VAMANA MAHAPURANA (TEXT WITH INTRODUCTION AND SLOKA INDEX)

INTRODUCTION, TEXT WITH SLOKA INDEX ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? DR. JIYALAL KAMBOJ?The?Vamana Purana?(Sanskrit:????? ?????,?IAST:?V?mana Pur??a), is a medieval era?Sanskrit?text and one of the eighteen major?Puranas?of?Hinduism. The text is named after one of the incarnations of?Vishnu?and probably was a?Vaishnava?text in its origin. However, the modern surviving manuscripts of?Vamana Purana?are more strongly centered on?Shiva, while containing chapters that revere Vishnu and other Hindu gods and goddesses.?It is considered a?Shaiva?text.? Further, the text hardly has the character of a Purana, and is predominantly a collection of?Mahatmyas?(travel guides) to many Shiva-related places in India with legends and mythology woven in.The extant manuscripts of?Vamana Purana?exist in various versions, likely very different from the original, and show signs of revision over time and regions. It has been published by All India Kashiraj Trust in two rounds. The first round had 95 chapters, while the?critical edition?(edited by Anand Swarup Gupta, and published by the All-India Kashiraj Trust, Varanasi) published in the second round has 69 chapters plus an attached?Saro-mahatmya?with 28 chapters dedicated to temples and sacred sites in and around modern?Haryana. Both these versions lack the?Brhad-vamana?with four?samhitas, which is mentioned in the text, but is believed to have been lost to history.The text is non-sectarian, and its first version was likely created by the 9th to 11th century CE