Srishti Khanda

by Sage Vyasa (traditional attribution; narrated as a dialogue between Suta and the sages of Naimisharanya, and within it, between Bhishma and Pulastya)

82 chapters · 11,291 shlokas

The Srishti Khanda is a compressed cosmos in itself. It opens with cosmogony proper — a Sankhya-inflected account of creation, Varaha's rescue of the drowned earth, and the birth of Rudra — before its first great narrative arc: Gauri's austerities, her marriage to Shiva, and the birth of Kumara specifically to slay the invincible demon Taraka, alongside Ganesha's own dramatic origin. Extensive genealogies follow, tracing the solar dynasty through Rama and the lunar dynasty through to Krishna's own birth, interwoven with the story of how Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva delude the Danavas away from their own protective dharma. A long middle section gathers foundational teaching: Rudra's penance for slaying a brahmana, the founding of the Pushkara tirtha, the full compendium of the Gayatri mantra, and a sequence of vratas and their fruits. Its final third turns to devotional glory-literature — the power of the Rudraksha bead and of Tulasi, the sanctity of the Ganga, the story of Ahalya's release from her curse, the complete Vamana-Trivikrama story of Vishnu's three strides and Bali's humbling, Rama's journey toward Lanka, and the cosmic Tarakamaya war between gods and demons — before closing with a systematic account of how to worship each of the nine grahas (sun, moon, five visible planets, and the shadow-points Rahu and Ketu), the Purana's own closing gesture for this, its opening book.

Chapters

1Descent of the Purana67 v 2Descent of the Purana, continued120 v 3The Six Kinds of Creation206 v 4The Birth of Lakshmi137 v 5The Destruction of Daksha's Sacrifice96 v 6The Progeny of Daksha and Kashyapa79 v 7The Birth of the Maruts and the Manvantaras114 v 8The Solar Dynasty and the Line of Ikshvaku163 v 9The Lineage of the Pitris and the Rite of Shraddha192 v 10The Glory of the Pitris: The Story of Brahmadatta127 v 11The Sacred Fords of Shraddha95 v 12The Lunar Dynasty: From Soma to Kartavirya Arjuna140 v 13The Avataras and the Deluding of the Danavas413 v 14Rudra's Release from the Sin of Brahmahatya213 v 15The Glory of Dwelling in the Sacred Field of Pushkara391 v 16The Compendium of Gayatri190 v 17Savitri's Dispute and Gayatri's Boon331 v 18The Greatness of Nanda-Prachi Sarasvati473 v 19The Colloquy of the Seven Sages369 v 20The Rule of Ritual Bathing172 v 21Glory of Pushkara80 v 22The Birth of Agastya and the Vow of the Goddess194 v 23The Vow of Courtesans and the Kalyani-Dvadashi143 v 24The Vow of Angaraka-Chaturthi61 v 25The Vow of Aditya-Shayana37 v 26The Vow of Rohini-Chandra-Shayana29 v 27The Rite of Consecrating Tanks and Water-Bodies61 v 28The Rite of Tree-Planting33 v 29The Vow of Saubhagya-Shayana58 v 30The Origin of Vishnu's Footprints (The Vamana-Trivikrama Story)205 v 31The Tale of Shivaduti154 v 32The Descent of the Tirtha156 v 33The Vision of Markandeya's Hermitage185 v 34The Gift of the Cosmic Egg419 v 35The Slaying of the Shudra Ascetic100 v 36The Dialogue of Rama and Agastya128 v 37The Story of Danda and the Averted Rajasuya171 v 38Rama's Journey to Lanka and the Establishing of Vamana194 v 39The Cosmic Vishnu and the Vision of Markandeya154 v 40The Pushkara Creation and the Tarakamaya War196 v 41The Tarakamaya War: Aurva's Fire and the Fall of Kalanemi320 v 42The Victory over Taraka111 v 43The Marriage of Gauri516 v 44The Birth of Kumara and the Slaying of Taraka218 v 45The Manifestation of Narasimha197 v 46The Sacraments of the Brahmin208 v 47The Birth of Garuda173 v 48The Glory of the Cow195 v 49The Description of Right Conduct134 v 50The Five Narratives313 v 51The Tale of the Chaste Wife88 v 52The Tale of the Women103 v 53The Shudra's Freedom from Greed77 v 54The Ravishing of Ahalya51 v 55The Birth of Lohitya57 v 56The Five Tales45 v 57The Glory of Tanks and Wells46 v 58The Merit of Ponds and Water-Tanks56 v 59The Glory of the Rudraksha Bead211 v 60The Glory of Tulasi142 v 61The Glory of the Hymn to Tulasi43 v 62The Glory of the Ganga125 v 63The Hymn to Ganapati31 v 64The Eightfold Hymn to Ganapati11 v 65The Slaying of the Kalakeyas127 v 66The Slaying of Kaleya19 v 67The Slaying of Bala and Namuchi51 v 68The Slaying of Muchi9 v 69The Slaying of Tareya23 v 70The Slaying of Devantaka, Durdharsha, and Durmukha21 v 71The Second Slaying of Namuchi28 v 72The Slaying of Madhu37 v 73The Slaying of Vritrasura40 v 74The Crushing of Tripura's Son45 v 75The Hymn of Victory, at the End of the God-Demon War102 v 76The Manifestation of Merit142 v 77The Vow of the Sun's Own Seventh Day105 v 78The Peace-Rite of the Sun65 v 79The Legend of King Bhadreshvara37 v 80The Worship of the Moon29 v 81The Origin and Worship of Mars49 v 82The Worship of the Planets, and the Purana's Descent45 v

Why it matters today

This khanda's sheer scale and range — cosmogony, genealogy, devotional narrative, and ritual manual all inside a single book — makes it a useful single-volume introduction to how a major Purana actually functions: not as one genre of text but as a deliberately mixed container built to serve very different reading purposes at once.