narad puran
The Naradiya Purana, are two Sanskrit texts, one of which is a major Purana of Hinduism, while the other is a minor Purana. Both are Vaishnavism texts, and have been a cause of confusion in Purana-related scholarship. To prevent confusion, some scholars sometimes refer to the minor Purana as Brihannaradiya Purana.
Unlike most Puranas that are encyclopedic, the Brihannaradiya text is focussed almost entirely on Vishnu worship, while the Naradiya text is a compilation of 41 chapters on Vishnu worship, and the rest of the chapters (80%) cover a wide range of topics including a large compilation of Mahatmya to temples and places along river Ganges, and neighboring regions.
It deals with the places of pilgrimages. It is in the style of dialogue between the sage Narada, and Sanatkumara.
The word Puranas literally means "ancient, old", and it is a vast genre of Indian literature about a wide range of topics, particularly myths, legends, and other traditional lore. Composed primarily in Sanskrit, but also in Tamil and other Indian languages, several of these texts are named after major Hindu deities such as Vishnu, Shiva, and Devi. The Puranic genre of literature is found in both Hinduism and Jainism.
The Puranic literature is encyclopedic, and it includes diverse topics such as cosmogony, cosmology, genealogies of gods, goddesses, kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, folk tales, pilgrimages, temples, medicine, astronomy, grammar, mineralogy, humor, love stories, as well as theology and philosophy. The content is highly inconsistent across the Puranas, and each Purana has survived in numerous manuscripts which are themselves inconsistent. The Hindu Puranas are anonymous texts and likely the work of many authors over the centuries; in contrast, most Jaina Puranas can be dated and their authors assigned.
The Narada Purana follows the style of the Brihannaradiya Purana in the first 41 chapters of Purvabhaga, but the rest of the first part and the second part are encyclopedic covering a diverse range of topics. The encyclopedic sections discuss subjects such as the six Vedangas, Moksha, Dharma, Adhyatma-jnana (monastic life), Pashupata philosophy, a secular guide with methods of worship of Ganesha, various avatars of Vishnu, Lakshmana, Hanuman, goddesses such as Devi and Mahalakshmi, as well as Shiva The text glorifies Radha as the one whose soul and love manifests as all Hindu goddesses.
