Kalki Purana

by B. K. Chaturvedi

Puranas are almost like an encyclopedia listing the human achievements in this part of the world till the time they were edited or compiled. In every cycle of time the master editor called Vedavyas emerges to edit, vet and compile these records. Their significance is enormous even in the present, as they give a peep into the distant past of Hindus when the world was evolving and the psyche of the race was being formed.

These Puranas record the arguments that make us to decide as to what is holy and what is vile; what is good and what is bad. By going through them we can compare our present day jurisprudence vis., the ancient norms. Apart from that, they are a huge store-house of information conceiving every subject under the sun. It is with the view of unearthing these gems that the present series of the puranas has been planned. Kalki Purana, despite being one of the Upapuranas, has its own significance.

Although, according to Mahabharat, Kalki incarnation is yet to take place, the narration describes his actions in the past tense, and it has borrowed heavily from Vishnu Purana and Srimad Bhagawata Purana. At times the description of the story of Lord Kalkis marriage with the princess of Srihala Dweep, Padma, throws the images also conjured up in the Medieval Hindi epic Padamavata by Malik Mohammad Jayasi. May be the later was influenced by this Purana. But that clearly reveals that this Kalki Upapurana did exist in and around 14th century A D when Jayasi wrote his above-mentioned magnum opus.