[Advaita-l] Fwd: Free Download of Skanda purana in English

[V Subrahmanian]

On Sat, Feb 20, 2021 at 12:44 PM <jaldhar at braincells.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 19 Feb 2021, V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l wrote:
>
> > Writes the Uploader, of the efforts:
> >
> > The Skanda Purana is a huge compilation of ancient Hindu scriptures
> > <https://holybooks.com/mahabharata-all-volumes-in-12-pdf-files/>. They
> were
> > discovered in a library in Kathmandu, Nepal, in 1898 by Haraprasad
> Shastri
> > and Cecil Bendall. The manuscripts were written on palm leafs, the oldest
> > one dated to 810 CE. However, earlier versions are likely to have
> existed.
>
> This requires some clarification.  The Skandapurana was certainly not
> discovered in 1898.  What Haraprasad Shastri discovered was an early
> manuscript of an earlier stage of development of the Purana.
>
> Unlike some shastras like the Vedas which whose transmission was very
> meticulously guarded, in the Puranas there has been a lot of
> interpolation of other material.  (Not necessarily newer material.)  At
> one extreme we have e.g. the Bhagavata Purana.  Of its' 338 adhyayas there
> is doubt about only 3.  On the other side we have e.g. the Skanda Purana
> which is voluminous and contains everything from Shaiva and Advaita
> leaning works such as Kashi Khanda and Suta Samhita to Vaishnava leaning
> ones such as Vasudeva Mahatmya and Satyanaraya Katha. Many other tirtha
> mahatmyas and sthala puranas are also considered part of it.
>
> In recent years there has been  a German-Nepali joint venture that has
> been cataloguing and preserving manuscripts in the Kathmandu valley and
> they have discovered serveral more early manuscripts of the Skandapurana.
>
> This isn't that.  It looks like the uploader is not aware of such things
> and merely copied some text from the wikipedia article on skanda purana
> which like most wikipedia articles on Hinduism is rather mediocre.
>

Thanks for these interesting observations.

regards
subbu

>
> --
> Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
>