A Prose Translation of the Vishnu Purana (1912)

S$118.00

A Prose Translation of the Vishnu Purana (1912)

S$118.00

A scarce prose translation of the Vishnu Purana based on an earlier verse translation by H. H. Wilson

Title: A Prose Translation of the Vishnupuranam

Author: Manmatha Nath Dutt, H. H. Wilson (trans)

Publisher: H. C. Das, Elysium Press, for the Society for the Resuscitation of Indian Literature. Shambazar (Calcutta), 1912. Second edition.

Condition: Hardcover, rebound in plain modern binding. Good. Small bookseller’s sticker to endpaper, some tanning and foxing to edges and prelims. Text clean, binding tight. 464pp., app 9″ by 6″.

About the Vishnu Purana (from Wikipedia):

The Vishnu Purana is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, a genre of ancient and medieval texts of Hinduism. It is an important Pancharatra text in the Vaishnavism literature corpus.

The manuscripts of Vishnu Purana have survived into the modern era in many versions. More than any other major Purana, the Vishnu Purana presents its contents in Pancalaksana format – Sarga (cosmogony), Pratisarga (cosmology), Vamśa (genealogy of the gods, sages and kings), Manvantara (cosmic cycles), and Vamśānucaritam (legends during the times of various kings). The text is also notable as the earliest Purana to have been translated and published in 1864 CE by HH Wilson, based on manuscripts then available, setting the presumptions and premises about what Puranas may have been.

The 6 parts of the book are:

  1. Cosmology
  2. Earth (7 oceans, 7 continents etc)
  3. Time (manvantaras, yugas)
  4. Dynasties
  5. Liberation (Kali yuga, yoga)