The Sthala Purana (Tala Valararu) of Varadharaja Perumal Temple, Thiruvenkatanathapuram, Tirunelveli, written in Tamil outside the shrine.

Purana Sthalams or a Sthalapurana (Sanskrit: स्थलपुराण, romanized: Sthalapurāṇa, lit. 'regional history') refers to a group of other 108 vaishnavite sthalams that are mentioned in puranas, or the sacredness of the region in which it is situated. It is sometimes referred to as a eulogistic work that glorifies a sacred site.[1] The name of a given place and the temple present in a Sthala Purana traditionally has a religious or a historical association, with some major event surrounding it.[2]

Etymology

Sthala Purana comes from the Sanskrit terms Sthala, meaning, 'place', and Purana, meaning, 'history'. A Sthala Purana serves to offer information regarding the events associated with a given place, which is usually a temple.[3][4]

Description

Sthala Puranas were historically transmitted orally, traditionally by the priests of a Hindu temple, who would recount the account during puja. They were also sometimes preserved in manuscripts, usually included in works of religious literature. In the contemporary period, these accounts are often offered in printed pamphlets, or summarised on websites on the Internet. Such accounts offer narratives regarding how the murti (a representation of the deity that is worshipped) of a temple came to be in that place, either as a svayambhu (self-manifestation), a miraculous discovery, acts of the deity performed at the given site, or how a saint or devotee was blessed by the deity in the site. They may also explain the relationship between the mulavar (main deity) housed in the temple, and the murtis of other deities also enshrined within. The forms of ritual worship that are prescribed to be performed at a given temple, and the punya (virtue) one would be rewarded with for engaging in worship at the site are also often detailed. Such accounts generally extol the glory of one deity in particular, and regard the veneration of that deity to be most virtuous.[5]

Sthala Puranas are categorised along three main themes: tirtha (sacredness of a site), khestra (a geographic area or place), and daivata (deity).

1.Badrinath Temple

2.Joshimath Narsingh Temple

3.Devprayag Raghunathji Temple

4.Vishnuprayag Temple

5.Bharat Mandir

6.Naimishnath Temple

7.Muktinath Temple

8.Barahkshetra Temple

9.Rurukshetra Temple

10.Hayagreev Madhav Temple

11.Bindu Madhav Temple

12.Adi keshav Temple(Varanasi)

13.Veni Madhav Temple

14.Adi veni madhav Temple

15.chakra madhav temple

16.Asi Madhav Temple

17.Manohar Madhav Temple

18.Dharmapuri Laxmi Narsingh Temple

19.Padma Madhav Temple

20.Devnathswamy Temple

21.Hansa Temple

22.Ram mandir

23.Chandra Hari Templec

24.Dharm Hari Temple

25.Gupthari Temple

26.Vishnu Hari Temple

27.Shookarkshetra Temple

28.Kamtanath Temple

29.Madhusudan Temple

30.Vishnupad Temple

31.Pret shila Temple

32.Dharmaranya Temple

33.Gadadhar Temple

34.Kapil Muni Temple (Gangasagar)

35.Adi Badri Temple (Haryana)

36.Adi Badri Temple(Braj)

37.Dirgh Vishnu Temple

38.Krishna Mandir

39.Bankey Bihari Temple

40.Haridevji temple

41.Charbhujnathji temple

42.Rupnarayan Temple

43.Garud Govind devji temple

44.Shivrinarayan Temple

45.Rajiv Lochan Temple

46.Giriraji temple

47.Gokulnathji temple

48 Brahmaand Bihari Temple

49.Nandgaon temple

50.Sitamarhi temple

51.Janakpur Temple

52.Shreeji temple

53.Vedarajan Temple

54.Ranchhordraiji temple

56.Shamlaji Temple

57.Dwarkadish Temple

58.Bet Dwarka Temple

59.Matru gaya Temple

60.Prachi tirth temple

61.Narayan Sarovar

62.Tulsishyam Temple

63.Parthsarathy Temple

64.Diggi kalyanji Temple

65 Pushkarnath Temple

66.Kala Ram ji Temple

67.Nira Narasinghpur Temple

68.Bhagwant mandir

69.Ramtek Temple

70.Pandharpur Temple

71.Alarnath Temple

72.Nrusinghnath Temple

73.Aswaklanta Temple

74.Satrughna Temple

75.Nila Madhav Temple

76.Sakhigopal Temple

77.Tirupati Temple

78.Cheluvunarayan Temple

79.Yog Narsimha Temple

80.Shri Rangnathswamy Temple(shrirangam)

81.Shru Rangnathswamy Temple(shrirangpatnam)

