Chapters 1-7 of the Shiva Purana

The Skanda Purana Segment

Not part of the Shiva Purana's own seven Samhitas - Debroy's introduction states this translation includes these seven chapters from the Skanda Purana specifically because they concern the Shiva Purana. They open the book as a phalashruti, the traditional preface on why and how the Purana should be heard, told through two illustrative stories before the formal rules of listening.

1. Chapter 1: The Greatness of the Shiva Purana

   Shounaka asks Suta for the essence of all the Puranas and the surest remedy for a kali-yuga mind. Suta answers by praising the Shiva Purana itself: composed by Shiva, taught to Vyasa through the sage Sanatkumara, and abridged by Vyasa for the welfare of those born in this degraded age. Suta lists its seven Samhitas by name and closes with a prayer for devotion at Shiva's feet.

2. Chapter 2: Devaraja's Story

   Shounaka asks which sinners, specifically, this Purana can purify. Suta answers with the story of Devaraja: a corrupt brahmana of Kiratas who abandoned every duty of his birth, murdered his own parents and wife for a courtesan's sake, and yet - because he happened to overhear a fragment of the Shiva Purana being recited while dying of fever in a Shiva temple at Pratishthana - was rescued from Yama's messengers by Shiva's own attendants and carried to Kailasa.

3. Chapter 3: Chanchula's Story

   Suta tells of the village of Bashkala, steeped in every vice, and of the brahmana Binduga and his wife Chanchula. Binduga abandons Chanchula for a courtesan; to fund his own affair, he persuades Chanchula to take paramours of her own and hand their wealth to him. Years later, a widowed Chanchula overhears a Purana-reciter describe the specific hell reserved for unfaithful wives, and is overcome with terror and repentance.

4. Chapter 4: Chanchula's Emancipation

   The brahmana teaches Chanchula that repentance is the greatest atonement, and that hearing the Shiva Purana purifies the mind like a mirror being cleaned. She takes up a life of dhyana on Shiva under his guidance, and after a long period of devoted practice gives up her body and is carried by a divine vimana to Shiva's city, where she sees Shiva and Parvati directly and is made a companion of the Goddess.

5. Chapter 5: Binduga's Emancipation

   Chanchula, now in Shiva's world, asks Parvati what became of her husband. Parvati reveals that Binduga is suffering as a pishacha in the Vindhyas, and - moved by Chanchula's devotion - sends the gandharva Tumburu to narrate the Shiva Purana to him directly. Hearing it, Binduga is instantly cleansed of every sin and reunited with Chanchula in Shiva's abode.

6. Chapter 6: Rules for Listening

   Shounaka asks for the formal rules governing a recitation of the Shiva Purana - how the gathering should be arranged, how the narrator and listeners should conduct themselves, and the specific misfortunes that follow disrespect toward the text or its reciter.

7. Chapter 7: Rules and Restraints

   Suta completes the rules for listeners: the niyamas (personal vows) expected of a devotee attending the recitation - diksha, brahmacharya, dietary restraint - followed by the closing rites of worship, donation and oblation that conclude a full hearing of the Shiva Purana. This chapter ends the borrowed Skanda Purana segment.

Retold in our own words from Bibek Debroy's English translation of the Shiva Purana (Penguin Classics). Names, numbers and the order of events follow the source.