Vishnu Purana is one of the oldest Purana in the Hindu scriptures that is split into six parts and contains 7,000 versus. The Purana reveals some interesting details and is of high importance in Hindu religion.

One of the foremost Purana in the Hindu scriptures is the Vishnu Purana, which is a constituent of the eighteen great Puranas. The text of this Purana today contains 7,000 verses though it is thought to have 23,000 verses in its original form.

The Purana is in the form of a dialogue between Maharishi Parasara and the disciple Maitreya. It is however thought some of the parts have been written by Maharishi Parasara. Veda Vyasa is considered as the original source of the Puranas. Besides, these texts have survived through the age old tradition of oral reading. It is to be noted that most of the characters in this Purana cover events that are described in the Mahabharata and few of the verses describe certain events occurring after the Mahabharata froze. Some of the issues mentioned are about Lord Buddha and the reign of Chandra Gupta Maurya.

The Purana is split into six parts called amsas and have 126 chapters called adhyayas in total. The first part (amsa) details the stories of creation of the universe, the pralaya and the samundra manthanan (churning of the ocean). The concept of the four yugas in introduced in this part along with the stories of Hiranyakashipu and Prahlada. The Earth, with its seven continents and seven oceans, is elaborately described in the second section of the Purana along with the description of the nether world, the Patala, where the snake gods dwell and the hell, Naraka.

On the other side, you can see the description of the heavenly bodies, the sun and the planetary system. The third part of the Purana discusses the cycle of creation and destruction through the stories of Manvantara and the account of the Manus (ancestor of the human race). This section also discusses the four phases of life (ashramas), the four Vedas with the basis of their division and how they have been divided by Veda Vyasa.

The genealogy of the famous kings from the Suryavanshi and Chandravanshi dynasties forms part of the fourth division of the Vishnu Purana. Short summaries on the legends like the Pururavas, Urvasi, Lord Rama, birth of Pandavas and Lord Krishna can be found in this section of the Purana. Mahabharata is also touched upon briefly. The section concludes with the prophecy referring to the future kings of Magadha, Nandas, Kanvanayas and others, and the time when there would be no religion or morality which would end when Vishnu will incarnate as ‘Kalki’.

The fifth part of the Vishnu Purana focuses completely with the life and times of Lord Krishna, beginning from his birth till he leaves for heavenly abode and the destruction of the Yadava clan. It is to be noted that the same stories are repeated in the same order in Harivamsa Parv of Mahabharata. This section of the Purana is the biggest with 38 chapters. Part VI of the Purana is the shortest with only eight chapters. This part deals once again with the four yugas and the effects of kaliyuga culminating in pralaya of the cosmos, the travails of being born, being a child, being an adult, old age and death, hell and heaven and finally being liberated from existence and re-birth (Moksha)