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PURANAS 
 
 OR 
 
 (AN ACCOUNT OF THEIR CONTENTS AND NATURE) 
 
 BY 
 
 H. H. WILSON. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE SOCIETY FOR THE RESUSCITATION 
 OF INDIAN LITERATURE, 
 
 CALCUTTA: 
 Printed by H. C. Dass, Elysiom Press,, 
 6sl2, Beadon Street, 
 
 11897. 
 
\ 
 
 •J 
 
# CONTENTS. 
 
 Theology and Antiquity 
 The number of Puranas 
 Synopsis of the Puranas 
 Upapuranas ... 
 An account of Vishnupuran 
 
 \ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The following pages, from the pen of Pro- 
 fessor Wilson whose name India will never 
 forget, form the introduction to his transla- 
 tion of the Vishnti Purana. They are so well 
 written, with a complete and excellent synop- 
 sis of all the Puranas that a reprint of them 
 with occasional changes, we are sure, will 
 serve the ptirpose of this treatise. The litera- 
 ture, passing by the name of Puranas, is so 
 very voluminous that it is not possible for 
 one man to go through them during his life 
 time. This sketch however will give them 
 an idea of what all the Puranas contain— 
 their nature and the probable date of com- 
 position. As it is not possible to ascertain 
 accurately the date of various compositions 
 we have not entered into details on this sub- 
 ject and have contented ourselves with mere- 
 ly placing before our readers the view of the 
 learned author. 
 
 The sketch, as it is, is quiet sufficent for 
 a general reader to have an idea of the con- 
 tents of the Pojranas ; those who wish to 
 learn more,shoiild either resort to the original 
 works or their translations, 
 
 Calcutta, 
 June i8gj. 
 
r 
 
P'URANAS. 
 
 THEOLOGY & ANTIQUITY. 
 
 The literature of the Hindus has now been 
 cultivated, for many years, with singular deligence, 
 and, in many of its branches, with eminent success. 
 There are some departments, however, which are 
 yet but partially and imperfectly investigated ; and 
 we are far from being in possession of that know- 
 ledge which the authentic writings of the Hindus 
 alone can give us of their religion, mythology, 
 and historical traditions. 
 
 From the materials to which we have hitherto 
 had access, it seems probable that there have 
 been three principal forms in which the religion 
 of the Hindus has existed, at as many different 
 periods. The duration of those periods, the cir- 
 cumstances of their succession, and the precise 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 state of the national faith at each season, it is not 
 possible to trace with any approach to accuracy. 
 The premises have been too imperfectly deter- 
 mined to authorize other than conclusions of a 
 general and somewhat vague description, and 
 those remain to be hereafter confirmed, or cor- 
 rected, by more extensive and satisfactory re- 
 searches. 
 
 The earliest form under which the Hindu 
 religion appears is that taught in the Vedas. The 
 style of the language, and the purport of the 
 composition, of those works, as far as we are 
 acquainted with them, indicate a date long anterior 
 to that of any other class of Sanskrit writings. 
 It is yet, however, scarcely safe to advance an 
 opinion of the precise belief, or philosophy which 
 they inculcate. To enable us to judge of their 
 tendency, we have only a general sketch of their 
 arrangement and contents, with a few extracts, 
 by Mr. Colebrooke, in the Asiatic researches; 
 a few incidental observations by, Mr. Ellis, in 
 the same miscellany ; and a translation of the 
 first book of the Sanhita, or collection of the 
 prayers of the Rig- Veda, by Dr Rosen; and some 
 of the Upanishads, or speculative treatises, attached 
 to, rather than part of, the Vedas, by Rammohun 
 Roy, Of the religion taught in the Vedas, Mr, 
 
PURANAs. 
 
 Colebrooke's opinion will probably %e received as 
 that which i| best entitled to deference; as^ 
 certainly, no Sanskrit scholar has been equally 
 conversant with the original works. The real 
 doctrine of the whole Indian scripture is the unity 
 of thie deity, in whom the universe is compre- 
 hended; and tht; seeming polytheism^ which it 
 exhibits, offers the elements, and the stars and 
 planets, as gods. The three principal manifesta- 
 tions of the divinity, with other personified attri^ 
 butes and energies, and most of the other gods 
 of Hindu mythology, are indeed, mentioned, or, 
 at leasts indicated, in the Vedas. But the worship 
 of deified heroes is no part of that system ; nor 
 are the incarnations of deities suggested in any 
 other portion of the text I have yet seen ; though 
 such are sometimes hinted at by the commentators. 
 Some of these statements may, perpaps, require 
 modification ; for, without a careful examination 
 of all the prayers of the Vedas, it would be hazard- 
 ous to assert iliat they contain no indication 
 whatever of hero-worship ; and, certainly, they 
 do appear to allude, occasionally, to the Avataras, 
 or incarnations of Vishnu. Still, however, it is 
 trUe that the prevailing character of the ritual 
 of the Vedas is the worship of the personified 
 elements j of Agai or fir^ ;* Indra^ the firmanem ; 
 
4 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 Vayu, the aL'; Varuna, the water; of Aditya, the 
 sun ; Soma, the moon ; and other elementary and 
 planetary personages. It is also true that worship 
 of the Vedas is, for the most part domestic worship^ 
 consisting of prayers and oblations ofiered in their 
 own houses, not in temples by individuals, for 
 individual good, and addressed to unreal presences,, 
 not to visible types. In a word, the religion of 
 the Vedas was not idolatory. 
 
