Vamana Purana

01Pulastya and Narada

The first shloka salutes Shridhara, who took the rule of the three worlds from Bali and gave it to Indra, wearing the disguise of a dwarf. Then Narada finds Maharshi Pulastya in his ashrama and asks for the Purana that rests on Vamana. Pulastya answers, and the whole text is his telling. It is counted fourteenth among the eighteen Mahapuranas and, like them, is the work of Maharshi Vyasa by tradition. The Bhagavata gives it 10,000 shlokas. Though it bears the name of a Vishnu avatar, more of its pages belong to Shiva and Devi than to Vamana himself.

02Three steps at Kurukshetra

Bali, grandson of Prahlada, had won the three worlds by his yajnas and his generosity. Aditi prayed, and Vishnu was born to her as Vamana. In this Purana the yajna is held at Kurukshetra, under the Jyeshtha and Mula nakshatras, and Vamana enters the enclosure with the rishi Bharadvaja. He asks three steps by his own measure, for his guru's sacred fire. Bali laughs: you are the one who asks, Vishnu, and I the giver; should either of us be ashamed over three steps? Vamana grows, takes earth and heaven, and sends Bali to rule Sutala. Bhagwan also gives him a festival, the Bali Pratipada.

03Vamana and Dhundhu

The Purana tells the three steps twice. Before Bali comes the katha of Dhundhu, an asura who was holding a great yajna of his own. Vishnu came to him too as a small brahmana, asked three steps, was laughed at and given them, and then grew into Trivikrama. The second step took the heavens, and when the third found no room he came down on the asura's back with a body the size of Meru. Pulastya tells both kathas to Narada without remark. In one kalpa it was Dhundhu, in another Bali; the Lord's way of humbling pride stayed the same.

04Shiva's kathas

The early adhyayas belong to Mahadev. Daksha leaves Shiva out of his yajna, and Virabhadra destroys it. Shiva cuts off Brahma's fifth head, the skull clings to his palm, and he wanders as a kapali, carrying the sin of brahmahatya, until he bathes at Varanasi and the skull falls at the tirtha called Kapalamochana. Later come Parvati's tapas, the marriage, and the birth of Kartikeya, and the long war with Andhaka. The Kapalamochana katha is why that tirtha in Kashi is still visited by those who seek release from grave sin.

05Katyayani and Mahisha

When Mahishasura drove the devas from heaven, their anger poured out as light and took the form of the Devi. The rishi Katyayana added his own tejas to it, and she was named Katyayani. The devas armed her, each with his own weapon, and she rode out on her lion and killed Mahisha. The Vamana gives this katha several adhyayas, with the names of her attendants and the battle told blow by blow. Shaktas read it beside the Devi Mahatmya of the Markandeya, as another telling of the same victory, and Navaratri sermons in north India sometimes draw on both.

06The Saro Mahatmya of Kurukshetra

A long block, the Saro Mahatmya, walks the land of Kurukshetra between the Sarasvati and the Drishadvati, naming its forests, its pools and its tirthas, and telling how King Kuru ploughed the field that bears his name. Prithudaka, today's Pehowa, is praised as the place to honour the pitris, and families still take ashes and pinda there. Pilgrims at the Brahma Sarovar and the Sannihit Sarovar on a solar eclipse are bathing in tirthas this Purana praises. The forty-eight kos of the Kurukshetra parikrama follow these same names.

07The five marks and the order of the text

The Vamana is lighter on creation and king-lists than most Puranas. Sarga and pratisarga come briefly, in Pulastya's opening answers. Manvantaras are touched when the Purana explains which Indra ruled when. The lineages appear mostly as the family of Prahlada and Bali, the asura line that this Purana treats with unusual warmth. What fills the space is katha and tirtha. The Narada Purana, describing the Vamana, speaks of a Purva Bhaga and an Uttara Bhaga called the Brihad Vamana in four samhitas; the printed Vamana is the Purva Bhaga.

08The morning prayer

Rise in brahma muhurta, the rishis tell the rakshasa Sukeshi, and before anything else recall the devas and the great sages. Then they recite the suprabhata that Shiva himself spoke: may Brahma, Murari and the destroyer of Tripura, the sun, the moon and the planets, make my morning auspicious. Verse after verse adds the rishis, the Sanakas, the seven notes, the elements. Many households say the first of these lines on waking without knowing it comes from the Vamana Purana. The same adhyayas teach Sukeshi, a rakshasa, the whole daily dharma of a householder.

09Onam, Bali Pratipada and the editions

The Bali of this Purana is honoured in two festivals. In Kerala, Onam welcomes him back for a day to see his people. In much of western and southern India, the day after Diwali is Bali Pratipada, the festival Vamana promises him here. The critical edition of the Sanskrit text, with the Saro Mahatmya, was published by the All-India Kashiraj Trust, Varanasi, with an English translation. Gita Press prints a Hindi rendering, and the Sanskrit is also in the GRETIL digital library. No classical commentary on the Vamana has come down in wide use; it has been read as katha.

What it contains

1. 1
   Purva Bhaga: Shiva and Devi

   Pulastya opens his answer to Narada with Daksha's yajna, Shiva's release from Brahma's skull at Kapalamochana, and the birth of Katyayani who slays Mahisha. Parvati's tapas, the marriage and the birth of Kartikeya follow, with the war against Andhaka.

2. 2
   Sukeshi's questions

   The rakshasa Sukeshi asks the rishis about dharma, the hells and good conduct. They teach him the householder's day, beginning with the suprabhata spoken by Shiva. A rakshasa learning sadachara from rishis is one of this Purana's gentler pictures.

3. 3
   Saro Mahatmya सरोमाहात्म्यम्

   Twenty-seven adhyayas on the glory of Kurukshetra, Brahma's northern altar, and its tirthas along the Sarasvati, Prithudaka among them. King Kuru ploughs the field, and Shiva, entering the lake, becomes Sthanu. It is the scriptural map of the Kurukshetra parikrama.

4. 4
   Prahlada, Dhundhu and Bali

   The family of Prahlada fills the later adhyayas. Vamana humbles Dhundhu at his yajna, and then, in the great katha, takes three steps from Bali at Kurukshetra. Bali goes to Sutala with the promise of Bali Pratipada.

5. 5
   Uttara Bhaga (Brihad Vamana)

   Described in the Narada Purana as four samhitas: Maheshvari, Bhagavati, Sauri and Ganeshvari. It is not part of the printed Vamana. Its names are kept in the tradition's own account of the Purana.

Famous verses

त्रैलोक्यराज्यमाक्षिप्य बलेरिन्द्राय यो ददौ। श्रीधराय नमस्तस्मै छद्मवामनरूपिणे॥

Salutation to Shridhara, who in the guise of a dwarf took the rule of the three worlds from Bali and gave it to Indra.Vamana Purana 1.1 (Kashiraj critical ed., 1967, via GRETIL)

ब्रह्मा मुरारिस्त्रिपुरान्तकारी भानुः शशी भूमिसुतो बुधश्च। गुरुश्च शुक्रः सह भानुजेन कुर्वन्तु सर्वे मम सुप्रभातम्॥

Brahma, Murari and the destroyer of Tripura; the Sun, the Moon, Mars and Mercury; Jupiter and Venus with Saturn, the son of the Sun: may all of them make my morning auspicious.Vamana Purana 14.23 (Kashiraj critical ed., 1967, via GRETIL, which prints 'brahma' for 'brahmā'). Commonly recited with 'śanirāhuketavaḥ' in the third quarter.

भवान्याचयिता विष्णो अहं दाता जगत्पतिः। दातुर्याचयितुर्लज्जा कथं न स्यात्पदत्रये॥

Bali says: You are the one who asks, Vishnu, and I am the giver, and you are the lord of the world. How should giver and asker not both be ashamed over three steps?Vamana Purana 65.14 (Kashiraj critical ed., 1967, via GRETIL)

गजाश्वभूहिरण्यादि तदर्थिभ्यः प्रदीयताम्। एतावता त्वहं चार्थी देहि राजन्पदत्रयम्॥

Vamana answers: Give elephants, horses, land and gold to those who want them. I ask only this much: give me, O king, three steps.Vamana Purana 65.16 (Kashiraj critical ed., 1967, via GRETIL)