*sankirtana*???

[SaRup 0]

I am interested to find out where the term "sa.nkiirtana"

(sankirtana) first appears in Indian text. I have found references

to "sa.nkiirtan" in the text of the Bhagavat Purana(5th C. CE). Does

anybody know of earlier references?

 

I am also interested to find information about the dates of origin of individual Puranas and Upanishadas. Does anybody know where I can find a list of these?

 

ys

Sr

 

 

 

 

 

[This message has been edited by SaRup (edited 11-01-2001).]

[shvu 1]

I am also interested to find information about the dates of origin of individual Puranas and Upanishadas. Does anybody know where I can find a list of these?

Read,

 

The Wonder that was India by Al Basham

Sidgwick & Jackson, ISBN: 0-283-99257-3

 

The Puranas (A History of Indian Literature, Vol. 2, Fasc. 3.) by Ludo Rocher

Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, ISBN: 3-447-02522-0

 

Both are academic books and will be available in academic libraries and in some public libraries.

 

Cheers

 

 

[This message has been edited by shvu (edited 11-05-2001).]

[SaRup 0]

Thank you Shvu (for the above Ref).

 

Among to large mass of Puraa.nic texts, eighteen have “all-Indian acceptance” and are known as the “Great Puranas”. “Each of these provides a list of all eighteen,” including itself. While most agree there are “minor discrepancies. The result is a list of twenty:

 

Agni

Brahmaa

Garudha

Bhaagavata

Brahmaa.ndha

Hariva.mza

Bhavismy

Bramnavaivarta

Kuurma

Linga

Padma

Varaaha

Maarka.ndheya

Skanda

Vaayu

Matsya

Ziva

ViS.nu

Naarada

Vaamana”

(Demmitt & van Buitenen 1978:5)

 

The time frame of originality spans a period of approximately 700 years Viz. 300-1000 CE. Initially the Puraa.nas were entitled “Fifth Veda”. However in Hindu Orthodoxy they do not “carry the title of scripture” (Demmitt & van Buitenen 1978:3).

 

“The oldest material in the Puraa.nas is contemporaneous with the Vedas but was recited either in a different milieu than the brahminic ritual or by person other than the Brahmin priests. The alternate milieu would be the source of the sm.rti tradition that gave rise to…both the epic and Puraa.nic collections. Thus the Puraa.nas, which share many stories with the epics, the Mahaabhaarata in particular, do not derive form that epic, but form the same body of oral tradition, or sm.rti, whose original may be as old as the period of the Vedas” (Demmitt & van Buitenen 1978:5-6).

 

Amore precise clue to the dating of the Puraa.nas is found in the genealogical lists that are offered in a number of Puraa.nas, the dynasties of kings. While frustratingly incomplete, Puraa.nic genealogies appear to provide indication of two different eras in which these old stories were collected and edited: about 1000BC, the time after the Mahaabhaarata war; and about the 4th – 6th centuries AD, the period of the Gupta Dynasty. In both eras political events were particularly significant in the formation of social consciousness for the early inhabitant of northern India” (Demmitt & van Buitenen 1978:6)

 

Bibliography

 

Classical Hindu mythology : a reader in the Sanskrit PurÄnÌ£as / edited and translated by Cornelia Dimmitt and J. A. B. van Buitenen

Published Philadelphia : Temple University Press, c1978

 

 

 

 

[This message has been edited by SaRup (edited 11-05-2001).]

[SaRup 0]

“…Padma Puraa.na points to a southern origin for bhakti, and provides a clue to the geographical location of some Puraa.nic traditions as well” (Demmitt & van Buitenen 1978:11).

 

“ ‘Bhakti was born in Draavidha, grew up in Kar.naataka, became worn out in MaharaaS.tra and Gurjera, sought refuge with her two sons Knowledge and Dispassion in Vrindavana, and regained her vigor there… Enough of vows, sacred fords, disciples, sacrifices, discourse about knowledge, faith alone bestows release!(Padma 6.189.51; 190.22)’” (Demmitt & van Buitenen 1978:11).