 It is not possible to conjecture when this simple 
 and primitive form of adoration was succeeded by 
 the worship of images and types, representing 
 Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and other imaginary beings^ 
 consisting of a mythologi-cal pantheon of most ample 
 extent ; or when Rama and Krishna, who appear 
 to have been, or originally, real and historical 
 characters, were elevated to the dignity of divinities. 
 Image-worship is alluded to by Manu, in several 
 passages, but with an intimation that those Brah- 
 mans who subsist by ministering in temples are 
 an inferior and degraded class. The story of 
 Ramayan and Mahabharata turns wholly upon the 
 doctrine of incarnation ; all the chief dramatis- 
 personoe of the poems being impersonations of 
 gods, and demi-gods and celestial spirits. The 
 ritual appears to be that of the Vedas ; and it may 
 be d(;)ubted i£ any allusiou to image-worship. 
 
PORANAS. 
 
 5 
 
 occurs. But the doctrine of propitiation by penance 
 and pfaise prevails throughout ; and Vishnu and 
 Siva are the especial objects of penegyric and in- 
 vocation. In these two works, then, we trace 
 unequivocal indications of departure from the 
 elemental worship of the Vedas, and the origin or 
 elaboration of legends which form the great body 
 of the mythological religion of the Hindus. How 
 far they only improved upon the cosmogony and 
 chronology of their predecessors, or in what degree 
 the traditions of families and dynasties may origi- 
 nate with them, are questions that can only be 
 determined when the Vedas and the two works in 
 question shall have been more thoroughly exa- 
 mined. The different works known by the name 
 of Puranas are evedently derived from the same 
 religious system as the Ramayan and Mahabharata, 
 or from the mythologic stage of Hindu belief. 
 They present, however, pecularities which desig- 
 nate their belonging to a later period, and to an 
 important modification in the progress of opinion. 
 They repeat the theoretical cosmogony of the two 
 great poems; they expand and systematize the 
 chronological computations; and they give a 
 m6re definite and connected representation of the 
 mythological fictions and the historical traditions. 
 But, besides these and other particulars which 
 
6; 
 
 PUR AN AS.: 
 
 raay be derivable from an old, ff not from a primr- 
 tive era, they offer characteristic p^culariti^s of a 
 more modern description, in the paramount im- 
 portance which they assign to individual divinities^ 
 in the variety and purport of the rites and observan- 
 ces addressed to them, and in the invention of new 
 legends illustrative of the power and graciousness 
 of those deities and of the efficacy of implicit devo- 
 tion to them. Shiva and Vishnu, under one or 
 other form are almost the sole objects that claim 
 the homage of the Hindus, in the Puranas ; de- 
 parting from the domestic and elemental ritual of 
 the Vedas, and exhibiting a sectarial fervour and 
 exclusiveness not traceable in the Ramayana and 
 otily to a qualified extent in the Mahabharata. 
 They are no longer authorities for Hindu belief^ 
 as a whole ; they are special guides for separate 
 and, sometimes, conflicting branches of it ; com- 
 I>iled for the evident purpose of promoting the 
 preferential, or, in some cases, the sole worship 
 of Vishnu or of Shiva. 
 
 That the Puranas always bore the character 
 here given of them may admit of reasonable doubt ; 
 that it correctly applies to them as they now are 
 met with, the following pages will clearly sub- 
 stantiate. It is possible however that there may 
 have been an earlier class of Puranas, of whick 
 
those we now have, are but the partiaPand adultera- 
 ted refj)resentaiives. The identity of the legends 
 in many of themj and still more the identity of the 
 words— for, in several of them, long passages are 
 literally the same — is a sufficient proof that, in all 
 such cases, they must be copied either from some 
 other similiar work, or from a common and prior 
 original. It is not unusual, also, for a fact to be 
 stated upon the authority of an old stanza, which 
 is cited accordingly ; showing the existence of an 
 earlier source oi information : and, in very many 
 instances, legends are alluded to, not told ; evincing 
 acquaintance with their prior narration some where 
 else. The name itself Purana, which implies *old,' 
 indicates the object of the compilation to be the 
 preservation of ancient traditions ; a purpose, in 
 the present condition of the Puranas, very im- 
 perfectly fulfilled. Whatever weight may be 
 attached to these considerations, there is no dis- 
 puting evidence to the like effect, afforded by other 
 and unquestionable authority. The description 
 given, by Mr. Colebrook, of the contents of a 
 Purana is taken from Sanskrit writers. The 
 Lexicon of Amara Sinha gives, as a synonym of 
 Purana, . Panchalakshna, *that which has five 
 characteristic topics' ; and there is no difference of 
 opinion, among the scoliasts, as to what these are. 
 
