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There are 18 Maha Puranas and many Upa Puranas.

What are the Puranas?

Puranas are the like the magnifying glass of the Vedas due to which our Sanatana Dharma and Vedic Society is still prevalent.

Puranas highlight the great history and geography of Bharatavarsha with the help of Dharmic stories like that Raja Harishchandra, Dhruva, etc.

It is because of the Puranas that everyone in our country irrespective of Jati and Varna knows and follows our Vedic Dharma and its Values.

In Devi Bhagavata there is a sloka with which we can easily remember the 18 Maha Puranas.

The sloka goes like this;

Madwayam Bhadwayam chaiva

Bratrayam Vachatustayam |

A NA PA LINGA KU Skani

puranani prudhak prudhak ||

As you can you see certain letters in the words are highlighted.

The first letter of each word is the key.

• Madhvayam- ‘Ma’ is the starting letter.

There are 2 Puranas which start with letter Ma.

- Matsya Purana

- Markandeya Purana

• Bhadwayam- ‘Bha’ is the starting letter.

There are 2 Puranas which start with letter Bha.

- Bhavishya Purana

- Bhagavata Purana

- Bratrayam- ‘Bra’ is the starting letter.

There are 3 Puranas which start with letter Bra.

- Brahma Purana

- Brahmanda Purana

-Brahma Vaivarta Purana

• Vachatustayam- ‘Va’ is the starting letter.

There are 4 Puranas which start with letter Va.

- Varaha Purana

- Vayu Purana

- Vamana Purana

- Vishnu Purana

• A na pa lin ga ku skani- Each letter highlights one Purana.

  A - Agni Purana

  Na - Narada Purana

  Pa - Padma Purana

  Lin - Linga Purana

  Ga - Garuda Purana

  Ku - Kurma Purana

  Skan - Skanda Purana

This sums up all the 18 Maha Puranas.

Each of these 18 Maha Puranas have some common characteristics. They are called Lakshanas.

There are 5 such common lakshanas which can be highlighted with the help of a sloka.

The sloka goes like this;

Sargascha pratisargascha

Vamso Manvantarani cha |

vamsaanucharitam chiva

puranam panchalakshanam ||

The pancha lakshanas are;

1. Sargascha - Creation

2. Pratisargascha - Periodic Annihilation and recreation of the Universe

3. Vamsah - Vamasas or dynasties of Rishis and Devatas

4. Manvantarani - Cosmic cycles presided over by various Manus.

5. Vamsaanucharitam- Historical accounts of the Royal Dynasties.

Check out the videos where I talk about Manvantara and Sankalpa Mantra.

There are 2 parts to it which talks about the Age of the Universe and Current age of the Universe.

Video 1 - The age of the Universe- https://youtu.be/C-qH5P4BerI

Video 2 - The current age of the Universe- https://youtu.be/t5m5XyND-1A

You can find all this in my new video where I explain the 18 Maha Puranas in 18 min.

The link is below.

18 Maha Puranas in 18 Mintues

Pass on the info to as many people as possible so that we can understand our Puranas better and understand the history and geography of our great country!

Do follow me here u/zestynimbu and on twitter for more such information. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel too if you like the content I post. Thank you for your support.

Namaste.