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PURANA.AGNI

• Title	PURANA.AGNI
  Short Title	PURANA.AGNI
  Author	Agni
  Repository	BOOKS.MISC
  Source ID	S8
  Text	THE AGNI PURANA The Agni Purana is a mahapurana. It usually figures eighth in the list of eighteen. There are about fifteen and a half thousand shlokas in the Agni Purana.The Agni Purana is a tamasika purana. The others in this group are the Matsya,Kurma Linga, Shiva and Skanda Puranas. The narrator of the Agni Purana is the fire-god Agni. Agni related the subjectmatter of the Purana to the sage Vashishtha, who in turn, passed on theknowledge to Vyasadeva. Vyasadeva’s disciple Suta learnt the Purana from histeacher. Many sages had assembled in the forest naimisharanya. The most important of these sages was Shounaka. All these holy men wished to hear what the AgniPurana had to say. And that is how Suta came to relate the Purana. The Agni Purana has no separate sections as such. It is simply split up into threehundred and eighty-three adhyayas (chapters). One of these chapters, chapternumber 380, is rather interesting. It gives in capsule form the essence of advaitabrahmajnana. The brahman is the divine spirit and brahmajnana means theknowledge of the brahman. Advaita means one. Advaita brahmajnana teaches of the union of the individual human soul (atman) with the brahman. The sectionsin the Agni Purana are nothing but a summary of the teachings of the Vedas andthe Upanishadas. These holy texts were difficult to understand, there wererestrictions on who might read them and who might not. The Puranas wereavailable to everyone. Anyone could read them or listen to their recitations.