8 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 They are, as Mr. Colebrooke mentions : I. Primary 
 creation or cosmogony ; II. Secon/^ary cremation, 
 or the destruction and renovation of worlds, in- 
 eluding chronology; III. Genealogy of gods and 
 patriarchs; IV. Reigns of Manus, or periods 
 called Manwantaras ; and V. History, or such 
 particulars as have been preserved of the princes 
 of the solar and lunar races, and of their descend- 
 ^ ants to modern times. Such, at any rate, ^vere 
 the constituent and characteristic portions of a 
 Parana, in the days of Amara Sinha, fifty-six years 
 before the christian era ; and, if the Puranas had 
 undergone no change since his time, such we 
 should expect to find them still. Do they con- 
 form to this description? Not exactly, in any 
 one instance ; to some of them it is utterly in- 
 applicable; to others it only partially applies. 
 There is not one to which it belongs so entirely as 
 to the Visnnu Purana ; and it is one of the cir- 
 cumstances which gives to this work a more au- 
 thentic character than most of its fellows can pre- 
 tend to. Yet, even in this instance, we have a 
 book upon the institutes of society and obsequial 
 rites interposed between Manwantaras and the 
 genealogies of princes; and a life of Krisna 
 separating the latter from an account ot 
 the end of the world ; besides the insertion of rari- 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 9 
 
 ous legends of a manifestly popular ^and sectarial 
 charaeter. doubt, many of the Puranas, as they 
 now are, correspond with the view which Colonel 
 Vans Kennedy takes of their purport. *'I can not 
 discover, in them,'' he remarks, *'any other object 
 than that of religion of instruction." The descrip- 
 tion of the earth and of the planetary system, and 
 the lists of Royal races that occur in them," he as- 
 serts to be ''evidently extraneous, and not essential 
 circumstances; as they are omitted in some Puranas 
 and very concisely illustrated in others ; while, 
 on the contrary, in all the Puranas, some or other 
 of the leading principles, rites and observances of 
 the Hindu reliligion are fully dwelt upon and illus- 
 trated either by siutable legends or by prescibing 
 the ceremonies to be practised, and the prayers and 
 invocation to be employed, in the worship of diffe- 
 rent deities." Now, however accurate this descrip- 
 tion may be of the Puranas as they are, it is clear 
 that it does not apply to what they were when they 
 were synonymously designated as Pancha-laksha- 
 nas or 'treatise on five topics'; not one of which 
 five is ever specified by text of comment, to be reli- 
 gious instruction. In the knowledge of Amara 
 Sinha, the lists of princes were not extraneous and 
 unessential ; and their being now so considered 
 by a writer so w^ll acquaidted with the contents of 
 
PURANAS, 
 
 Puranas as Cdonel Van Kennedy, is a decisive 
 proof that, since the days of the lexicpgraphen- they 
 have undergone some material alteration, and that 
 we have not, at present, the same works, in all res- 
 pects, that were current, undfer the denomination of 
 Puranas, in the century prior to Christiani;y, 
 
 The inference deduced from the discrepancy 
 between the actual form and the older defini'- 
 tion of a Purana, unfavourable to the antiquity of 
 the extant works generally, is converted into cer- 
 tainty when we come to examine them in detail, 
 For although they have no dates attached to them,' 
 circumstances are sometimes mentioned.or attached 
 to, or references to authorities are made, or legends 
 are narratsJ, or places are particularized, of which 
 the comparatively recent date is indisputable, and 
 which enforce a corresponding reduction of the 
 antiquity of the work in which they are discovered, 
 at the same time, they may be acquitted of subser- 
 vience to any but sectaria! imposfjre. They were 
 pious frauds for temporary purposes: they never 
 emanated from any impossible combination of the 
 Brahmanas to fabricate for the antiquitty of the 
 entire Hindu system any claims which it cannot 
 fully support. A very great portion, of the contents 
 Of all, is genuine and old. The sectarial interpola- 
 tion or embellishment is always sufficiently palpable 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 to be set aside without injury to the more authentic 
 and primitive jnaterial ; and the Puranas, aUhough 
 they belong. especially to that stage of the Hindu 
 religion in which faith in some one divinity was the 
 prevailing principle, are, also a valuable record of 
 the form of Hindu belief which came next In order 
 to that of the Vedas which grafted hero-worship 
 upon the simpler ritual of the letter ; and which had 
 been adopted, and was extensively, perhaps univer- 
 sally, established in india, at the time of the Greek 
 invasion. The Herculis of the Greek, writers was, 
 indubitably, the Balarama of the Hindus; and their 
 notices of Mathura on the Jamuna and of the king- 
 dom of the Suraseni and the Pandyan country, evi- 
 dence the prior currency of the traditions which 
 constitute tbe argument of the Mahabharata and 
 which are constantly repeated in the Puranas, rela- 
 ting to the Pandava ar ' Yadava races to Krishna 
 and his contemporary heroes, and to the dynasties 
 of the solar and lunar kings. 
 
