The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.39.1

v2.c17.39.1

**Hindu legendary account of Bhuvanesvara :**—To Turn now to Hindu legendary history. The leading works which treat of the town as a holy place of pilgrimage are : (1) the *Brahma Purāṇa*, (2) the *Śiva Purāṇa*, (3) the *Ekāmra Purāṇa*, (4) the *Kapila Saṃhitā*. All the leading compilations on sacred shrines and pools likewise refer to the place, but in doing so, they generally quote from some one or other of the above-named texts, and therefore they may be left out of consideration. The *Brahma* and the *Siva Purāṇas* are large and very comprehensive works, and only a few chapters of the first book of the former and four or five of the last books of the latter give some of the legends connected with the ancient history of Bhuvaneśvara. The third, as already stated (ante, I, p. [10]) is devoted exclusively to the description of the sanctity of its different holy shrines and sacred pools. The fourth has the sacred places of Orissa for its subject, and assigns only a part of its space to Bhuvaneśvara, and in doing so, takes care, in accordance with its own sectarian character, to subordiante the worship of Siva, the presiding divinity of the place, to that of Viṣṇu. The *Ekāmra-candrikā*, like the *Ekāmra Purāṇa*, is devoted exclusively to the religious merits of Bhuvaneśvara; but it is professedly a compilation, and not an original authority. These works afford us no information regarding the Buddhist period of the history of this place.