Overview
The Shiva Purana (Sanskrit: Śivapurāṇa or Śivamahāpurāṇa) is one of the eighteen major texts of the Purana genre of Sanskrit literature in Hinduism, and forms part of the Shaivism textual corpus. It primarily centres on the god Shiva and the goddess Parvati, while also referencing and revering other deities of the Hindu pantheon.
Like other Puranas, the Shiva Purana is regarded as a living text that was edited, recast and revised over a long period. The Purana itself states that it once consisted of 100,000 verses arranged in twelve Samhitas (books), and was abridged by the sage Vyasa before being taught to Romaharshana. Surviving manuscripts exist in several versions: one major recension, traced to South India, has seven books; another has six books; and a third version, traced to medieval Bengal, is divided into two large sections called Purva-Khanda (Previous Section) and Uttara-Khanda (Later Section). The two book-based versions differ in how the constituent books are titled.
According to the estimate of Klaus Klostermaier, the oldest surviving manuscripts were likely composed around the 10th–11th century CE, while some chapters in present manuscripts appear to have been composed after the 14th century. The text contains chapters dealing with Shiva-centred cosmology, the relationship between deities, ethics, yoga, tirtha (pilgrimage) sites, bhakti, rivers and geography, among other subjects. It is regarded as an important source of historical information on the varieties and theology of Shaivism in the early second millennium CE. The oldest surviving chapters carry significant Advaita Vedanta philosophical content, blended with theistic elements of bhakti devotion.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Vayu Purana was at times titled as the Shiva Purana, and was sometimes proposed as forming a part of the complete Shiva Purana. With the discovery of additional manuscripts, scholarship has gradually clarified the distinctions between the two texts and their respective recensions.
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