A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1702

c5.1702

SKANDA PURĀNA. “The Skanda Purāna is that in which the six-faced deity (Skanda) has related the events of the Tatpurusha Kalpa, enlarged with many tales, and subservient to the duties taught by Maheswara. It is said to contain 81,800 stanzas : so it is asserted amongst mankind.” “It is uniformly agreed,” says Wilson, “that the Skanda Purāna, in a collective form, has no existence; and the fragments, in the shape of Sanhitās, Khandas, and Māhātmyas, which are affirmed in various parts of India to be portions of the Purāna, present a much more formidable mass of stanzas than even the immense number of which it is said to consist. The most celebrated of these portions in Hindusthān is the Kāsī Khanda, a very minute description of the temples of Siva in or adjacent to Benares, mixed with directions for worshipping Maheswara, and a great variety of legends explanatory of its merits and of the holiness of Kāsī. Many of them are puerile and uninteresting, but some of them are of a higher character. There is every reason to believe the greater part of the contents of the Kāsī Khanda anterior to the first attack upon Benares by Mahmūd of Ghazni. The Kāsī Khanda alone contains 15,000 stanzas. Another considerable work is the Utkala Khanda, giving an account of the holiness of Orissa.” A part of this Purāna has been printed at Bombay.