Writings: HinduismThe Nepal Skandapurana2 of 10

Writings: Hinduism

The Nepal Skandapurana

The Nepal Skandapurana is a palm-leaf copy of the early Skandapurana, a text honoring Shiva. The year written in it, 234, is probably in an era of the Nepalese king Manadeva, which gives 810 CE. Peter Bisschop calls it the oldest surviving dated Purana manuscript. The National Archives of Nepal in Kathmandu holds it.

Last reviewed:

Three dates, kept apart

  1. The text's date: the tradition's view

    The statements consulted give no year for the Skandapurana. E. H. Rick Jarow reports that tradition credits the great Puranas to the sage Vyasa, and ISKCON Educational Services, a Vaishnava source, says the Puranas present themselves as older than the Vedas. No current statement from a Shaiva school on this text was found.

  2. The text's date: critical scholars' view

    550 to 650 CE (Yokochi); 570 to 620 CE (Bakker); the first half of the 7th century CE (Kropman, as Staiger reports her); unlikely before the 6th century or after the end of the 7th (Sanderson); the bar draws Yokochi's range

  3. This copy made

    810 CE (year 234, read as probably in the era of King Manadeva, which began in 576 CE according to Petech, so 234 plus 576 is 810, computed here; in 1905 Haraprasad Shastri estimated before 659 CE from the handwriting)

  4. This copy found

    1898 to 1899 CE; Cecil Bendall and Haraprasad Shastri searched the Durbar Library in Nepal and examined this manuscript there (this site infers the years from Bendall's dates for their joint expedition); described in print in 1905

All four rows share one timeline. A row with no marker says why in words. How ancient texts are dated.

What it is

The Skandapurana is a Purana, one of a group of long religious texts that tell of creation, the gods, kings, pilgrimage, and duty.1 This copy carries what scholars call the early Skandapurana, a Shaiva text, meaning that it honors Shiva as the highest god. It tells of the birth of Skanda, the commander of the gods' army.2

The copy is in Sanskrit,1 on palm leaf (dried palm leaves used for writing), in an early Nepalese script.2 It is the oldest of four Nepalese manuscripts; the second is probably slightly younger, and the other two probably date to no later than 1000 CE.2 It is not the larger Skandapurana of later times, which Staiger describes as a mix of very different texts from the second half of the 12th century on.2

How the copy was dated

The manuscript carries a date written in it, the year 234. Ben Staiger reads that as probably the year in the era of the Nepalese king Manadeva, equal to 810 CE.2 Alexis Sanderson adds that Luciano Petech set its start at 576 CE in 1961, on Tibetan evidence. Before that, he writes, the era had been taken as King Harsha's, which began in 606 CE.3 Adding 234 to 576 gives 810, and adding it to Harsha's 606 would give 840 (both computed here).

An earlier estimate rested on handwriting. In 1905 Haraprasad Shastri wrote that he and Cecil Bendall had studied the script, which he called Gupta, and judged the copy at least 200 years older than the Cambridge Parameshvaratantra (year 252 of Harsha's era, or 859 CE, in his reading), so made before 659 CE.4

The Cambridge catalogue now says some scholars judge that same year 252 to be in the era of Amshuvarman, also called Manadeva, which gives 828 CE.5 The sources used here do not say how the 1905 judgment is regarded today. For the methods, see how ancient texts are dated.

The text: its date and authorship

The date strip marks the early Skandapurana, not this copy.

The tradition's account, and the text's own

E. H. Rick Jarow reports that tradition credits the eighteen great Puranas, the Skanda among them, to the sage Vyasa, who is said to have arranged the revealed material, along with the Vedas and epics, and passed it to disciples who elaborated on it further.1 ISKCON Educational Services, a Vaishnava source (Vaishnavas worship Vishnu and his incarnations, especially Krishna and Rama),6 writes that the Puranas present themselves as older than the Vedas.7

The Skandapurana's own opening, as Staiger summarizes it, has a bard tell sages that Vyasa once asked Sanatkumara, a son of the god Brahma, to tell the story of Skanda's birth. Sanatkumara's answer makes up the main narrative.2 The sources used here include no current statement from a Shaiva school on its origin.

