Review of the Book: 'Devi Purana'

Photograph of the Book 'Devi Purana', written by Dinesh Bhatia (Photograph taken from my Amazon Kindle)

My recent read was the book on Devi Purana (A Rendition of Srimad Devi Bhagavatam), written by Dinesh Bhatia, which I read after many days of learning about spirituality. There was a time when I thought, whether reading about Devi Bhagwatam would be boring or it would be something which I need to do much research on. The book states that all the Puranas are essentially collections of stories narrated by Suta who was the disciple of Maharishi Veda Vyasa.

From my reading I understood that the stories, in their original form are woven like a web and not easy to comprehend as there is no defined order, be it chronological or otherwise. The spiritual concepts and philosophies are either intertwined in these stories or emerge out of the narration. This rendition attempts to segregate and simplify the stories and their philosophies as well a present them in a simple comprehensible modern English language. This book also reorganizes their flow and order and presents them as a direct narration by Vyasa to King Janamejaya, the grandson of Abhimanyu, while retaining the essence of the original work.

The writer states that the original work on the original Sanskrit text of Srimad Devi Bhagavatam available in the public domain, its English translation by Swami Vijnanananda and also the abridged Hindi version published by Gita Press, Gorakhpur. Numerous other open sources on the internet were referred to while working on this publication.

The objective of this rendition is to introduce and generate interest in Devi Purana. The language of the writing is simple and I personally felt that it have the ability to generate interest in the readers. The book has so many stories, one is the death of King Parikshit, Sarpa Yagna, Muni Astik, Devi’s Darshan by the Trinit, Satyavrata, Sudarshana, Navratri Puja, Vasudeva and Devaki, Nara and Narayana, Parhlada, Brigu’s curse on Vishnu, Shukadeva, Hayagriva, Buddhadeva, Pururava, Videha, Bhimshma and Satyavati, The Birth of Krishna, Krishna, Mahishasura, Devi Maha Lakshmi, Mahishasurmardini, Shumbha-Nishumbha, Devi Chamunda, King Suratha, Vritranihantari, Nahusha, Maharishi Vashistha, The Hiahayas and many more chapters. The chapters are written in a story telling form and it is an enjoyment for the readers.

I feel that this Devi Bhagavata Purana, ‘the old book of the goddess’, is an integral part of ancient Indian mythology. It is important for the Shakta sect of Hinduism, which describes the Devi as the foundation of the world and equivalent in stature to Brahman, the supreme being. As per many scholars, the original text was written in Bengali and consists of 318 chapters and 18,000 verses, all praising the Devi as supreme and describing instructions for her worship, including temples and rituals such as the annual ritual of Durga Puja which is celebrated all over India, especially in Bengal.

The Devi, revered as the mother of the Universe, is honored in India in various forms such as Goddess Durga, Kali, Shakti, and Saraswati, among others. This book also narrates the incarnation of the Devi as Goddess Durga and the epic story of her victory over the demons Rakthabija and Mahishasura. The story of the origins of the sacred Indian rivers, Ganga, Padma and Saraswati is among the many rich tales of our ancient heritage, intricately woven into this literary work on Indian mythology.

That’s all from me in this brief article. I hope you enjoyed my personal thoughts and opinions. Please share your views or comments on the book review and recommendation of the book: Devi Purana (A Rendition of Srimad Devi Bhagavatam), written by Dinesh Bhatia.

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Thanks and regards,

Mainak Majumdar, Book Critic

Email: mainakmajumdar.dasgupta@rediffmail.com & majumdar@majumdarbookreviews.asia