 The theogony and cosmogony of the Puranas 
 may, probably, be traced to the Vedas. They are 
 not, as far as is yet known, described in detail in 
 those works ; but they are frequently alluded to, in 
 a strain more or less mystical and obscure, which 
 indicates acquaintance with their existence, and 
 which seems to have supplied the Puranas with the 
 
 t 
 
'2 PURANAS.' 
 
 groundwork of ^heir systems, The scheme of pri- 
 mary or elementary creation they borrQw from the 
 Sankhya philosophy, which is.probably, one of the 
 oldest forms of speculation on men and nature, 
 amongst the Hindus. Agreeably however, to that 
 part of Pauranik character which there is reason to 
 suspect of later origin, their inculcation of the wor- 
 ship of a favourite deity, they combine the interposi- 
 tion of a creator with the independent evolution of 
 matter, in a somewhat contradictory and in unin- 
 telligible style. It is evident, too, that their account 
 of secondary creation, or the development of the 
 existing form of things, and the disposition of the 
 universe are derived from several and different 
 sources; and it appears very likely that they are to 
 be accused of some of the incongruities and absur- 
 dities by which the rarrative is disfigured, in conse- 
 quence of having attempted to assign reality and 
 significancy to what was merely metaphor or mys- 
 ticism. There is, however, amidst the unnecessary 
 complexity of the description, a general agreement 
 amongst them, as to the origin of things and their- 
 final distribution, and in many of the circumstances 
 there is a striking concurrence with the ideas which 
 seem to have pervaded the whole of the ancient, 
 world, and which may, therefore, believe to be 
 faithfully represented in the Puranas. 
 
 < 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 13 
 
 The pantheism of the Puranas^s one of their 
 invariable characteristics ; although the particular 
 divinity who is all things, from whom all things 
 proceed, and to whom all things return, be diversi- 
 fied according to their individual sectarial bias. 
 They seem to have derived the notion from the 
 Vedas ; but, in them, the one universal Being is 
 of a higher order than a personification of attri- 
 butes or elements, and, however, imperfectly 
 conceived or unworthily described, is God. Iix 
 the Puranas, the one only supreme Being is sup- 
 posed to be manifest in the person of Shiva or 
 Vishnu, either in the way of illusion, or in sport ; 
 and one or other of these divinities is, therefore 
 also the cause of all that is, — is, himself, all that 
 exists. The identity of God and nature is not a 
 new notion : it was very general in the speculations 
 of antiquity ; but it assumed a new vigour in the 
 early ages of Christianity, and was carried to an 
 equal pitch of extravagance by the Platonic Chris- 
 tians as by the Saiva or Vaishnava Hindus. It 
 seems not impossible that there was some com- 
 munication between them. We know that there 
 was an active communication between India and. 
 Red sea, in the early ages of the Christian era, 
 and that doctrines, as well as articles of merchan- 
 dise, were brought to Alexandria from the former. 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 Epiphanius aftd Eusiebius accuse Scythians of 
 having imported from India, in the second century, 
 books on magic and heretical notions leading to 
 Manichasism ; and it was at the same period that 
 Ammonius Saccos instituted the sect of the new 
 Platonists at Alexandria. The basis of the heresy 
 was, that true philosophy derived its origin from 
 the eastern nations. His doctrine of the identity 
 of God and the universe is that of Vedas and 
 Puranas ; and the practices he enjoined, as well 
 as their object, were precisely those described in 
 several of the Puranas, under the name of God. 
 His disciples were taught to extenuate, by morti* 
 lication and contemplation, the bodily restraints 
 upon the immortal spirit ; so that, in this life, they 
 might enjoy, communion with the Supreme Being, 
 and ascend, after death, to the universal parent. 
 That these are Hindu tenets, the following pages, 
 will testify ; and, by the admission of their Alexan- 
 drian teacher, they originated in India. The 
 importation was, perhaps, not wholly unrequitted : 
 the loan may not have been unpaid. It is not 
 impossible that the Hindu doctrines received fresh 
 animation from their adoption by the successors 
 of Ammonius, and, especially, by the mystics, 
 who may have prompted, as, well as employed, 
 the ejfpressigns gf Puranas. 
 
PURANAS. 15 
 
 Anquetil de Perron has given, ir, the introduc- 
 tion tp his translation of the Oupnekhat, several 
 hymns by Synesius, a bishop of the fifth contury, 
 which may serve a parallel to many of the hymns 
 and prayers addressed to Vishnu in the Vishnu 
 Purana. 
 
 But the ascription, to individual and personal 
 deities, of the atributes of the one universal and 
 and spiritual Supreme being, is an indication of a 
 later date than the Vedas, certainly, and apparently, 
 also than the Ramayana, where Rama, althoug an 
 incarnation of Vishnu, commonly appears in his 
 human character alone. There is something of 
 of the kind in the Mahabharata, in respect to 
 Krishna; especially in the philosophical episode 
 known as the Vagabad Gita. In other places, the 
 divine nature of Krishna is less decidedly affirmed ; 
 in some, it is disputed or denied ; and in most of 
 the situations in which he is exhibited in action, it 
 is as a prince and warrior, not as a divrnity. He 
 exercises no superhuman faculties in the defence 
 of himself or his friends, or in the defeat and des- 
 truction of his foes. The Mahabharata, however, 
 is evidently, a work of various periods, and requires 
 ta be read throughout, carefully and critically, 
 before its weight as an authority can be accurately 
 appregiated. As it. is now jn type, thanks to the 
 
i6 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 public spirit bf the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and 
 their secretary, Mr. J. Prinsep»— it ^JU not ^belong 
 before the Sanskrit scholars of the Continent will 
 accurately appreciate its value. 
 
