma jnana in the language of Advaita. A summary of the Bhagavad Gita follows, and the Yama Gita, the teaching Yama gave Nachiketa. In use today, sthapatis and agama priests consult the temple chapters, pandits at Gaya consult the Gaya chapters, and students of alankara read the poetics. The Bibliotheca Indica printed the Sanskrit in Calcutta, and Gita Press and Motilal Banarsidass give it in Hindi and English.

What it contains

1. 1
   Avatars and the Itihasas

   The avatars of Vishnu from Matsya to Kalki. The Ramayana in seven adhyayas, then the Harivamsha and the Mahabharata in brief.

2. 2
   Sarga and the bhuvana kosha

   The ninefold creation and the line of Svayambhuva Manu. Then the dvipas and the oceans around them, Bharatavarsha with its rivers and mountains, and the lokas above.

3. 3
   Puja, diksha and mandalas

   Daily worship by the agamas, the fire-pit and the homa, mudras and mantras. The kinds of diksha, the consecration of the acharya and the Sarvatobhadra and other mandalas.

4. 4
   Vastu, pratima and pratishtha

   Testing the ground, laying the first stone and the proportions of the prasada. The lakshanas of every image, and the installation of Vishnu, Shiva, Gauri and Surya, with the vastu of houses and towns.

5. 5
   Tirthas and Gaya

   The glory of the Ganga, Prayaga, Varanasi and the Narmada. Three adhyayas on Gaya, the pilgrimage there and the shraddha for the pitris.

6. 6
   Jyotisha and the Yuddhajayarnava

   The reckoning of time and the heavens. A long series of chapters on astrology for victory in war, with its charts and mantras.

7. 7
   Dharma, vratas and dana

   Varnashrama, the householder, shraddha, purity and prayashchitta. The vratas of every tithi, weekday, nakshatra and month, and the great gifts.

8. 8
   Rajadharma, dhanurveda and vyavahara

   Coronation, forts, policy and war, with Shri Rama's teaching on statecraft. Then the science of the bow and the rules of law and judgment.

9. 9
   The Vedas and the royal lines

   The ritual uses of the Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Vedas and their shakhas. Then the Solar, Lunar, Yadu and Puru lines and the twelve wars of devas and asuras.

10. 10
    Ayurveda

    Remedies for every illness, the science of trees, and the care of horses, elephants and cows. Chapters on snakebite and on the ailments of children follow.

11. 11
    Chhandas, kavya and vyakarana

    Metre after Pingala, shiksha, poetics, drama, rasa, dance and the alankaras. Then a one-letter dictionary, grammar and a lexicon by subject.

12. 12
    Pralaya, yoga and Brahma vidya

    The four kinds of pralaya, the body and the narakas. Ashtanga yoga, Brahma jnana, the Gita-sara and the Yama Gita bring the Purana home.

Famous verses

सारात्सारो हि भगवान्विष्णुः सर्गादिकृद्विभुः। ब्रह्माहमस्मि तं ज्ञात्वा सर्वज्ञत्वं प्रजायते॥

Bhagwan Vishnu is the sara above every sara, the all-pervading maker of creation and the rest. Knowing him as 'I am Brahman', one comes to know all.Agni Purana 1.4 (GRETIL)

द्वे ब्रह्मणी वेदितव्ये शब्दब्रह्म परं च यत्। द्वे विद्ये वेदितव्ये हि इति चाथर्वणी श्रुतिः॥

Two Brahmans are to be known, the Brahman of sound and the one beyond it. Two vidyas are to be known, says the Shruti of the Atharva Veda.Agni Purana 1.5 (GRETIL)

नास्मात्परतरं भूमौ विद्यते वस्तु दुर्लभम्। आग्नेये हि पुराणेऽस्मिन्सर्वविद्याः प्रदर्शिताः॥

There is nothing on earth higher or harder to find than this, for in this Agneya Purana every vidya is shown.Agni Purana 382.51 (GRETIL; 383 in some editions)