The historians' view

Historians date the early Skandapurana to the 6th and 7th centuries CE. Staiger reports three proposals. Yuko Yokochi dates it from 550 to 650 CE. Hans Bakker narrows that to 570 to 620 CE, with work beginning under the Maukhari kings, a ruling dynasty of northern India. Martine Kropman, as Staiger reports her, argues that a core text began no earlier than the reign of King Harsha, who ruled from 605 to 647 CE.2 Her article suggests the text's growth may have been shaped by his rise.8

Sanderson calls the date still debated and holds it unlikely that the text was composed after the end of the 7th century or before the 6th.3 Staiger writes that the prevailing opinion places its writing in circles of scholars who belonged to the Pashupatas, a Shaiva group.2

How it was found

Cecil Bendall writes that the catalogue of the Durbar Library in Nepal came from a joint expedition that he and Haraprasad Shastri made there in the cold weather of 1898 to 1899.4 Shastri lists the Skandapurana as No. 229 of that catalogue, printed in 1905, and writes that he and Bendall examined its handwriting.4 This site places that examination in 1898 to 1899, an inference from Bendall's earlier visit in 1884 and Shastri's notes of 1897, and not a stated date.4

Staiger writes that Shastri pointed out the existence and significance of a text that had been little known among modern scholars.2 The sources used here do not say how the leaves reached the library or how long they had been there. They are now in the National Archives of Nepal in Kathmandu (MS 2-229).23

What it shows, and what it does not

It shows that the early Skandapurana existed in writing by 810 CE, if the year 234 is read in Manadeva's era. Bisschop calls it the oldest surviving dated manuscript of a Purana, and writes that manuscripts from different periods let scholars trace a Purana's changes in transmission.9

Two later versions survive: a copy of 1682 in early Bengali script, and seven much younger copies in Bengali script, probably most of them made in the 19th century. They share the Nepalese text up to chapter 162, apart from minor variants, and then differ widely: the passage on Skanda's birth, consecration, and the killing of the demon Taraka fills three chapters in the Nepalese version and twelve in the others.2

It does not show who composed the text or when. Staiger writes that, presumably, not more than 200 to 300 years lie between this manuscript and the original text, which may at first have been handed down only by speech.2 The statements of the tradition consulted give no year, so no gap can be counted on that view. Bisschop writes that the name Skandapurana covers an open-ended tradition that expands and changes over time, not one work by one writer, while Jarow reports that tradition credits the great Puranas to Vyasa.91 The manuscript does not decide among these accounts and the historians' dating of the early text.

See also

Sources

  1. E. H. Rick Jarow. Puranas. Encyclopedia of Religion, second edition (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, 2005. Accessed 2026-10-29.
  2. Ben Lennart Staiger. The Skanda Myth in the Skandapurana: A Critical Edition and Study of Adhyayas 163 to 165 of the Skandapurana. Doctoral dissertation, University of Hamburg (Faculty of Humanities), 2017, pp. 3 to 5 and note 5; pp. 8 to 11 and notes 11 to 18; pp. 23 to 24; p. 109 (list of manuscripts). Accessed 2026-11-06.
  3. Alexis Sanderson. The Saiva Age: The Rise and Dominance of Saivism during the Early Medieval Period. In Shingo Einoo (ed.), Genesis and Development of Tantrism, Institute of Oriental Culture Special Series 23 (Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo), 2009, essay pp. 41 to 349; cited: p. 45 (the Siddhanta, the Parameshvara, and the Matangaparameshvara), p. 51 and notes 23 and 24 (the Skandapurana, its manuscript, and its era; note 24 runs onto p. 52), p. 314 (the Cambridge manuscript), p. 322 (the Skandapurana manuscript). Accessed 2026-11-06.
  4. Haraprasad Shastri, with a historical introduction by Cecil Bendall. A Catalogue of Palm-leaf and Selected Paper Mss. belonging to the Durbar Library, Nepal, volume 1. Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta, 1905, Preface p. lii (the Skandapurana; the Parameshvaratantra date); Bendall's Historical Introduction p. 1 (the joint expedition of 1898 to 1899). Accessed 2026-11-06.
  5. Vincenzo Vergiani (author of the record), Cambridge University Library. Parameshvaratantra (MS Add.1049.1), Sanskrit Manuscripts. Cambridge Digital Library, Cambridge University Library, catalogue record fields: Abstract, Date of Creation, Origin Place, Provenance, Acquisition, Extent, Material, Script, Condition, Excerpts (colophon), Alternative Title(s), Author(s). Accessed 2026-11-06.
  6. Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. Dancing with Siva: Hinduism's Contemporary Catechism, sixth edition: Sloka 9, What Is the Devotional Vaishnava Sect?. Himalayan Academy (web edition), 2003, Sloka 9, What Is the Devotional Vaishnava Sect?. Accessed 2026-10-29.
  7. ISKCON Educational Services. Heart of Hinduism: Smriti: The Puranas. ISKCON Educational Services. Accessed 2026-10-29.
  8. Martine P. Kropman. The consecration of Kumara: The role of Thanesar and King Harsa in the composition of the Skandapurana. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 29(1), pp. 95 to 125 (online 30 October 2018), 2019, abstract only. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  9. Peter Bisschop. The Skandapurana: What's in a Name?. PURANA (blog on Humanities Commons), 2023, whole post. Accessed 2026-11-06.