The Puranas are invaluable and significant sources of Indian culture. The Pauranic tradition preserves Different aspects of Indian religious practices, philosophical musings, literary developments and cultural expressions. The development of the Puranas had been simultaneous with the development of Indian culture. They may be regarded as the ever-developing encyclopedia of Indian culture.

Generally, the number of the Puranas is accepted to be eighteen, but the real position is that the number of the Puranas is much more than eighteen. The Puranas which are counted in the category of eighteen are called the Maha Puranas, but there is another category of the Puranas which are called the Upa-Puranas and their traditional number is again fixed as eighteen, though actually their number is much more than eighteen. The importance of these Upa-Puranas as sources of Indian culture is as much as that of the Maha-Puranas .

The Sun-worship is an ancient tradition of Indian which originated in the Neolithic age and continued throughout history in some form or the other. Even at present, it is alive in some temples and in some rituals. Specially, the key mantra of the Hindus- the Gayatri is dedicated to the Sun-god as the prime source of life and the rituals of sasthi vrata is very popular. The names of the Upa-Puranas differ in many lists, but the Samba Purana finds mention in all these lists without exception which may be regarded as a strong argument in favour of the antiquity and popularity of this Upa-Purana.

The Maga-oriented Sun-worship is the theme of the Samba Purana. It is well-known that in ancient times, the Sun-worship had been universally popular religion. In prehistoric times, natural form of the sun was worshipped through symbols. The Vedic tradition has a strong tradition of the sun-worshiped. In this tradition, the natural form of the sun was worshipped under various names-Surya, Savitr, Mitra, Visnu, Pusan, Asvin, Adityas etc. Sun-worship w as observed through various symbols.

The present book is the first authentic edition of Samba Purana along with complete English translation, an exhaustive introduction, scholarly notes and an index of verses in the end.