82.Soumyanarayan perumal temple

83.Harihar kshetra Temple

84.Laxmi Narayan Temple(buxar)

85.keshav Rai ji Temple

86.kolayatji Temple

87.Laxmi Jagdish Temple

88.Shrikurmam Temple

89.Dhurbhshayan Temple

90.Vaishnava Nambi Temple

91.Ninra Narayan Temple

92.Totadrinath Temple

93.Guruvayur Temple

94.Ahobilam Temple

95.Shrikurmam Temple

96.Simhachalam Temple

97.Bhadrachalam Temple

98.Annavaram Temple

99.Nammakkal Narsimha Temple

100.Varadhraj Perumal Temple

101.Sarangpani Temple

103.Shrivaikuntham Temple

104.Ashtabhuja Temple

105.shrivallabha Temple

106.padmanabhswamy Temple

107.Tirukoilur Temple

108.Jagganath Temple




Traditions

Sthala Puranas are found more often in South India, where the dominant Hindu traditions are Vaishnavism and Shaivism.[6] Accordingly, most of these chronicles offer veneration to Vishnu or Shiva in their contents. In Tamil Nadu, Sthala Puranas are rendered Tala Valaraṟu (Tamil: தல வரலாறு), and are generally transmitted in Tamil.[7]

Vaishnava Sthala Puranas are primarily associated with the Sri Vaishnava tradition, to which the twelve poet-saints, the Alvars, belonged to. Each of the Divya Desams, the 108 sacred abodes of Vishnu, scattered throughout India, has a Sthala Purana associated with it.[8] The Alvars are regarded to have visited and extolled these shrines,[9] their hymns compiled in the Sri Vaishnava canon, called the Naalayira Divya Prabandham.[10]

Shaiva chronicles of this genre tell of the origins and traditions of particular Tamil Shiva temples or shrines. There are numerous Sthala Puranas, most written in the vernacular, but some with Sanskrit versions as well. The 275 Shiva Sthalams of the continent have such Puranas for each, famously glorified in the Tamil literary work Tevaram. Some appear in Sanskrit versions in the Mahapuranas or Upapuranas. Some Tamil Sthala Puranas have been researched by David Dean Shulman.[11]

Examples

See also

References

  1. ↑ www.wisdomlib.org (2018-03-30). "Sthalapurana, Sthalapurāṇa, Sthala-purana: 6 definitions". www.wisdomlib.org. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
  2. 1 2 Saxena, Saurabh (12 August 2019). "Mamallapuram – Sthalapuranas". puratattva.in. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  3. ↑ Frykenberg, Robert Eric (1996). History and Belief: The Foundations of Historical Understanding. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-8028-0739-7.
  4. ↑ "Kakatiya-era Rama temple has rare door carvings". The Hindu. 6 February 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  5. ↑ Flueckiger, Joyce Burkhalter (2015-05-06). Everyday Hinduism. John Wiley & Sons. p. 99. ISBN 978-1-4051-6021-6.
  6. ↑ Sears, M.; Merriman, D. (2012-12-06). Oceanography: The Past: Proceedings of the Third International Congress on the History of Oceanography, held September 22-26, 1980 at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the founding of the Institution. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 781. ISBN 978-1-4613-8090-0.
  7. ↑ Journal of the Epigraphical Society of India. The Society. 1984. p. 32.
  8. ↑ Padma, Sree (2014-07-03). Inventing and Reinventing the Goddess: Contemporary Iterations of Hindu Deities on the Move. Lexington Books. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-7391-9002-9.
  9. ↑ Doniger, Wendy (1993-01-01). Purana Perennis: Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts. SUNY Press. p. 278. ISBN 978-0-7914-1381-4.
  10. ↑ Narayanan, Vasudha; Nammaaolvaar (1994). The Vernacular Veda: Revelation, Recitation, and Ritual. Univ of South Carolina Press. pp. xiv. ISBN 978-0-87249-965-2.
  11. ↑ Shulman 1980.
  12. ↑ "Vishnu temple in an ancient Chola capital". The Indian Express. 13 October 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  13. ↑ "Traces of Thiruvottiyur in texts". newindianexpress. 11 September 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  14. ↑ "Story of Mumbai". talkingmyths.com. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  15. ↑ "Holy Dham-Information about Holy places in India". Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  16. ↑ "Sthala Purana and History of Meenakshi Amman Temple". Temple Diary. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  17. ↑ "Sthala purana of The Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Vari Devasthanam Simhachalam Temple". Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  18. ↑ "Places of Interest". nalgonda.telangana.gov.in. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
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