Markandeya Purana

01Four wise birds

Jaimini, disciple of Vyasa, comes to Markandeya with four questions left by the Mahabharata. Why did Bhagwan take a human body? Why did Draupadi have five husbands? How did Balarama atone for killing a brahmana? Why did Draupadi's sons die unmarried? Markandeya sends him to four birds living in the Vindhya hills, sons of a cursed rishi, who know the Veda. Their answers fill the opening chapters. The Purana carries Markandeya's name because he begins it, and by tradition Maharshi Vyasa set it seventh among the eighteen Mahapuranas.

02Harishchandra at the burning ground

King Harishchandra of Ayodhya promised Vishvamitra whatever he asked, and the rishi asked for the kingdom. Then he asked for his dakshina on top of it. To pay, Harishchandra sold his queen Shaibya and their son Rohita as servants, and sold himself to a chandala who kept the cremation ground at Kashi. There, years later, Shaibya came carrying Rohita, dead of a snakebite, and the king, bound by his duty, asked her for the cremation fee. Neither gave up truth. Dharma himself, Indra and the devas then appeared, Rohita was restored, and the king was taken to svarga with his people.

03Madalasa's lullaby

Queen Madalasa rocked her firstborn and sang to him: you are pure, child, you have no name, the name was given just now by imagining; this body of five elements is not yours, so why do you cry? Three sons grew up on that song and left the palace for the forest. Only for the fourth, Alarka, at her husband Ritadhvaja's request, did she sing of kingship and its duties. Her lullaby is one of the best-known passages of Vedanta in the Puranas. A mother who sings her sons to freedom is the picture every katha-vachak remembers.

04Dattatreya teaches Alarka

Alarka ruled well and enjoyed the world, as his mother had sung. When an enemy took his kingdom he remembered the ring she had left him, opened it, and found the advice to seek the company of the wise. He went to Dattatreya, son of Atri and Anasuya, who taught him yoga: the restraint of breath and senses, the faults that block the yogi, and the signs that the end is near. The same Purana tells how Dattatreya gave Kartavirya Arjuna his thousand arms and his power. Devotees of Shri Dattatreya in Maharashtra and Karnataka hold these chapters especially dear.

05Built on the Manvantaras

After the birds' teaching, Markandeya himself speaks to his disciple Kraushtuki, and the Purana takes the shape of the five marks. Sarga and pratisarga come first: the unfolding of creation, the measure of the yugas, the kalpa and the pralaya. Then the backbone of the book, the fourteen Manvantaras, each with its Manu, its Indra, its devas and its seven rishis. The account of Svarochisha is long and full of kathas; the eighth, Savarni, holds the Devi Mahatmya. Vamsha and vamshanucharita close it: the birth of Surya's sons and the kings of the Solar line, from Ikshvaku to Marutta, whose yajna was the richest ever held, and to Dama.

06The Devi Mahatmya

In the account of the eighth Manu, Savarni, the rishi Medhas tells a deposed king, Suratha, and a merchant, Samadhi, betrayed by his family, of the Devi who holds the world. Three charitras follow. In the first, Mahakali wakes Vishnu to slay Madhu and Kaitabha. In the second, Mahalakshmi, formed from the light of all the devas, slays Mahishasura. In the third, Mahasaraswati destroys Shumbha and Nishumbha, with Chamunda slaying Chanda and Munda and Kali drinking the blood of Raktabija. The Narayani Stuti of the eleventh adhyaya is sung at every aarti of Durga.

07The Devi who returns

For Shaktas the Devi Mahatmya is the scripture of Adi Parashakti, who is Mahamaya and also the Yoganidra in which Vishnu sleeps. The fifth adhyaya salutes her as the Devi present in all beings as consciousness, as hunger, as shadow, as forgiveness, as mother, each line ending in three salutations. The devas' hymn in the eleventh calls her Narayani. At the close she gives her promise: whenever trouble rises from the danavas, she will descend and destroy the foe. Suratha is granted his kingdom back and a future birth as the Manu Savarni; Samadhi asks only for knowledge, and receives it.

08Reciting the Saptashati

The Saptashati is read with the Kavacha, Argala and Kilaka before it and the three Rahasyas after. In Navaratri a household may read the whole text each day, or split it so that it is completed on the ninth. A Chandi homa offers its seven hundred verses into the fire, and a Shata Chandi repeats the reading a hundred times. In Bengal it is chanted in the Durga Puja pandals as Chandi Path, and the dawn broadcast of Mahishasura Mardini on Mahalaya draws on it. At Vaishno Devi and Kamakhya, at Kalighat and in village Devi shrines, the same verses are heard through the nine nights.

