The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c6.72

v1.c6.72

In extent the *Puruṣottama Māhātmya* is somewhat shorter than the *Ekāmra Purāṇa*, but it claims to be a part of one of the great *Purāṇas*, the *Skanda*. This pretension, however, is not admitted by the *Nārada Purāṇa*, which divides the *Skanda* into seven parts, two of which contain chapters on the origin of Jagannātha, but none includes the whole or any great portion of this work. It extends to 45 chapters, and is devoted exclusively to the praises of Puri and its principal places of pilgrimage. On Orissa generally it says very little beyond its being a well-known country in the Bhāratavarṣa,⁵⁰ a very holy place on the shore of the southern ocean,⁵¹ the noblest and best of all, "for there alone can man behold with wondering eyes Brahma in a material form,"⁵² and so forth.