Sri Vishnu Purana

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About the Author Higher Education, overseas training: service Professional Engineering course at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; selected by the Central Ministry for specialised training (at Hamburg, W. Germany) in Petroleum Technology: 28 years service, retiring as Senior Sales Manager, Southern Region, with the multinational English Company (ICI India).

Learning Vedas etc: Learnt Yajur Veda fully (rote) along with Tamil Veda - 4000 Divya Prabhandham; attended kalakshepam in Divya Prabhandham and Upanishads.

Kovil Kainkaryam: Was a member of Pradhana goshti (both Veda and Prabhandham) and actively participated in all temple activities over a 30 year period (Andavan Ashramam).

Temple Renovation, Reconstruction, Building New Sannidhis, Construction of Vimaana / Rajagopurams: Activity extended to- Andavan Ashramam (Jayanagar, Bangalore) Sathyagalam Madhyarangam Melkote Kethandapatti Likitha Kainkaryam Covered multi-farious subjects of direct interest to Sri Vaishnavas through writing mostly in English, spread over more than 60 books (details back cover).

Preface More than a decade back I had taken time to study puraanas and for the benefit of my readers, I brought out a small monograph titled 'Six Saathvic Puraanas'. This effort was followed by the more ambitious project to bring out 'Srimad Bhaagavátha Mahaapuraaņa running to more than 1300 pages in four convenient volumes. I thought I had made my presence felt in the field of 'Puraanas' !!

But that was not to be! When I was writing Sri Bhāshya I was constantly coming across references by Sri Raamaanuja to Vishnu Puraana. He places Vishnu Puraana on the same pedestal as Vedas. Vishnu Puraaņa also says it is 'Veda-sámmitham'. This had kindled some interest in me about this puraaņa.

However considering my age I thought it would not be advisable to plunge myself into such a huge work. But as I always keep saying: "God has His ways - He has the last word!". I am presently in the US and I had lined up as many as six projects Sri Bhāshya, Upanishads, Sri Mahaalakshmi / Sri Guņaráthnakosha, Dashaavathaaras and Beyond, Sri Garudan, and Gaayathri : The Vedamaatha - all these got finished in quick time! Finishing these the question arose, what next? Needless to say Sri Vishnu shone brilliantly in all His glory and the result was an adventurous attempt to take up translation of Vishnu Puraaņa. Believe me, the mammoth work was finished in less than 4 months. I cannot adequately thank the Lord for this unexpected boon!

Introduction Sri Veda Vyaasa, considered to be Lord's 'amshaavathaara', is credited with scanning through the collossal collection of purānic texts running into several lakhs and presenting the most minimum which we know to-day as 'eighteen puraanas' (ashtaadásha). There are further categories as (i) Saathvic Puraaņas, (ii) Rájo puraanas and (iii) Thaamasic puraanaas.

Veda Vyaasa composed the Puraana samhithas with characteristics of Aakyaana, Upaakhyaana, Gaathaa and Kálpashuddhi. He taught these to his shishya, Rõmahárshána, who in turn taught this to his six shishyas - Sunáthi, Agnivárcha, Mithraayu, Shaamsapaayána, Akruthavráņa and Saavárni.