Linga Purana (In Two Volumes)

The Puranas in the Indian Religious context are considered to be the important set of the religious literature, after the Vedic literature totally became beyond the reach of the common man. The void thus created in the Indian religious thought was filled by the epics of the Ramayai3a of Valmiki as well as the Mahabharata. But besides these, the Puranas which were composed by the sage Vyasa and other sages gained the importance of their own. Some of them were devoted to Visnu, while others were devoted to Siva, Sakti as well as the other deities. Of these, Siva Purana and the Linga Purana are mainly the Saiva Puranas. In these Puranas, lord Siva is eulogised in different ways and both of them have their own importance.

The distinctive aspect of the Linga Purana is that thousand and eight names of Siva have been repeated twice in this Purana. In Chapter-65, the thousand and eight names have been spoken out by the sage Tandin, while in chapter-98 of the same Purana, the thousand and eight names of Siva were recited by lord Visnu himself in order to get cakra from lord Siva, at the behest of the gods. Besides these, there are many other topics in this Purai3a, which will be of great interest to the readers. This Purana is divided into two parts. The first part has a hundred and eight chapters, while the second part has fifty five chapters.

This is for the first time that an English translation of Linga Purana is being published along with complete Sanskrit text. The importance of the book is enhanced with an exhaustive introduction on the subject and an index of verses is provided at the end of the second volume for the benefit of the readers.