Garuda Purana

by Anonymous

Also known as: Garuḍa Purāṇa, Garuda-Purana, Garuda Purana (Vishnu-Garuda Dialogue)

Garuda Purana cover
Culture:Indian, Hindu
Oral:300-600 CE
Written:800-1000 CE
Length:19,000 lines, (~40 hours)
Garuda Purana cover
A Vaishnava Purana framed as a dialogue between Vishnu and his mount Garuda, detailing cosmology, ethics, rites, and the soul’s postmortem journey. It blends mythic catalogues with practical instructions on worship, funeral rites, and conduct.

Description

The Garuda Purana is a Sanskrit Purana of the Hindu tradition, cast as revelation from Vishnu to Garuda. It interweaves myth, theology, and prescriptive guidance: lists of avataras and cosmological cycles, vrata and puja procedures, pilgrimage topographies, omens and gem lore, and extensive dharma counsel. Its most famous section, often called the Pretakhanda, expounds funerary rites (śrāddha, antyeṣṭi) and a vivid eschatology: the weighing of deeds, passage across the Vaitaraṇī, and the purificatory logic of hells and rebirth. Other strata include summaries of medical and protective rites, temple and image worship, and household law. The text survives in multiple recensions with divergent ordering and emphases, reflecting long accretion and regional redaction. As a living scripture, it informs ritual practice and popular imagination about death and afterlife while grounding devotion in Vishnu-centered cosmology and ethics.

Historiography

The text exists in several recensions, commonly divided into Pūrvakhaṇḍa and Uttarakhaṇḍa, with shifting boundaries and chapter counts. Scholarly consensus treats it as a stratified compilation, with early Vaishnava kernels augmented by medieval ritual and didactic materials. Printed editions (e.g., Gita Press) standardize one recension; translations vary in scope, especially for funerary sections. Modern studies emphasize its reception in mortuary practice and the fluidity typical of Purāṇic transmission.

Date Notes

Layered composition; core Vaishnava material likely early, with substantial later accretions and ritual sections redacted across medieval centuries.

Major Characters

  • Vishnu
  • Garuda
  • Yama
  • Lakshmi

Myths

  • Cosmology and the Realms of Yama
  • The Journey of the Soul after Death
  • Vows and Rites for the Ancestors
  • Garuda’s Devotion to Viṣṇu

Facts

  • A Vaishnava Purana framed as revelation from Vishnu to Garuda.
  • Renowned for its Pretakhanda on funerary rites and afterlife eschatology.
  • Textual strata indicate prolonged accretion across early to late medieval periods.
  • Influenced practical rites such as śrāddha, antyeṣṭi, and annual ancestor offerings.
  • Contains myth catalogues, dharma guidance, pilgrimage lists, omens, and gem lore.
  • Multiple recensions circulate; printed editions standardize divergent chapterings.
  • Associates moral causality with postmortem destinations and rebirth.
  • Integrates devotion to Vishnu with household and royal duties.
  • Widely read at death rites in some regions to guide the departed soul.
  • Reflects the Purāṇic genre’s fluid, encyclopedic compilation model.