This book argues for an ideological ecosystem at work in the Marka??eya Pura?a privileging worldly values, of which Indian kings, the Goddess (Devi), the Sun (Surya), Manu and Marka??eya himself are paragons.

In analyzing the parallels between myths glorifying the Indian Great Goddess, Durg¿, and those glorifying the Sun, S¿rya, found in the M¿rkä¿eya Pur¿¿a, this book argues for an ideological ecosystem at work in the M¿rkä¿eya Pur¿¿a privileging worldly values, of which Indian kings, the Goddess (Dev¿), the Sun (S¿rya), Manu and M¿rkä¿eya himself are paragons.

This book features a salient discovery in Sanskrit narrative text: just as the M¿rkä¿eya Pur¿¿a houses the Dev¿ M¿h¿tmya glorifying the supremacy of the Indian Great Goddess, Durg¿, it also houses a S¿rya M¿h¿tmya, glorifying the supremacy of the Sun, S¿rya, in much the same manner. This book argues that these m¿h¿tmyas were meaningfully and purposefully positioned in the M¿rkä¿eya Pur¿¿a, while previous scholarship has considered this haphazard interpolation for sectarian aims. The book demonstrates that deliberate compositional strategies make up the Saura-¿¿kta symbiosis found in these mirrored m¿h¿tmyas. Moreover, the author explores what he calls the "dharmic double helix" of Brahmanism, most explicitly articulated by the structural opposition between prav¿tti (worldly) and niv¿tti (other-worldy) dharmas.

As the first narrative study of the S¿rya M¿h¿tmya, along with the first study of the M¿rkä¿eya Pur¿¿a (or any Pur¿¿a), as a narrative whole, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of Religion, Hindu Studies, South Asian Studies, Goddess Studies, Narrative Theory and Comparative Mythology.