The Shiva Purana (Sanskrit: शिव पुराण, Śiva Purāṇa) is one of the purāṇas, a genre of Hindu religious texts, dedicated to Shiva. According to a tradition which is stated in the Vāyaviya Saṁhitā (the Venkateshvara Press edition) of this text, the original text was known as the Śaiva Purāṇa.
According to tradition, it originally consisted 12 Saṁhitās and 100,000 ślokas (verses). After the reconstruction and the abridgement by Vedavyasa, the extant text comprises 24000 ślokas (verses), which he taught to his disciple Romaharshana (or Lomaharshana).
According to a passage found in the first chapters of Vidyeśvara Saṁhitā and Vāyaviya Saṁhitā of these recensions the original Shiva Purana comprised twelve Saṁhitās, which included five lost Saṁhitās: Vaināyaka Saṁhitā, Mātṛ Saṁhitā (or Mātṛpurāṇa Saṁhitā), Rudraikādaśa Saṁhitā, Sahasrakoṭirudra Saṁhitā and Dharma Saṁhitā (or Dharmapurāṇa Saṁhitā).The number of verses in these sections were as follows:
- Vidyeshvara Samhita - 10,000
- Rudra Samhita - 8,000
- Vainayaka Samhita - 8,000
- Uma Samhita - 8,000
- Matri Samhita - 8,000
- Rudraikadasha Samhita - 13,000
- Kailasa Samhita - 6,000
- Shatarudra Samhita - 3,000
- Sahasrakotirudra Samhita - 11,000
- Kotirudra Samhita - 9,000
- Vayaviya Samhita - 4,000
- Dharma Samhita - 12,000
