The Vishnu Purana: Preface: 2. The Padma Puráńa | Internet Sacred Text Archive

2. The Padma Puráńa

2. Padma Puráńa. "That which contains an account of the period when the world was a golden lotus (padma), and of all the occurrences of that time, is therefore called the Pádma by the wise: it contains fifty-five thousand stanzas 37." The second Puráńa in the usual lists is always the Pádma, a very voluminous work, containing, according to its own statement, as well as that of other authorities, fifty-five thousand slokas; an amount not far from the truth. These are divided amongst five books, or Khańd́as; 1. the Srisht́i Khańd́a, or section on creation; 2. the Bhúmi Khańd́a, description of the earth; 3. the Swarga Khańd́a, chapter on heaven; 4. Pátála Khańd́a, chapter on the regions below the earth; and 5. the Uttara Khańd́a, last or supplementary chapter. There is also current a sixth division, the Kriyá Yoga Sára, a treatise on the practice of devotion.

The denominations of these divisions of the Padma P. convey but an imperfect and partial notion of their contents. In the first, or section which treats of creation, the narrator is Ugraśravas the Súta, the son of Lomaharshańa, who is sent by his father to the Rishis at Naimisháráńya to communicate to them the Puráńa, which, from its containing an account of the lotus (padma), in which Brahmá appeared at creation, is termed the Pádma or Padma Puráńa. The Súta repeats what was originally communicated by Brahmá to Pulastya, and by him to Bhíshma. The early chapters narrate the cosmogony, and the genealogy of the patriarchal families, much in the same style, and often in the same words, as the Vishńu; and short accounts of the Manwantaras and regal dynasties: but these, which are legitimate Pauráńik matters, soon make way for new and unauthentic inventions, illustrative of the virtues of the lake of Pushkara, or Pokher in Ajmir, as a place of pilgrimage.

The Bhúmi Khańd́a, or section of the earth, defers any description of the earth until near its close, filling up one hundred and twenty-seven chapters with legends of a very mixed description, some ancient and common to other Puráńas, but the greater part peculiar to itself, illustrative of Tírthas either figuratively so termed--as a wife, a parent, or a

[paragraph continues] Guru, considered as a sacred object--or places to which actual pilgrimage should be performed.