He is also depicted as a householder having Parvati as his wife, and Ganesh and Kartikeya as his two children. In fact, Hindu scriptures have both benevolent and fearsome depictions of Lord Shiva.Īs far as his benevolent aspects are concerned, Shiva has been described as an omniscient Yogi who leads the life of an ascetic on Mount Kailash. The text proves an important source of historical information on the theology behind Shaivism around 2nd-millennium CE. The Shiva Purana also throws significant insights on Advaita Vedanta philosophy. The Shiva Purana contains several chapters that are centered on Shiva cosmology, mythology, and relationship with Gods, Yoga, Ethics, Pilgrimage Sites, Bhakti, Rivers, as well as Geography and other topics. Some of its chapters were likely composed after the 14th century.

It is estimated that the oldest manuscript of surviving texts had been likely composed around 10th to 11th century CE. However, like other Puranas, Shiva Purana also existed as a living text that was occasionally edited, recast, as well as revised over a long period. For example, one major version has seven books another version has six books, and the third version is traced to the medieval Bengal region of the Indian Subcontinent that has two large sections, namely the “Purva-Khanda” and the “Uttara Khanda.”

Its surviving manuscripts have been found in many different versions and content. It has been written by Romaharshana, who was the disciple of Sage Vyasa, belonging to the Suta class. The original manuscript of Shiva Purana consisted of 100,000 verses that were set out in twelve Samhitas (books). This post shares with you details about Shiva Purana. However, it also references and reveres all gods. The Shiva Purana is primarily dedicated to Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. It is an integral part of the Shaivism literature corpus. The Shiva Purana is a very famous Hindu religious text belonging to the Purana genre of Sanskrit Texts in Hinduism.

Siva puranam in english