LUCA PISCOPO
University of Naples L’Orientale lucapiscopo97@gmail.com
PURĀṆAS BEYOND BOUNDARIES, OR: THE MISERY OF BEING BORN ACCORDING TO THE MĀRKAṆḌEYAPURĀṆA AND THE ŚIVADHARMOTTARA
In this paper I will explore the structural and thematic similarities between Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa 11 and Śivadharmottara 8. Both texts present a meditation on the misery of saṃsāric existence: the suffering of gestation and birth, the loss of knowledge at embodiment, the pains of childhood, youth, old age and death, including suffering experienced even in the divine realms. Although the two chapters do not share verbatim parallels, they display closely comparable thematic sequencing and rhetorical organization, suggesting a comparison based on structure and themes rather than direct textual borrowing. Moreover, a wider look at the surrounding chapters further strengthens the comparison: in both works, this depiction of suffering appears among sections devoted to related themes such as karman, rebirth, and descriptions of hells. By comparing these two chapters, this paper examines how Śivadharmottara 8 inherits and transforms shared motifs and a common rhetorical structure. Crucially, where Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa channels reflection on saṃsāric suffering toward yoga and mokṣa, Śivadharmottara 8 redirects it toward detachment and Śaiva devotion. The comparison thus sheds light on the circulation and transformation of didactic models across Brahmanical and Śaiva literary traditions and invites us to read Śivadharmottara 8 as a carefully structured sermon that inherits (and perhaps consciously reassigns) the existential mechanics of Purāṇic suffering.