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The Garuda Purana
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.
- GenresClassicsPhilosophyIndia
120 pages, Paperback
First published February 14, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 6, 2025
Ernest Egerton Wood’s The Garuda Purana is one of those rare cross-cultural works where a Western scholar approaches a dense Hindu scripture not with clinical detachment but with genuine curiosity, care, and a spiritual openness that feels almost disarming.
The Garuda Purana, known for its stark descriptions of death, karma, rebirth, and the soul’s journey after death, is easily one of the most misunderstood texts in the Purana corpus.
Wood’s translation and commentary aim to offer clarity — and more importantly, accessibility — to a text often shrouded in fear and superstition.
Wood begins by acknowledging the Purana’s complexity. This is not a single-theme scripture; it contains cosmology, theology, rituals, medicine, ethics, gemology, body purification texts, and, of course, the famous Preta Khanda detailing the soul’s journey after death.
Rather than over-explaining or diluting the content, Wood presents the text with calm precision, allowing its philosophical power to emerge naturally.
What’s striking is Wood’s refusal to sensationalize. Many modern readers associate the Garuda Purana solely with funeral rites or terrifying post-death imagery.
Wood pushes past that stereotype by showing the Purana’s larger intention: guiding the living toward ethical clarity, spiritual awareness, and inner discipline.
The descriptions of afterlife landscapes are not gore for shock value; they are metaphysical metaphors meant to prod the conscience.
His prose is steady, respectful, and surprisingly gentle. He doesn’t flatten the text into dry literalism; instead, he highlights layers — symbolic, psychological, ethical.
When describing the soul’s encounter with Yama or the river Vaitarani, Wood nudges the reader to see beyond “punishment” and into the karmic logic of cause and effect.
The metaphysical geography becomes a map of consciousness.
Wood’s comparative insights are another delight. He occasionally draws parallels with Western esoteric traditions, not to impose equivalences but to illuminate shared human concerns about death, morality, and transcendence.
These moments work beautifully, giving readers multiple entry points into the Purana’s worldview.
What you get ultimately is a balanced perspective: honest about the text’s intensity, yet deeply appreciative of its spiritual vision.
Wood emphasizes that the Garuda Purana is not a manual for fear but a manual for awakening.
Its purpose is to remind readers that actions carry consequences, that the soul is eternal, and that ethical living is not optional but essential.
This edition is ideal for readers who want a serious yet accessible entry-point into the Garuda Purana without theological jargon. It’s scholarly but never cold, spiritual without being preachy, precise without being pedantic.
Wood presents the Garuda Purana as what it truly is: a profound meditation on life, death, duty, and liberation — a text meant not to terrify but to transform.
Most recommended.
The Garuda Purana, known for its stark descriptions of death, karma, rebirth, and the soul’s journey after death, is easily one of the most misunderstood texts in the Purana corpus.
Wood’s translation and commentary aim to offer clarity — and more importantly, accessibility — to a text often shrouded in fear and superstition.
Wood begins by acknowledging the Purana’s complexity. This is not a single-theme scripture; it contains cosmology, theology, rituals, medicine, ethics, gemology, body purification texts, and, of course, the famous Preta Khanda detailing the soul’s journey after death.
Rather than over-explaining or diluting the content, Wood presents the text with calm precision, allowing its philosophical power to emerge naturally.
What’s striking is Wood’s refusal to sensationalize. Many modern readers associate the Garuda Purana solely with funeral rites or terrifying post-death imagery.
Wood pushes past that stereotype by showing the Purana’s larger intention: guiding the living toward ethical clarity, spiritual awareness, and inner discipline.
The descriptions of afterlife landscapes are not gore for shock value; they are metaphysical metaphors meant to prod the conscience.
His prose is steady, respectful, and surprisingly gentle. He doesn’t flatten the text into dry literalism; instead, he highlights layers — symbolic, psychological, ethical.
When describing the soul’s encounter with Yama or the river Vaitarani, Wood nudges the reader to see beyond “punishment” and into the karmic logic of cause and effect.
The metaphysical geography becomes a map of consciousness.
Wood’s comparative insights are another delight. He occasionally draws parallels with Western esoteric traditions, not to impose equivalences but to illuminate shared human concerns about death, morality, and transcendence.
These moments work beautifully, giving readers multiple entry points into the Purana’s worldview.
What you get ultimately is a balanced perspective: honest about the text’s intensity, yet deeply appreciative of its spiritual vision.
Wood emphasizes that the Garuda Purana is not a manual for fear but a manual for awakening.
Its purpose is to remind readers that actions carry consequences, that the soul is eternal, and that ethical living is not optional but essential.
This edition is ideal for readers who want a serious yet accessible entry-point into the Garuda Purana without theological jargon. It’s scholarly but never cold, spiritual without being preachy, precise without being pedantic.
Wood presents the Garuda Purana as what it truly is: a profound meditation on life, death, duty, and liberation — a text meant not to terrify but to transform.
Most recommended.
July 13, 2016
This is just an excerpt of the larger Garuda Purana, which also deals with gemology and other natural sciences. However, unless you are interested in the history of that sort of thing, this excerpt is the most interesting. It deals with funeral rites, and the mythology of the Hindu underworld, or "hell." The realm of Yama, the God of Death and Justice. The hells are described in excruciating detail.
First, you must cross over the river Vaitrani, It is 800 miles wide, and flows with blood and pus. It is stacked with skeletons on either side, and is infested with Alligators and cariverous birds made of metal. One false word and your demon captors will push you in, and make you swim across.
Eternally dark forests, in which the leaves are sharp as razors. Mud infested with leeches. Showers of blood and swords. Ambiguous things like "the darkness" and "the rending". You must pass through all these and more before you make it to Yama's city to await judgement (assuming you lived an adharmic life, and/or your family didn't do a proper funeral for you). Then you spend some time in a dedicated hell area, which are also described in detail, before being reborn. This cleanses you of your sins.
This stuff is great horror imagery. Stuff which would make Lovecraft shudder. Oh, and its in the public domain.
Of course, one shouldn't take this to be "what Hindus believe" about hell. There is no consensus about anything in Hinduism, and it would be rare to find a modern Hindu who believes in this stuff. This is what a sect of doctrinare, medieval Hindus believed.
Below are some notes I took on the geography and features of the place, in anticipation of a map illustration project which is currently stalled due to graduate school:
Total extend of the way of yama measures 86 thousand yojnas without vaitrani (8) (26)
a= road of burning sand (22-23) (5-6)
b= forest fires and hot winds (6) (24)
c= the darkness (possibly, B is also dark) (6) (24)
D= uninhabited forest, which one wanders in until the end of the age, if he doesn't receive rice balls after death (7_ (25)
E- for 9 days and 9 nights he receives rice bals. On the 10th day his body becomes fully formed and he acquires strength, but he is only the size of a hand.
1st rice ball forms head, 2nd forms neck and shoulders. 3d forms heart. 4th forms back. 5th navel. 6th hip and secret parts. 7th thigh. 89- feet. 10 hunger and thirst (25-26)
F= he walks alone on the road, bound by demons, and passes through 16 cities before reaching the city of Yama. (26)
The road, beforee the first city (saumya) --- is without trees or food or water. 12 suns blaze on it. In various parts, the following things predominate: cold winds, thorns, venomous serpents, lions/tigers/dogs, scorpions, fire, forest of sword like leaves which is 2000 yojnas in length nd breadth and is infested by crows owls hawks cultures bees mosquitos and has forest fires, (28) a hidden well, a lofty mountain, razor edges and spear points, awful black darkness and water, mud infested with leeches, hot slime, a plain of hot sand, melted copper, a mound of embers, a great cloud of smoke, showers of charcoal, showers of stones and thunderbolts, showers of blood, showers of weapons, showes of boiling water, showers of caustic mud, deep chasms, hills and valleys to pass through, pitch darkness, large rocks, lakes fueled with pus and blood and excrement, He travels on this road for 17 days, and on day 18 reaches Saumya
G= city of yama. Here, people may attain liberation and heaven if they were good, or yama judges them and sends them to the hells. (description of yama is here) (42-43) The righteous enter the city through the three gateways but the sinners enter through the southern (48)
h= the river vaitarani, which is a hunred yojnas. it flows with pus and blood. heaps of bones o either bank, with mud of flesh and blood. impassable. hairy moss, huge crocodiles, crowded with hundreds of dreadful birds and dreadful insects, leeches monster fishes, and turtles etc which eat flesh. Has whirlpools which drag people to the bottom for a moment. People who are particularly bad fall into the river and never come out. (29 30)
I= Saumya peaceful beautiful city with a fig tree(33)
J- Pushpabhadra river- 33
k= Sauripura. King is Jangma, who appears like death. Stays here for 3 fortnights - 34
L- Nagendrabhavana (close to previous city), where there are fearful forests. Lives there for 2 months. (34)
Next order of cities: City of the Gandharvas- eat rice balls offered there. Staays for 1 month.