09Commentaries and translations

The Devi Mahatmya has drawn more commentary than the rest of the Purana together. Bhaskararaya, the great Shakta scholar who also commented on the Lalita Sahasranama, wrote the Guptavati on it; Nagoji Bhatta wrote another, and the Shantanavi is widely read. Gita Press prints the Shri Durga Saptashati with the Sanskrit, Hindi meaning and the full order of recitation, and it sits on the shelf of countless Hindu homes. The whole Markandeya Purana was put into English by F. E. Pargiter in 1904, and Swami Jagadiswarananda's Devi Mahatmyam from the Ramakrishna Math is read across south India.

What it contains

1. 1
   The birds' answers

   Jaimini brings his four questions from the Mahabharata to the wise birds of the Vindhya. Their answers include the katha of Harishchandra and the teaching of the boy Sumati to his father on karma, birth and the hells. With them the dialogue with the birds ends.

2. 2
   Madalasa and Dattatreya

   Ritadhvaja wins Madalasa, who raises her sons on the knowledge of the Self. Dattatreya teaches Alarka yoga, and Kartavirya Arjuna receives his boons from him. These chapters are the Purana's chief teaching on yoga and renunciation.

3. 3
   The fourteen Manvantaras

   Markandeya tells Kraushtuki of creation and of the Manus from Svayambhuva onward, with their devas, Indras and rishis. The births of Svarochisha and Auttama are told at length, with many kathas around them. The account of the eighth Manu opens into the Devi Mahatmya.

4. 4
   Devi Mahatmya, Prathama Charitra प्रथमचरित्रम्

   Adhyaya 1: Suratha and Samadhi meet in the forest ashrama of Medhas. Brahma, threatened by Madhu and Kaitabha, praises Yoganidra to wake Vishnu. Mahakali withdraws from his eyes and he slays the two asuras.

5. 5
   Devi Mahatmya, Madhyama Charitra मध्यमचरित्रम्

   Adhyayas 2–4: Mahishasura drives the devas from svarga. From their anger and light the Devi takes form, armed with all their weapons, and slays his army and then the buffalo-asura himself. The Shakradi Stuti of the fourth adhyaya is the devas' thanks.

6. 6
   Devi Mahatmya, Uttama Charitra उत्तमचरित्रम्

   Adhyayas 5–13: the devas' hymn on the Himalaya, the slaying of Dhumralochana, Chanda and Munda, Raktabija, Nishumbha and Shumbha. The Narayani Stuti of the eleventh adhyaya and the Devi's promise to return follow. The boons to Suratha and Samadhi close the Mahatmya.

7. 7
   The Solar dynasty

   Surya's marriage to Sanjna and the birth of his children, Vaivasvata Manu, Yama and Yamuna among them. The kings of his line follow, with the long katha of Marutta and his yajna. The Purana closes with the deeds of Dama.

Famous verses

शुद्धोऽसि रे तात न तेऽस्ति नाम कृतं हि ते कल्पनयाधुनैव। पञ्चात्मकं देहमिदं तवैतन्नैवास्य त्वं रोदिषि कस्य हेतोः॥

Madalasa to her infant son: you are pure, my child; you have no name, the name was made for you just now by imagining. This body of five elements is not yours, nor are you its. Why then do you cry?Markandeya Purana 25.11 (GRETIL ed.)

या देवी सर्वभूतेषु मातृरूपेण संस्थिता। नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः॥

To the Devi who dwells in all beings in the form of the Mother, salutation to her, salutation to her, salutation to her, salutation again and again.Devi Mahatmya 5 (Markandeya Purana 85.34, GRETIL ed.)

सर्वमङ्गलमाङ्गल्ये शिवे सर्वार्थसाधिके। शरण्ये त्र्यम्बके गौरि नारायणि नमोऽस्तु ते॥

O auspiciousness of all that is auspicious, O Shiva, who fulfils every aim, O refuge, three-eyed Gauri, Narayani, salutation to you.Devi Mahatmya 11 (Markandeya Purana 91.9, GRETIL ed.)

सर्वस्वरूपे सर्वेशे सर्वशक्तिसमन्विते। भयेभ्यस्त्राहि नो देवि दुर्गे देवि नमोऽस्तु ते॥

You who are the form of all, the ruler of all, endowed with every power, protect us from fear, O Devi. O Durga, O Devi, salutation to you.Devi Mahatmya 11 (Markandeya Purana 91.24, GRETIL ed.)

इत्थं यदा यदा बाधा दानवोत्था भविष्यति। तदा तदावतीर्याहं करिष्याम्यरिसंक्षयम्॥

The Devi's promise: thus, whenever trouble arises from the danavas, then and then I shall descend and bring about the destruction of the foe.Devi Mahatmya 11 (Markandeya Purana 91.51, GRETIL ed.)