Agnipurana 53
English (machine translation) 53
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Contents
53.1
The Lord said: / I shall state the characteristics of the liṅga and other objects; hear that, O lotus-born [Brahmā]! / Having divided the length into eight and then discarded three parts,
53.2
one should make the square diameter five parts. / Having divided the height into [nine] parts, one should assign [them] in the order of one, two, and three
53.3
to the portions of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva; this is called the Vardhamāna [liṅga]. / On its square, one should mark half a syllable in the hidden corners.
53.4
The octagonal Vaiṣṇava portion is then successfully produced; there is no doubt. / Then one should make it sixteen-sided, and then thirty-two-sided;
53.5
having made it sixty-four-sided, one should then make it circular. / The best of masters should then fashion the head of the liṅga.
53.6
Then one should divide the width of the liṅga eightfold; / having discarded a quarter part, the head should take the shape of an umbrella.
53.7
A liṅga whose height is equal in three parts and whose width / is equal to one of those divisions bestows the fruit of all desires.
53.8
Its diameter should be one-fourth of its length, O one worshipped by the gods! / Now hear the characteristics of all liṅgas.
53.9
Fixing the central line up to [the sections of] Brahmā and Rudra, the wise [sculptor], / as for a liṅga of sixteen aṅgulas divided into six parts,
53.10
by those two plumb lines the internal measurement is taught: / it is to be made eight barley-corns in the northern [direction], diminishing by a barley-corn for the remainder.
53.11
Having made the lower section threefold, one should abandon half of one [part].
53.11.p1
[Notes]
53.11.p2
1 "vrajed ātyantikam" is the reading of the manuscript marked ga.
53.11_2
Having divided those two eightfold, one should discard three parts of the upper portion.
53.12
And turning upward from the fifth part, one should let a line hang down; / having discarded one part, one should join the two together.
53.13
These general characteristics of liṅgas have been stated by me; / I shall state what is universal up to the pedestal; listen to me:
53.14
Having understood the entrance of the Brahmā portion and the height of the liṅga, / the wise man should place the stone of Brahmā properly above the stone of ritual.
53.15
Likewise, having understood its full height, one should divide the pedestal; / the pedestal should be two parts in height and its width equal to the liṅga.
53.16
Having made an excavation of three parts in the center, one should divide the pedestal; / one should design the thickness as three parts of half its own measurement.
53.17
One should then fashion the molding with a third of the thickness; / the cavity should be equal to the molding, and one should make it gradually descending.
53.18
Or the one knowing its proportions [makes] the cavity one-sixteenth of the molding; / one should make the height of that pedestal into transformed parts:
53.19
one [part] entered into the earth, the pedestal [itself] by one part; / the neck is to be made with three parts, and the fillet with one part.
53.20
The upper fillet with two parts, and the remaining fillets are of one part each; / each part entered as far as the neck, and then again
53.21
a projection of one part as far as the remaining fillet; / the drain's projection is by three parts from the three parts.
53.21.p1
[Notes]
53.21.p2
1 "madhyataḥ kṛtvā tataḥ pīṭham" is the reading of the manuscript marked gha.
53.21.p3
2 "vikārāṃśāṃś ca" is the reading of the manuscript marked gha.
53.21.p4
3 "bhāgenaikena" is the reading of the manuscript marked ga.
53.21.p5
4 "cārdhapaṭṭantu" is the reading of the manuscripts marked kha and ga.
53.22
The width at the base is an finger-tip, and at the top it is half of three parts; / one should make it slightly low, with that cavity indeed towards the north; / this is remembered as the universal [rule] for a liṅga endowed with a pedestal.
53.22.p1
Thus ends the fifty-third chapter, titled "Characteristics of the Liṅga", in the venerable Mahāpurāṇa composed by Agni.
53.22.p3
Now the fifty-fourth chapter.
53.22.p4
Statement of the Measurements and Other Properties of the Liṅga
Other recensions (1)
- Agnipurāṇa (Nag Publishers edition, Delhi) — Sanskrit
Linked texts (1)
- Agnipurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit