History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c90.231

v7.c90.231

Mārkaṇḍeya-purāṇa—There are two editions, viz B J edition (of 1862) and the Venk. Press ed. The present author has mainly used the latter for quotations. The two differ slightly as to the number of verses in almost each chapter e g. there are 270 verses in chap 8 of B J edition and 287 in Venk. ed, chapter 16 of the Venk edition corresponds to chapters 16-18 of the other edition. There are 134 chapters in the Venk edition and 137 in B J edition Pargiter translated into English the Mārkaṇḍeya. In the first 42 chapters (B J ed) Mārkaṇḍeya takes hardly any part, but in the remaining chapters he is the principal speaker. This is a peculiar Purāṇa The first chapter opens with four questions put by Jaimini to Mārkaṇḍeya about Mahābhārata saga, viz. (1) why nirguṇa Vāsudeva assumed a human form, (2) how Draupadī became the wife of five brothers, (3) Balarāma performed expiation of brahmahatyā by pilgrimage (and not by his own death), (4) how the five unmarried sons of Draupadī, themselves great warriors, met death helplessly although they had the great Pāṇḍava heroes to protect them Mārkaṇḍeya directs him to go to wise birds in the Vindhya mountain and the answers are given in chapters 4 to 7. One wonders why Jaimini said to be a pupil of Vyāsa in the Purāṇas did not go to Vyāsa but to Mārkaṇḍeya A portion of this Purāṇa is called Devīmāhātmya or Saptaśatī¹⁴³¹ (chapters 78-90 of Venk. ed. and 81-93 of B J. edition) and is deemed by modern Sanskrit scholars to be an interpolation. But even if it is an interpolation it must have been made before the 10th century, as the oldest known ms. of it is dated 998 A. D. and probably before 600 A D. The Mārkaṇḍeya has practically no verses on vrata, pilgrimages or śānti, but dilates on the duties of āśramas, on rājadharma, śrāddha, hells, karmavipāka, sadācāra, yoga, (explained by Dattātreya to Alarka), stories of Kārtavīrya, his grandson Kuvalayāśva and of Madālasā, creation, manvantaras, geography &c. It has hardly any sectarian bias; prayers and invocations are few except in the Devīmāhātmya. The present Purāṇa has, as indicated above, three different and disconnected sections viz. chapters 1-42 (Venk. ed.), where the wise birds figure as speakers, chapters 43 to end where Mārkaṇḍeya and Krostuki, a disciple, carry on the discourse, except in Devīmāhātmya, which is the third and an independent section.