Saligama- stones rain down upon him. Stays for 1 month. Eats rice balls (35)
Krauncha- eats rice balls of 5th month. Goes to
Krurapura- 6th month ceremony is preformed here
Chitrabhavana- ruled by younger brother of Yama, Vichitra. He is huge. Here, fishermen offer to take you across the vitarana river, if you have made the gift of a cow. If no gift, you sink into the river.
Bhwapada- eats gifts of 7th month.
Duhkhada- he suffers great misery by traveling through the air, and eats his rice ballsof 8th month.
Nanakranda- 9th month he goes to this city and eats rice balls
sutaptabhavana ( 37) he goes here with difficulty. Obtains rice balls and for the first time, water. 10th month.
Raudra- 11th month offerings. Stays for month and a half
Payoyarsana- Clouds teem, and give misery. 1th month.
Sitadhya- cold 100 times colder than hmalaya afflict him there. 1 year.
Bahubhiti- his hand size body is cast off here. instead gets an "upper body" or a "body of torment". Sets out through the air. Enters Yama's city by southern gate.
m- distance of 44 yojnas.
n- "The Hells"
- there is a big tree glowing like a blazing fire. 5 yojnas wide 1 jogna high. People are orutrned on this tree in various ways. (43)
44-littany of rotrure methods, but the tree is in the center near all of them. There are 84 lakh hells, 21 of which are the worst. (listed on 46)
after enduring this torture they are reborn as plants or lower animals (55)
p= city of the son of Vivaswata. built of diamonds and is impregnable. Square, 4 gateways. surrounded by high ramparts and measures a thousand yojanas.
p.1 Chitrahypta (assistant of yama) lives there, which is 24 yojnas large. Ramparts are iron and 10 yojanas high. Hundreds of streets with flags and banners. chariots etc.
East of Chitragupta's residence is the great house of fever. TO the south, rheumatism and skin diseases and smallpox. West, are snare of death, dyspepsia and biliousness. North- consumption, jaundice. northwest- headache. Southeasy, syncope. Southwest, dysentery. Northwest, cold and heat.
p.2- palace of Yama, 20 yojanas before Chitragupta's palace (150) description of it. 200 yojanas in extent. 50 high. It contains a divine assembly (151) People who enter through the other 3 gates (not southern) get to behold this palace.
q- eastern way to the city. (154) Abounds in all enjoyments. Covered with shane of parijata trees, paved with jewels, busy with numerous chariots, lined with swans, lots of trees and pleasure gardens on either side. people who are very hold and pious go through this side people go through this route. (1st way) (154-55)
R- northern way. great chariots and palanquins. paved with yellow sandal wood. swans ducks, a tank full of nectar. nearned ppl go there, and brave people or ppl who died in good ways.
s- western way is beautiful, jeweled masons. slender ponds. filled with maddened elephants and jewels. Self reliant go there. ahimsa ppl. mantra sayers. celibates, ascetics.
First, you must cross over the river Vaitrani, It is 800 miles wide, and flows with blood and pus. It is stacked with skeletons on either side, and is infested with Alligators and cariverous birds made of metal. One false word and your demon captors will push you in, and make you swim across.
Eternally dark forests, in which the leaves are sharp as razors. Mud infested with leeches. Showers of blood and swords. Ambiguous things like "the darkness" and "the rending". You must pass through all these and more before you make it to Yama's city to await judgement (assuming you lived an adharmic life, and/or your family didn't do a proper funeral for you). Then you spend some time in a dedicated hell area, which are also described in detail, before being reborn. This cleanses you of your sins.
This stuff is great horror imagery. Stuff which would make Lovecraft shudder. Oh, and its in the public domain.
Of course, one shouldn't take this to be "what Hindus believe" about hell. There is no consensus about anything in Hinduism, and it would be rare to find a modern Hindu who believes in this stuff. This is what a sect of doctrinare, medieval Hindus believed.