 The Puranas are, also, works of evidently differ- 
 ent ages, and have been complied under different 
 circumstances, the precise nature of which we can 
 but imperfectly conjecture from internal evidence 
 and from what we know of the history of religious 
 opinion in India. It is highly probable that, of the 
 present popular forms of the Hindu religion, none 
 asisumed their actual state earlier than the time of 
 Sankara Acharya, the great Saiva reformer, who 
 flourished, in the eighth or ninth century. Of the 
 Vaishnaba teachers Ramanuja dates in the twelfth 
 century ; Madhwacharja, in the thirteeth, and 
 Vallabha, in the sixteenth ; and the Puranas seemed 
 to have accompanied or followed, their innovation ; 
 being obviously intended to advocate the doctrines 
 they they taught. This is to assign to some of 
 them a very modern date, it is true ; but I can 
 not think that a higher can, with justice, be ascrib- 
 ed to them. This, however, applies to some only 
 out of the number, as I shall presently proceed to 
 specify. 
 
 Another evidence of a comparatively modern date 
 must be admitted in those Chapters of the Puranas 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 17 
 
 vihich, assuming a prophetic tone, foretell what 
 dynasties of kin^s will reign in the Kali age. These 
 Chapters, it is true, are found but in four of the 
 Puranas; but they are conclusive in bringing down 
 the date of those four to a period considerably 
 subsequent to Christianity. It is also to be re- 
 marked that the Vayu, Vishnu, Bhagabata and 
 Matsya Puranas in which these particulars are fore- 
 told, have, in all other respects, the character of 
 as great antiquity as any works of their class. The 
 invariave form of the Puranas is that of a dialogue, 
 in which some person relates its contents, in reply 
 to the inquiries of another. This dialogue is in- 
 terwoven with others, which are repeated as having 
 been held, on other occasions, between different 
 individuals, in consequence of similar questions 
 having been asked. The immediate narrator is/ 
 commonly, though not constantly, Lomaharshana 
 or Romaharshana the disciple of Vyasa, who is 
 supposed to communicate what was imparted to 
 him by his preceptor, as he had heard it from some 
 other sage. Vyasa, as will be seen in the body of 
 the work, is a generic title, meaning an 'arranger' 
 or 'compiler.' It is, in this age, applied to Krishna 
 Dwaipayan, the son of Parasara, who is said to 
 have taught the Vedas and Puranas to various 
 desgiples, but who appears to l^hare been the head 
 2 
 
iS 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 of a college, or school, under whom various 
 learned men gave to the sacred literature^of the 
 Hindus the form in which it now Vesents itself, 
 In this task, the disciples, as they are ter'ned, of 
 Vyasa were, rather, his colleagues and coadjutors ; 
 for they were already conversant with what he is 
 fabled to have taught |them ; and, amongst them, 
 Lomaharshana represents the class of persons 
 who were especially charged with the record of 
 political and temporal events. He is called Suta,' 
 as if it were a proper name, but is more correctly, 
 a title ; and Lomaharshana was 'a Suta', that is a 
 bard, or panegyrist, who was created according to 
 our text, to celebrate the exploits of princes, and 
 who according to the Vayu and Padma Puranas, 
 has a right, by birth and profession, to narrate the 
 Puranas, in preference even to Brahmanas. It is 
 not unlikely, therefore, that we are to understand, 
 by his being represented as the disciple of Vaysa, 
 the institution of some attempt, made under the 
 direction of the latter, to collect, from the heralds 
 and annalists of his day, the scattered traditions 
 which they had imperfectly preserved and hence 
 the consequent appropriation of the Puranas, in a 
 great measure, to the genealogies of regal dynas- 
 ties and descriptions of the universe. However 
 this may be, the machinery has beea but loosely 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 19 
 
 adhered to ; and many of the Puranas, like the 
 Vishnu, •are refe«ed to a different narrator. 
 
 An account is given, in Vinshnu Purana of 
 a series of Pauranic compilations of which in their 
 present form, no vestige appears. Lomaharshana 
 is said to have six disciples, three of whom com- 
 posed as many fundamental Samhitas, whilst he 
 himself completed a fourth. By a Samhita is gene- 
 rally understood a collection' or 'compilation.' 
 The Samhitas of Vedas are collections of hymns 
 and prayers belonging to them, arranged according 
 to the judgement of some individual sage, who is, 
 therefore, looked upon as the originator and teacher 
 of each. The Samhitas, of the Puranas, then should 
 be analogous compilations, attributed, respectively 
 to Maitreya, Samsapayana, Akritabrana, and Roma- 
 harshana ; no such Puranic Samhitas are now 
 known. The substance of the four is said to be col- 
 lected in the Vrishnu Purana, which is, also, in 
 another place, itself called a Samhita. But such 
 compilations have, not as far as inquiry has yet pro- 
 ceeded, been discovered. The specification may be 
 accepted as an indication of Puranas' having existed 
 in some other form, in which they are no longer 
 mef with ; although it does not appear that the ar- 
 rangement was incompatible with their existence 
 as separate works; for the Vishnu Purana, which 
 
20 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 is our authority for the four Samhitas, gives us alsa, 
 the usual enumeration of the severaj Puranas. 
 
