---
type: Reference
bundle: cosmology-creation
bundle_version: "0.7.2"
id: markandeya-purana
title: "Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa"
description: "Early maha-purana; frame narratives, cosmology, and the Devi-Mahatmya within it."
timestamp: "2026-07-01T00:00:00Z"
iast: "Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa"
devanagari: "मार्कण्डेय पुराण"
text: "Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa"
text_division: "137 Chapters"
language: "Classical Sanskrit"
approximate_date: "c. 250-550 CE (among the earlier Mahā-Purāṇas)"
tags: [purana, markandeya, shakta, devi, cosmology, manvantara, kalpa]
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa

## Text Overview

The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa is one of the 18 Mahā-Purāṇas, comprising 137 chapters narrated by the sage Mārkaṇḍeya. It is notable for containing the Devī Māhātmya (chapters 81-93), the foundational text of Śākta cosmology and the earliest surviving systematic treatment of the Goddess as the supreme cosmological reality. The Purāṇa also contains detailed Manvantara and Kalpa accounts and a remarkable narrative of cosmic dissolution (Pralaya) experienced by Mārkaṇḍeya himself swimming in the cosmic waters.

## The Devī Māhātmya (Chapters 81-93)

The Devī Māhātmya (also called Durgā Saptaśatī or Caṇḍī Pāṭha: 700 verses in honor of Durgā) is the heart of this Purāṇa for the cosmology-creation bundle. It comprises three charitas (narratives) in which the Goddess defeats successive cosmic demons, each representing a deeper level of cosmological ignorance or adharma:

- **Prathama Carita (ch. 81-82)**: Mahiṣāsura-mardana; the origin of the Goddess from the combined light (tejas) of all the gods; Mahāmāyā hymn
- **Madhyama Carita (ch. 83-85)**: Śumbha-Niśumbha episode; the Goddess as Ambikā absorbing all powers
- **Uttama Carita (ch. 86-93)**: Final victory; the hymns of the gods to the Goddess

**Key Cosmological Passages:**

1.55-78: Description of Mahāmāyā as the eternal Goddess who creates, maintains, and withdraws the cosmos; "she is the world; she projects it; she withdraws it; by her the world is pervaded."

1.74-78: The explicit cosmological statement that the Goddess -- in three aspects -- governs Sṛṣṭi, Sthiti, and Saṃhāra: "She who is eternal creates the world at the time of creation; she maintains it at the time of maintenance; she withdraws it at dissolution -- she is the great Māyā."

The Mahāmāyā Stuti (hymn of Māyā) presents the Śākta cosmological alternative to the Trimūrti: not Brahmā-Viṣṇu-Śiva but the one Devī in her three cosmic aspects.

## Mārkaṇḍeya's Vision of Pralaya

The Purāṇa contains a remarkable narrative (not in the Devī Māhātmya section) in which the sage Mārkaṇḍeya experiences the dissolution of the cosmos and finds himself swimming in the cosmic waters during Pralaya. He encounters a divine child (Viṣṇu as Bāla-Mukunda) resting on a banyan leaf, who informs Mārkaṇḍeya that this is the state during Naimittika Pralaya (Kalpa-end dissolution). This narrative gives a first-person phenomenological account of Pralaya that is unique in the Purāṇic literature.

## Primary Concepts Using This Reference

- maya-cosmological.md (primary -- Mahāmāyā)
- shakti-cosmological.md (primary -- Devī Māhātmya)
- samhara.md (Devī's three functions)
- sthiti.md (Devī's three functions)
- srishti.md (Devī's three functions)
- pralaya.md (Mārkaṇḍeya's Pralaya vision)
- devi-mahatmya.md (sub-reference)
