Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.1204

c7.1204

JALAPRALAYA. In all the Asiatic Purāṇas, reference to an ancient great flood, with slight changes occurs. According to Hindu Purāṇas this great flood took place before Mahāviṣṇu took the incarnation of Matsya. In the Holy Bible which is the scripture of the Christians, the story of the great flood is allied to the story of the Noah. (See under Avatāra). This story occurs in the Babylonian literature also. The book 'Gilgamish' which is as old as the Rgveda, is considered to be the oldest in the world. The theme of the Gilgamish is the travel of a man named Gilgamish. This story is written in twelve clay-tablets. After 1850, the scientists of England who carried on an archaeological research, found in the library of Ancient Nineveh, the most famous in the ancient world, these twelve tablets along with twenty-thousand other tablets, all of which were in good condition. This library was built by the King Aśurbānipāl in 7th century B.C., on a very high place on the bank of the river Tigris, in the ancient Nineveh.