 There is another classification oi the Puranas 
 alluded to in the Matsya Purana, and specified by 
 the Padma Purana, but more fully. It is not un- 
 deserving of notice, as it expresses the opinion 
 which native writers entertain of the scope of the 
 Puranas, and of their recognizing the subservience 
 of these works to the dissemination of sectarian 
 principles. Thus, it is said, in the Uttar Kanda of 
 the Padma, that the Puranas, as well as the other 
 works are divided into three classes, according to 
 the qualities which prevail in them. Thus the 
 Vishnu, Naradiya, Bhagabata, Garuda, Padma, 
 Baraha Puranas are Sattwika or pure, from the 
 predominence, in them of the Sattwa quality, or 
 that of goodness and purity. They are, in fact, 
 Vaishnava Puranas. The Matsa, Kurma, Linga, 
 Siva, Skanda, and Agni Puranas are Tamasa, or 
 Puranas of darkness, from the prevalence of the 
 quality of Tamas 'ignorance,' 'gloom.' They are 
 indisputably Saiva Puranas. The third series com- 
 prising the Brahmanda, Brahma Vaivarta, Markan- 
 deya, Bhavishya, Vaman, and Brahma Puranas, are 
 designated as Raj asa, 'passionate,' from Rajas, the 
 property of passion, which they are supposed to 
 represent. The ^Matsya does not specify whigh are 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 21 
 
 the Puranas that come under these designations, 
 but remarks that those in which the Mahatmya of 
 Hari or Vishnu prevails, are Sattwika ; those in 
 which the legends of Agni or Siva predominate 
 are Tamasa; and those which dwell most on the 
 stories of Brahma are Rajas. I have elsewhere 
 stated that I considered the Rajas Puranas to lean 
 to the Sakta division of the Hindus, the worshippers 
 of Sakti or the female principle; founding this 
 opinion on the character of the legends which some 
 of them contain, such as the Durga Mahatmya, or 
 celebrated legend on which the worship of Durga 
 or Kali is especially founded which is a principal 
 episode of the Markandeya. The Brahma Vaivarta 
 also devotes the greatest portion of its chapter to 
 the celebration of Radha, the mistress of Krishna, 
 and other female divinities. Colonel Vans Kennedy 
 however, objects to the application of the term. 
 Sakta to this last division of the Puranas ; the wor- 
 ship of Sakti being the especial object of a different 
 class of works, the Tantias; and not such form of 
 worship being particularly incalculated in the Brah- 
 ma Purana. This last argument is of weight in 
 regard to the particular instance specified ; and the 
 designation of Sakti may not be correctly applica- 
 ble to the whole class, although it is to some of the 
 series : for there is no incompatibility in the ad» 
 
PUR ANAS. 
 
 vocacy of Tantrika modification of the Hindu re- 
 ligion by any Parana; and it has unq^uestion- 
 ably, been practised in works known as Upapuran- 
 as. The proper appropriation of the third class of 
 the Puranas, according to the Padma Purana, 
 appears to be the worship of Krishna, not in the 
 character in which he is represented in the Vishnu 
 and Bhagabata Puranas,— in which the incidents 
 of his boyhood are only a portion of his biography, 
 and in which the human character largely partici- 
 pates, at least in his riper years,— but as the infant 
 Krishna, Govinda, Bala Gopal, the sojourner in 
 Brindavana, the companion of the cow-herd and 
 milkmaids, the lover of Radha, or as the juvenile 
 master of the universe, Jagannatha. The term Rajasa, 
 implying the animation of passion and enjoyment 
 of sensual delights, is applicable not only to the 
 character of youthful divinity, but to those with 
 whom his adoration in the forms seems to have 
 originated, as the Gosains of Gokul and Bengal, the 
 followers and descendants of Valjabba and Chai- 
 tanya, the priests and proprietors of Jagannatha 
 and Srinathdwar, who lead a life of affluence and 
 indulgence, and vindicate, both by precept and 
 practice, the reasonablness of Rajasa property, and 
 the congruity of temporal enjoyment with the duties 
 of religion. 
 
• THE JSIUMBER OF PURANAS. 
 
 The Puranas are uniformly stated to be eighteen 
 in number. It is said that there are also eighteen 
 Upapuranas or minor Puranas : but the names only 
 of a few of these are specified in the least exception- 
 able authorities ; and greater number of the works 
 is not procurable. With regard to the eighteen 
 Puranas, there is a pecularity in the specification 
 which is proof of an interference with the integrity 
 of the text, in some of them, at least ; for each of 
 them specifies the names of the whole eighteen. 
 Now, the list could not have been complete whilst 
 the work that gives was unfinished ; and in one 
 only therefore the last of the series have we a right 
 to look for it. As however there are more last 
 words than one, it is evident that the names must 
 have been inserted in all except one, after the 
 whole were completed. Which of the eighteen is 
 the exception, and truly the last, there is no clue to 
 discover; and the specification is, probably, an 
 interpolation, in most, if not in all. 
 
 The names that are specified are commonly 
 tjie same, and are as follows ; i Brahma, 2 Padma, 
 3 Vaishnava, 4 Saiva, 5 Bhagabata, 6 Naradiya, 7 
 Markandeya, 8 Agneya, 9 Vavishya, 10 Brahma 
 
24 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 Vaivarta, ii Linga. 12 Varaha, 13 Skanda, 14 
 Vaman, 15 Kaurma, 16 Matsya, 17 Gar^da 18 
 Brahmanda. This is from the twelfth book of 
 Bhagabata, and is the same as occurs in the Vishnu. 
 In other authorities there are a few variations. The 
 list of the Kurma Purana omits the Agni Purana, 
 and substitutes the Vayu. The Agni leaves out 
 the Siva, and inserts the Vayu. The Baraha omits 
 the Garuda and Brahmanda, and inserts the Vayu 
 and Narasinhar in this last it is singular. The 
 Markandeya agrees with the Vishnu and Bhagabat, 
 in omitting the Vayu. The Matsya, like Agnf, 
 leaves out the Siva. 
 
 Some of the Puranas, as the Agni, Matsya, 
 Bhagabat, and Padma, also particularize the num- 
 ber of stanza which each of the eighteen contains. 
 In one or two instances they disagre/; but, in 
 general, they concur. The aggregate is stated at 
 400,000 slokas or 1,600,000 lines. These are 
 fabled to be but an abridgment ; the whole amount 
 being a krore or ten millions of stanzas, or even a 
 thousand millions. If all the fragmentary portions 
 claiming in various parts of India, to belong to 
 the Puranas were admitted, their extent would 
 much exceed the lesser, though it would not reach 
 the larger, enumeration. The former is, however, 
 as I have elsewhere stated, a quantity that an 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 25 
 
 individual European scholar could scarcely expect 
 to perMse witl^ due care and attention, unless his 
 whole time vvere devoted exclusively, for many 
 years, to the task. Yet, without some such labour 
 being achieved, it was clear, from the crudity and 
 inexactness of all that had been hitherto published 
 on the subject, with one exception, that sound 
 views on the subject of Hindu mythology and 
 tradition were not to be expected. Circumstances, 
 which I have already explained in the paper in the 
 journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, referred to 
 above, enabled me to avail myself of competent 
 assistance, by which I made a minute abstract of 
 most of the Puranas. In course of time I hope to 
 place tolerably copious and connected analysis of 
 the whole eighteen before Oriental scholars, and, 
 in the meanwhile, offer a brief notice of their 
 several contents. 
 
 In general, the enumeration of Puranas is a 
 simple nomenclature, with the addition^ in some 
 cases, of the number of verses, but to these the 
 Matsya Purana joins the mention of one or two 
 circumstances, peculiar to each, which, although 
 scanty, are of value, as offering means of identify- 
 ing- the copies of the Puranas now found with 
 those to which the Matsa refers, or to discovering 
 a difference between the present and past. I shall 
 
26 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 therefore, prefix the passage destructive of each 
 Parana, from the Matsya. It is necessary to pemark 
 however, that, in the comparison instituted between 
 that description and the Purana as it exists, I 
 necessarily refer the copy or copies which I em- 
 ployed for the purpose of examination and analy- 
 sis, and which were procured, with some trouble 
 and cost, in Beneras and Calcutta. In some ins- 
 tances my manuscripts have been collated with 
 others from different parts of India ; and the result 
 has shown that with regard at least to the Brahma, 
 Vishnu, Vayu, Matsya, Padma, Bhagavat, and 
 Kurma Puranas, the same works, in all essential 
 respects, are generally current under the same ap- 
 pellations. Whether this is invariably the case, 
 may be doubted ; and further inquiry may possibly 
 show that I have been obliged to content myself 
 with mutilated or unauthentic works. It is with 
 this reservation, therefore, that I must be under- 
 stood to speak of the concurrence or disagreement 
 of any Purana with the notice of it which the 
 Matsya Purana has preserved. 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF THE PURANAS. 
 
 I, Brahma Purana. 'That the whole of which 
 formerly repeated by Brahma to Marichi, is called 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 the Brahma Parana, and contains ten thousand 
 stanzas/' In all the list of the Puranas, the Brahm^ 
 is placed at the head of the series, and is, thence, 
 sometimes also entitled the Adi or *first' Purana. It 
 is also designated as the Saura ; as it is, in great 
 part, appropriated to the worship of Surya, 'the 
 sun.' There are, however, works bearing these 
 names which belong to the class of Upapuranas, 
 and which are not to be confounded with the 
 Brahma. It is usually said, as above, to contaii;! 
 ten thousand slokas; but the number actually 
 occuring is between seven and eight thousands; 
 there is a suplementary or concluding section, 
 called the Brahmamottora Purana, and which is 
 different from a portion of the Skanda called the 
 Brahmottara Khanda, which contains about three 
 thousand stanzas more. But there is every reason 
 to conclude that this is a distinct and unconnected 
 work. 
 
