Garuda Purana

The Garuda Purana is the Purana framed as Vishnu’s answer to Garuda’s questions — best known for its Preta Khanda, the dialogue on death, the afterlife’s roads, and the rites that speed the departed.

Content

Beyond the famous funerary section — the soul’s journey through the subtle worlds, the hells (naraka) in catalogue, and the shraddha rites by which the living aid the dead — the Purana contains substantial material on gems, medicine, dharma, and the Vishnu-bhakti of the bhakti age. Its structure is dialogue: the eagle-king Garuda as the questioner of the god.

Significance

The Garuda Purana is the subcontinent’s most-read text at the deathbed and the funeral: its recitation during the mourning days is a pan-Hindu institution, and its afterlife cartography shaped the popular imagination (its hells echo through folk art and modern retellings). Its encyclopedic chapters made it a medieval sourcebook for gemology and medicine.

Verification notes

• Text history is layered; the funerary section is likely the latest major stratum.
• Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).