Sahyadrikhanda


Sahyādrikhaṇḍa or Sahyadri Khand, written in Sanskrit,and is considered as part of Skandapurāṇa. It contains the legend of the origin of the Chitpavans, Migration of Pancha Gauda Brahmins from Trihotra to Goa along with Parashurama and the origin of Karade Brahmins.
The Sahyadri-khanda includes disparate texts that date from 5th to 13th centuries, and have been organized as part of a single text relatively recently.

Description

There is an elaborate description about the creation of Paraśurāma kṣetra. In one place the land is stated to have been created by Paraśurāma by shooting an arrow, while in another place the land is created by throwing an axe. Experts in the field of Archaeology feel that the place where Parashurama's arrow landed is believed to be the present day Goa. The Kannaḍa version contains a brief chapter called as Grāmapaddhati which describes Brāhmaṇa family names and villages, contradicting the original text that describes narrations and stories of different types of fallen Brāhmaṇas. According to Y.C.Bhānumati the Kannaḍa version has no similarities with Sanskrit Sahyādrikhaṇḍa. Many other versions are found in Marāṭhī, Hindi and English.

Chapters

Sanskrit Sahyādrikhaṇḍa contains following chapters, most of the which vary from version to version as it is a part of Skandapurāṇa.
In this article the original Sanskrit names of the chapters have been omitted.
The chapters are as follows: