Overview
Garuda Purana is one of the puranas which contains instructions by Vishnu to his carrier, Garuda, the King of Birds – a vahana of Vishnu. It deals with astronomy, medicine, grammar, and other subjects, such as gems. The Garuda Purana is considered the authoritative Vedic reference describing ancient Indian gemology. Chapters 68-80 give primitive gemological information describing 14 primary gems, viz., Ruby, Natural Pearl, Yellow Sapphire, Hessonite, Emerald, Diamond, Cats eye, Blue Sapphire, Coral, Red Garnet, Jade, colorless Quartz, and Bloodstone. In Chapter 69 on pearls, the speaker, Suta Goswami, describes seven other types of pearls besides Oyster Pearl (Chandra-moti), viz., pearl from Conch shell (Shankh-moti), Wild Boar’s head (Varaha-moti), Elephant’s head (Gaja-moti), Cobra’s head (Naga-moti or Nagamani), Bamboo stems (Venu-moti), Fish head (Matsya-moti), and from the sky and clouds (Akash-moti or Megh-moti).
The Garuda Purana is a Vaishnava Purana. The others in this group are Vishnu Purana, Narada Purana, Bhagavata Purana, Padma Purana and Varaha Purana.
The Garuda Purana has nineteen thousand shlokas (lines). It is a medium-sized Purana. The Skanda Purana, for example, has eighty-one thousand shlokas. And the Markandeya Purana only nine thousand. The thousand shlokas of the Garuda Purana are divided into two parts, a purva khanda (first part) and an uttara khanda (subsequent part). Each khanda has several chapters (adhyaya). The purva khanda is much longer, it has two hundred and thirty-four chapters. The Uttara khanda has only forty-five.
The latter half of Garuda Purana deals with life after death. Hindus generally read this Purana while cremating their dead.
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