Essay name: Purana Bulletin
Author:
Affiliation: University of Kerala / Faculty of Oriental Studies
The "Purana Bulletin" is an academic journal published in India. The journal focuses on the study of Puranas, which are a genre of ancient Indian literature encompassing mythological stories, traditions, and philosophical teachings. They represent Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit and cover a wide range of subjects.
Purana, Volume 6, Part 2 (1964)
142 (of 234)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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392
啶啶班ぞ啶｀ぎ啷� - [pur膩峁嘺m - ] 笔鲍搁膧狈础
[Vol. VI., No. 2
there. The oldest MS. No. 14456 is dated V. S. 1814
(A. D. 1757). The Hindi N盲siketopakhy膩na is the
translation of the shorter version of the Sanskrit
N盲siketopakhy膩na. N膩siketa is said to be born from
the Nasik膩 of the daughter of a king named Raghu,
hence his name N盲siketa. On account of the curse of
his father, Udd膩laka, the young N盲siketa had to go
to the abode of Yama, the god of death. By the
grace of Yama there he saw various punishments and
rewards being given to the doers of the bad or good
actions, and returned alive to his father Udd膩laka,
and gave to his father and the other assembled sages
a vivid description of what he had seen in the
Yama-loka.
In the Puranic N膩ciketopakhy膩na also N膩ciketa
similarly relates to his father and the assembly of the
sages what he had seen in the Yama-loka.
The earliest account of the story of N膩ciketa or
Naciketas is found in the Taittiriya-Br膩hma峁嘺 (3. 11.
8). This account is purely ritualistic, for Yama
imparts Naciketas the knowledge of the Naciketa Agni
(i. e. Agni-Vidya or the sacrificial science) as a means
of acquiring immortality also.
In the Kathopanisad the Naciketopakhy膩na be-
Here Yama
comes predominantly spiritualistic.
advocates the immortality of the Soul or 脛tman and
imparts Naciketas the knowledge of the Atman (or
the Adhyatma-Vidya) as a means of getting liberation
from the circle of births and deaths.
The Mahabharata (Anu艣膩sana-Parvan, Adh. 71)
also contains the N膩ciketopakhy膩na, in which the
giving away of cows in charity is glorified by Yama,
which N膩ciketa relates to his father after being
revived from his death-caused by the curse of his
father.
