maarkaMDeeya puraaNa

One of the early puraaNa-s, said to contain 9000 verses but extant texts contain only about 7000. Sage maarkaMDeeya directs jaimini who comes to him with questions to go to the caataka birds living in viMdhyaacala hills. The birds refer to the teachings of maarkaMDeeya to krauSTuki. The well known deevi-mahaatmya, also known as caMDii and durgaa-saptas'atii, are part of this puraaNa. Remarkably non-sectarian.Apart from the usual topics of creation, dissolution, manvaMtara-s and geneologies, this puraaNa includes the legends of haris'caMdra, kaartaviirya and queen madaalasaa, descriptions of hell, karma and its fructification, yooga, geography of bhaarata (India) and s'raaddha.