Essay name: Purana Bulletin
Author:
Affiliation: University of Kerala / Faculty of Oriental Studies
The "Purana Bulletin" is an academic journal published in India. The journal focuses on the study of Puranas, which are a genre of ancient Indian literature encompassing mythological stories, traditions, and philosophical teachings. They represent Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit and cover a wide range of subjects.
Purana, Volume 4, Part 1 (1962)
153 (of 236)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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147
Jan. 1962] FOUR-F脰LD DIVISION OF HEAVENLY RIVER
Therefore it is called the Bindusaras (the lake of the
drops).
Then it is narrated in the R膩m膩ya峁嘺 I. 43 (partly verbally
borrowed from the Epic), how 艢iva restrained the Gang膩, which
believed to carry forth the god in her torrential sweep to the
nether world down below, and was restrained by way of punish-
ment for her haughtiness. 艢iva did this till he was moved
at the sight of Bhagiratha who implored him to release her.
As in the R膩m膩ya峁嘺, here she does not give rise to the Bindu-
saras in the first instance although it is referred to in v. 26
and after it in v. 41 but here is described at once the seven
fold division again somewhat resembling the R膩m膩ya峁嘺鲁 and
at the conclusion of it countries are mentioned in detail, the
countries through which the seven streams flow through.
A quite different description of the descent of the heavenly
river, which is absolutely incongruous with the one that is
given above, occurs in many other Puranas and is already given
before in the 42nd Adhy膩ya verses 1 ff.5:-
'These divine rivers with holy waters have flown out
from excellent lakes and rivers with large mass of water.
From that heavenly ocean
Listen to these in due order.
possessing the name of Soma, the support of all beings, the
container of nectar of gods, from which started the river full
of holy water, flows in the air with her clear water, flows in
the seventh path of the wind. The mighty elephant of the
Great Indra wandering in the path of the mid-air and sporting
in the interior agitates the water. Speedily going round
to the left, she
the mountain Meru from the right
flows to the extent of 84 Yojanas. During which her water
is split asunder by the furious wind. She fell on the four
highest pinnacles of the mountain Meru. Then recoiling on the
highest slope of the highest peak of Meru has her water scat-
tered up and herself is divided into four parts. She then
makes to fall the 60000 yojanas of the sky devoid of support
in the four directions from Meru. The auspicious, the beautiful,
