Rama Setu in the Padma Purana

First there are two Padma Puranas, one of them is a Jain text. This article refers to the Padma Maha Purana of Vyasa.

The summary and excerpts below are from a detailed and researched article I found at this link, which also includes scanned pages of the original texts. http://bharatendu.com/2008/07/30/on-rama-setu-in-padma-purana/

1. “pAtAla khaNDa provides a very unique story about how the vAnara senA crossed the sea and reached the coast of laMkA. In some recensions of the sR^iShTi-khaNDa, rAma is described to be trifurcating the setu on request from vibhIShaNa.”
2. The 116th chapter of this section is known as purAkalpIya-rAmAyaNa-kathanaM and contains jAmbavanta’s narration of the rAmAyaNa’s events. In this section is this strikingly unique description of the enterprise of crossing the sea by the vAnara senA.
3. Earlier in the sR^iShTi-khaNDa, is this another unique mention of rAma setu in the fortieth chapter known as vAmanapratiShThA (in some recension thirty-fifth chapter, and in some missing altogether). The background of the mention is that after winning the war at laMkA and fulfilling his objectives there, rAma is readying to return back to ayodhyA along with his entourage by using the puShpaka vimAna offered by vibhIShaNa. Before departing, rAma has entrusted the rAkShasa kingdom to vibhIShaNa and when insisted by vibhIShaNa, he has given him instructions about conducting the empire and some interesting orders to recover and restore a certain mUrti-s of vaiShnavI and of vAmana which were commissioned earlier by bali the great dAnava emperor. In this context is the following dialog recorded between vibhIShaNa and rAma in the vAmanapratiShThA chaper of the sR^iShTi-khaNDa the first book of the padma-purANa:
4. (130) Hearing this from rAghava, vibhIShaNa responded to him. ‘All that you have ordered shall be obediently executed, O rAghava. (131) (However,) O Lord, this sacred setu of yours could be used by all the people of the world to approach (into laMkA) and therefore should be obstructed. (132) What control do I have in this matter O deva, but this is a need of mine.’ Hearing these words uttered by the best rAkShasa, The Scion of Raghu (133) took in his hands the missile kArmukaM, and breached the setu in the middle at two places over a length of ten yojana, (134) therefore dividing it into three parts with a one-yojana gap on the either side. Then approaching the shore-forest, he worshipped mahAdeva the Lord of umA. (135) There he established The Three- Eyed mahAdeva by the name of rAmeshwara. rAma, the Great Prince then prohibited the God sAgara, (136) that the Southern Sea should neither thunder there, nor flow across. Issuing his prohibitions this way, rAma then sent off the God sAgara. From the sky then emitted the following AkAshavANI. (137) Spoke rudra: O rAghava, you have auspiciously established me here. O Brave One, so far as the worlds remain, so far as the earth is intact, (138- till then I shall reside myself at the Setu, O Scion of Raghu!

Some Notes on Padma Purana:

“1. padma purANa is one of the eighteen main purANas, a mahApurANa of vaiShNava category, and is listed as second in that list. It is also counted among the six of this list that are considered to be of predominantly sAttvika content (the other five being viShNu, nArada, bhAgavat, garuDa and vArAha). This purANa comprises of fifty-five-thousand shloka-s and is therefore one of the lengthiest.  There are four main recensions of this purANa available. The most commonly found is the northern one in devanAgarI, and is widely printed and circulated by several publishers like Geeta Press Gorakhpur etc. The other major recension is from the southern sources, and an 1883 edition of Vishvanath Narayan Mandalika printed from Pune in the Anandashram Sanskrit Series in four volumes represents this recension. Another edition from the southern recensions, primarily from certain karNATaka and Andhra manuscripts is edited by Kshemaraj Srikrishnadas Shreshthin and printed from Mumbai. Finally, another primary recension with quite a lot of differences and of fair antiquity is the eastern recension available in Bengali script. The most complete version of this being the manuscript preserved in the National Library Kolkata, while two other manuscripts are available in the Asiatic Society of Kolkata and these display quite some differences with other recensions and slight differences with each other as well.

2. The arrangement of sections in this purANa itself and their sequencing is a matter of difference between these different recensions. The eastern one has six khaNDa-s in the following order: i) sR^iShTi-khaNDa ii) bhUmi-khaNDa iii) swarga-khaNDa iv) pAtAla-khaNDa v) uttara-khaNDa, and vi) kR^iyA-yoga-sAra. The VN Mandalika edition has a different list and sequence: i) Adima-khaNDa ii) bhUmi-khaNDa iii) bramha-khaNDa iv) pAtAla-khaNDa v) sR^iShTi-khaNDa, and vi) uttara-khaNDa. In the second southern recension the Kshemaraj edition, chapters are similar to the eastern version, but after sR^iShTi and bhUmi khANDa are arranged bramha-khaNDa, pAtAla-khaNDa and uttara-khaNDa omitting as it would seem the swarga-khaNDa. However a closer examination would show that the swarga-khaNDa of one recension is in reality what has been split into two independent khaNDa-s by the others: the Adim-khaNDa and bramha-khaNDa. kR^iyA-yoga-sAra likewise is but an appendix in the uttara-khaNDa as well. With that said, the most common book-arrangement appears to be the one mentioned in the eastern recension minus the kR^iyA-yoga-sAra as a separate book.”