Below are some notes I took on the geography and features of the place, in anticipation of a map illustration project which is currently stalled due to graduate school:
Total extend of the way of yama measures 86 thousand yojnas without vaitrani (8) (26)
a= road of burning sand (22-23) (5-6)
b= forest fires and hot winds (6) (24)
c= the darkness (possibly, B is also dark) (6) (24)
D= uninhabited forest, which one wanders in until the end of the age, if he doesn't receive rice balls after death (7_ (25)
E- for 9 days and 9 nights he receives rice bals. On the 10th day his body becomes fully formed and he acquires strength, but he is only the size of a hand.
1st rice ball forms head, 2nd forms neck and shoulders. 3d forms heart. 4th forms back. 5th navel. 6th hip and secret parts. 7th thigh. 89- feet. 10 hunger and thirst (25-26)
F= he walks alone on the road, bound by demons, and passes through 16 cities before reaching the city of Yama. (26)
The road, beforee the first city (saumya) --- is without trees or food or water. 12 suns blaze on it. In various parts, the following things predominate: cold winds, thorns, venomous serpents, lions/tigers/dogs, scorpions, fire, forest of sword like leaves which is 2000 yojnas in length nd breadth and is infested by crows owls hawks cultures bees mosquitos and has forest fires, (28) a hidden well, a lofty mountain, razor edges and spear points, awful black darkness and water, mud infested with leeches, hot slime, a plain of hot sand, melted copper, a mound of embers, a great cloud of smoke, showers of charcoal, showers of stones and thunderbolts, showers of blood, showers of weapons, showes of boiling water, showers of caustic mud, deep chasms, hills and valleys to pass through, pitch darkness, large rocks, lakes fueled with pus and blood and excrement, He travels on this road for 17 days, and on day 18 reaches Saumya
G= city of yama. Here, people may attain liberation and heaven if they were good, or yama judges them and sends them to the hells. (description of yama is here) (42-43) The righteous enter the city through the three gateways but the sinners enter through the southern (48)
h= the river vaitarani, which is a hunred yojnas. it flows with pus and blood. heaps of bones o either bank, with mud of flesh and blood. impassable. hairy moss, huge crocodiles, crowded with hundreds of dreadful birds and dreadful insects, leeches monster fishes, and turtles etc which eat flesh. Has whirlpools which drag people to the bottom for a moment. People who are particularly bad fall into the river and never come out. (29 30)
I= Saumya peaceful beautiful city with a fig tree(33)
J- Pushpabhadra river- 33
k= Sauripura. King is Jangma, who appears like death. Stays here for 3 fortnights - 34
L- Nagendrabhavana (close to previous city), where there are fearful forests. Lives there for 2 months. (34)
Next order of cities: City of the Gandharvas- eat rice balls offered there. Staays for 1 month.
Saligama- stones rain down upon him. Stays for 1 month. Eats rice balls (35)
Krauncha- eats rice balls of 5th month. Goes to
Krurapura- 6th month ceremony is preformed here
Chitrabhavana- ruled by younger brother of Yama, Vichitra. He is huge. Here, fishermen offer to take you across the vitarana river, if you have made the gift of a cow. If no gift, you sink into the river.
Bhwapada- eats gifts of 7th month.
Duhkhada- he suffers great misery by traveling through the air, and eats his rice ballsof 8th month.
Nanakranda- 9th month he goes to this city and eats rice balls
sutaptabhavana ( 37) he goes here with difficulty. Obtains rice balls and for the first time, water. 10th month.
Raudra- 11th month offerings. Stays for month and a half
Payoyarsana- Clouds teem, and give misery. 1th month.
Sitadhya- cold 100 times colder than hmalaya afflict him there. 1 year.
Bahubhiti- his hand size body is cast off here. instead gets an "upper body" or a "body of torment". Sets out through the air. Enters Yama's city by southern gate.
m- distance of 44 yojnas.
n- "The Hells"
- there is a big tree glowing like a blazing fire. 5 yojnas wide 1 jogna high. People are orutrned on this tree in various ways. (43)
44-littany of rotrure methods, but the tree is in the center near all of them. There are 84 lakh hells, 21 of which are the worst. (listed on 46)
after enduring this torture they are reborn as plants or lower animals (55)
p= city of the son of Vivaswata. built of diamonds and is impregnable. Square, 4 gateways. surrounded by high ramparts and measures a thousand yojanas.
p.1 Chitrahypta (assistant of yama) lives there, which is 24 yojnas large. Ramparts are iron and 10 yojanas high. Hundreds of streets with flags and banners. chariots etc.
East of Chitragupta's residence is the great house of fever. TO the south, rheumatism and skin diseases and smallpox. West, are snare of death, dyspepsia and biliousness. North- consumption, jaundice. northwest- headache. Southeasy, syncope. Southwest, dysentery. Northwest, cold and heat.
p.2- palace of Yama, 20 yojanas before Chitragupta's palace (150) description of it. 200 yojanas in extent. 50 high. It contains a divine assembly (151) People who enter through the other 3 gates (not southern) get to behold this palace.
q- eastern way to the city. (154) Abounds in all enjoyments. Covered with shane of parijata trees, paved with jewels, busy with numerous chariots, lined with swans, lots of trees and pleasure gardens on either side. people who are very hold and pious go through this side people go through this route. (1st way) (154-55)
R- northern way. great chariots and palanquins. paved with yellow sandal wood. swans ducks, a tank full of nectar. nearned ppl go there, and brave people or ppl who died in good ways.
s- western way is beautiful, jeweled masons. slender ponds. filled with maddened elephants and jewels. Self reliant go there. ahimsa ppl. mantra sayers. celibates, ascetics.
December 25, 2020
Pros:
For many plowing through 700 plus pages is a task and in the end, most only want to learn about hell and sin, so this book commits to just that.
1. The bullet format is straightforward and mostly one-liners.
2. It is a fast read. Vedas and Puranas are notorious for being complicated even with explanations but this book was really watered down. It's good for a newbie or as a baseline read of the Garuda Purana.
Cons:
The main con also comes from its pro, the book is not abridged but only a chapter from the genuine book. All this book discusses is death, which is a mere segment of the original text, which is rich with other subjects from prayers, how to build and maintain a mandir, gemology, astrology, medicine, face reading, etc, etc.
1. "Our Hindu Puranas, however, among the great mass of rubbish that they contain...."
I found that extremely dismissive and condescending of the entire religion.
2. The attitude toward Brahmins is outright bigoted. Yes, I agree that sins cannot be washed away by seeking help from another but repenting in genuine form and course correcting. But the act of lobbing the whole group as these fraudsters is akin to ...well assassinating the character of everyone.
3. All the notes are at the very end of the book versus as a footnote at the bottom of the respective page.
For many plowing through 700 plus pages is a task and in the end, most only want to learn about hell and sin, so this book commits to just that.
1. The bullet format is straightforward and mostly one-liners.
2. It is a fast read. Vedas and Puranas are notorious for being complicated even with explanations but this book was really watered down. It's good for a newbie or as a baseline read of the Garuda Purana.
Cons:
The main con also comes from its pro, the book is not abridged but only a chapter from the genuine book. All this book discusses is death, which is a mere segment of the original text, which is rich with other subjects from prayers, how to build and maintain a mandir, gemology, astrology, medicine, face reading, etc, etc.
1. "Our Hindu Puranas, however, among the great mass of rubbish that they contain...."
I found that extremely dismissive and condescending of the entire religion.
2. The attitude toward Brahmins is outright bigoted. Yes, I agree that sins cannot be washed away by seeking help from another but repenting in genuine form and course correcting. But the act of lobbing the whole group as these fraudsters is akin to ...well assassinating the character of everyone.
3. All the notes are at the very end of the book versus as a footnote at the bottom of the respective page.
April 21, 2020
The knowledge and wisdom of humans journey on this planet and beyond towards unification with the almighty is so authoritively narrated in these ancient Hindu scriptures of Garuda Puran. The Tibetan scriptures too have taken citations from this invaluable scripts of 'Sanskrit' origin.
August 17, 2016
I got an answer to my unusual question:
Q: Why there are a huge flock of pigeons in India?
A: Who speaks ill of caste and order is born a pigeon!
On a funny note, it's like a hard science fiction book.
Q: Why there are a huge flock of pigeons in India?
A: Who speaks ill of caste and order is born a pigeon!
On a funny note, it's like a hard science fiction book.
February 7, 2012
I have no idea how to rate this book.
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