Devta Murtiprakaranam tatha Rupmandanam

Author(s): Upendramohan Sankhyatirtha
Publisher: Metropolitan Printing and Publishing House Limited

Page 42

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"The Agneya or Agni-purana,8 82 is so called because it is supposed to have been communicated to Vasistha by Agni, It describes the incarnations (Avataras) of Visņu, among them also those as Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, where it confessedly follows the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata and Harivamsa. Although it commences with Visņu,it is yet essentially a Sivaite work and deals in detail with the mystic cult of the Linga and of Durga. It also mentions Tantric rites, gives instructions for the production of images of gods and their consecration and refers to the cult of Gaṇeśa (chapt. 71) and the sun-cult (chapt. 73). But the cosmological, geneological and geographical sections peculiar to the Purāņas are not missing. The especially distinctive feature of this Purana is, however, its encyclopædic characters. It actually deals with anything and everything. We find sections on Geography, Astronomy and Astrology,on omina and potenta, house building and other occupations of daily life.To which age this remarkable encyclopædia or its separate parts belong, it is impossible to say."
The Matsya-Purana enumerates the names of eighteen ancient teachers of architecture, as quoted before. The passages have been interpreted as below.88
"The Rṣis asked :---
'Sūta! be gracious enough to tell us how royal palaces and other houses are constructed. Also explain to us what is VastuDeva-1.'
Sūta replied:- -(1) Bhrgu, (2) Atri, (3) Vasistha, (4) Viśvakarma, (5) Maya, (6) Narada, (7) Nagnajit, (8) Visālākṣa, (9) Indra, (10) Brahma, (11) Svämikārtika, (12) Nandisvara, (13) Saunaka, (14) Garga, (15) Śri Kṛṣṇa, (16) Aniruddha,
82. M. Winternitz: Op. cit., p. 566.
Agni-P. ed. in Bibliotheca Indica (1873-79) and Anandasram Skt. Series, No. 41; Transl. by M. N. Dutt (Cal., 1901).
83. The Matsya-puranam. Transl. by A Taluqdar of Oudh. (The Sacred Books of the Hindus. Ed. by Major B. D. Basu. I. M. S. Vol. XVII.) Appendix X, by Sris Chandra Vidyarnava, p. cvi.