Purana - Ancient Indian Literature, Truth and Myth - 3rd Part.

Purana Manuscript.

7. - Agni Purana –  

It has 15,400 verses. This Purana contains encyclopaedic information. 

It has also geography of ancient Mithila state and its neighboring states.

Army system and it’s Orginasation, Taxation law.

Cultural history, Politics, Education system, Iconography.   

Theories on proper causes for war, Diplomacy, Local laws. 

Building Public projects, Water distribution methods, Trees and Plants, Medicine.

Vastu Sastra (Architecture), Gemmology, Grammar, Metrics, Poetry, Foods, Rituals and many other topics and subjects.

8. – Brahma Purana –

This Purana has 10,000 verses.

This Purana is also known as Adi Purana too because many scholars think or say that, this is the First Purana.  

Many Mahapuranas lists put Brahma Purana as first of 18 Purana. 

This Purana has 245 chapters. Brahma Purana shares many passages with Vishnu Purana, Vayu Purana, Markendeya Puranas, and with Mahabhart. 

   

These passages include Mythology, Theory of war, Art work in temples, and other cultural topics. 

This Purana describes holy places in Odisha, and weaves themes of Vishnu and Shiva but surprisingly there is hardly any mention of God Brahma despite the title.

9. –  Brahmavaivarta Purana - 

There are 17,000 verses in this Purana. 

The topics or subjects described in this Purana are Shiva, Parvati, Ganesha, Devis, Vishnu, Krishna and Radha. 

Mythological, love and seduction stories of gods and goddesses are also the topic of this Purana. 

Geography with Rivers from North to South such as Ganga to Kaveri are also mentioned in this Purana.

10. - Garuda Purana – 

In it there are 19,000 verses. 

This Purana is an encyclopaedia of diverse topics. 

Mainly about Lord Vishnu, but praises all gods. Describes how Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma collaborated. 

Most chapters of this Purana are a dialogue between Vishnu and his bird-vehicle Garud. 

It also described cosmology, relationship between gods.  

Garuda Purana also discusses ethics, what are crimes, good versus evil.

Various schools of Hindu philosophies, the theory of Yoga.

The theory of "heaven and hell" with "karma and rebirth", includes Upanishadic discussion of self-knowledge as a means of Moksha. 

Garuda Purana Includes chapters on rivers, geography of Bharat (India) and other nations on earth. 

Types of minerals and stones, quality testing methods for stones. 

Various diseases and their symptoms, various medicines. 

Aphrodisiacs, prophylactics, Hindu calendar and its basis, astronomy, moon, planets, astrology.

Architecture, building home, essential features of a temple. 

Rites of passage, virtues such as compassion.

Charity and gift making, economy, thrift.

Duties of a king, politics, state officials and their roles and how to appointment them, genre of literature, rules of grammar, and other topics.

The final chapters discuss how to practice Yoga (Samkhya and Advaita types), personal development and the benefits of self-knowledge.

11. – Kurma Purana – There are 17,000 verses in this Purana. 

Kurma is the second of ten major avatars of Lord Vishnu.