A large compilation of diverse topics, it escribes cosmology, the world and nature of life from the perspective of Vishnu. It also discusses festivals, numerous legends, geography of rivers and regions from northwest India to Bengal to the kingdom of Tripura, major sages of India, various Avatars of Vishnu and his cooperation with Shiva, a story of Rama-Sita that is different from the Hindu epic Ramayana.The north Indian manuscripts of Padma Purana are very different from south Indian versions, and the various recensions in both groups in different languages (Devanagari and Bengali, for example) show major inconsistencies. Like the Skanda Purana, it is a detailed treatise on travel and pilgrimage centers in India.
This is the first part of the Padma Purana in English translation and the thirty-ninth volwne in the series on Ancient Indian Tradition and Mythology. It comprises the first thirty-three chapters of the first section called Srishtikhand or the Section on Creation of the Puranas which is very huge in size. This Purana, as it appears in the Veilkatesvara edition which this translation follows, consists of seven big sections or Khanda, namely, Santi, Bhumi, Svarga, Brahma, Patala, Uttara and Kriyayogasara and is said to contain 55000 verses, though the actual number is much less. The translation of the whole Purana is planned to run into as many as ten volumes of the present size and may take some years for its completion.