 The immediate narrator of the Brahma Purana 
 is Lomaharshana, who communicates it to the 
 Rishis or revealed by (Brahma, not to Marichi as 
 the Matsya affirms, But to Daksha, another of the 
 patriarchs. Hence its denomination by the Brahma 
 Purana. 
 
 The early chapters of the work 'give a descrip- 
 tion of creation, an account of the Manwantaras and 
 
28 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 the history of the solar and lunar dynasties to the 
 time of Krishna, of a summary manner, and in 
 words which are commen to it and several other 
 Puranas. A brief description of the universe suc- 
 ceeds ; and then come a number of chapters relat* 
 ing to the holiness of Orissa, with its temples and 
 sacred groves dedicated to the sun, to Siva and Ja- 
 gannatha, the latter specially. These chapters are 
 characteristic of this Purana, and show its main 
 object to be the promotion of the worship of 
 Krishna as Jagannatha. To these particulars suc- 
 ceeds a life of Krishna, which is word for word, the 
 same as that of the Vishnu Purana; and the compi- 
 lation'^'terminates with a particular detail of the 
 mode in which Yoga or contemplative devotion, 
 the object of which is still Vishnu, is to be perform- 
 ed. There is little, in this, which corresponds with 
 the deiinition of a Pancha-lakshana Purana ; and 
 the mention of the temples of Orissa, the date of 
 the original construction of v/hich is recorded, 
 shows that it could not have been compiled earlier 
 than the thirteenth or fourteenth century. 
 
 The Uttara Khanda of the Brahma Purana bears 
 still more entirely the character of a Mahatmya or 
 local legend; being intended to celebrate the 
 sanctity of the Balaja river, conjectured to be the 
 same as the Banas in Marwar, There is no clue 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 29 
 
 to its date but it is clearly modern ; grafting perso- 
 nages and ficti(jns of its own invention on a few 
 hints from ol'der authorities. 
 
 2. Padma Purana. That which contains an 
 account of the period when the world was a golden 
 lotus (Padma), and of all the ocurrances of that 
 time, is, therefore, called the Padma by the wise. 
 It contains fifty-five thousand stanzas. The 
 second Purana, in the usual list, is always the 
 Padma, a very voluminous work, containing, 
 according to its own statement, as well as that of 
 other authorities, fifty-five thousand slokas: an 
 amount not far from the truth. These are divided 
 amongst five books or Khandas : i. The Srishti 
 Khanda or section of creation; 2. The Bhumi 
 Khanda, description of the earth; 3, The Swarga 
 Khanda, chapter on heaven ;4. Patal Khanda, 
 chapter on the region below the earth; and 5. 
 the Uttara Khanda, last or supplementary chapter. 
 There is also current a sixth division, the Kriya 
 Yoga Sara, a treatise on the practice of devotion. 
 The denominations of these divisions of the Padma 
 Purana convey but an imperfect and impartial 
 notion of their contents. In the first section 
 which tretats of creation, the natrator is Ugrasravas, 
 the suta, the son of Lomharshana, who is sent, by 
 his father to the Rishis at Naimisharanaya, to com- 
 
30 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 municate to them Parana, which, from its containing 
 an accouut of the lotus (padma) in <,vhich Brahma 
 appeared at creation, is termed the Padma, or 
 Padma Parana. The suta repeats what was 
 originally communicated by Brahma to Palastya, 
 and by him to Bhishma. The early chapters 
 narrate the cosmogony, and the geneology of the 
 patriarchal familes, much in the same style, arid of- 
 ten in the same words, as the Vishnuj; and short 
 accouuts of Manwantaras and regal dynasties but 
 these, which are legitimate Pauranik matters, soon 
 make way for new and unauthentic inventions, 
 illustrative of the virtues ot the lake of Puskara or 
 Pokher. in Ajmir, as a place of pilgrimage. 
 
 The Bhumi Khanda, or section of the earth, 
 defers any description of the earth until near its 
 close; filling up one hundred and twenty seven 
 chapters with legends of a very mixed description, 
 some ancient, and common with other Puranas, but 
 the greater fart peculiar to itself, illustrtaed by 
 Tirthas, either figuratively so termed, — as a wife, a 
 parent, or a Guru, considered as a sacred object, — 
 or places to which actual pilgrimage should be 
 performed. 
 
 The Swarga Khanda describes, in the first 
 chapters, the relative positions of the Lokas or 
 spheres above the earth; placing above all, 
 
PURANAS, 3^1.^ 
 
 Vaikuntha, the sphere of Vishnu, an addrtion which 
 is not warranted by what appers to be the oldest 
 cosmogony. Miscellaneous notices of some of 
 the most celebrated princes then succesd, conform- 
 ably to the usual narratives ; and these are follow- 
 ed by rules of conduct for the several castes, and 
 at different stages of life. The rest of the book 
 is occupied by legends of diversiied description, 
 introduced with much method or contrivance; 
 a few of which, as Daksha^s sacrifice, are of ancient 
 date, but of which the most are original and 
 modern. 
 
 The Fatal Khanda devotes a brief introduction 
 to the description of Fatal, the regions of the 
 snake gods. But, fthe name of Rama having been 
 mentioned, Sesha, who has succeeded Fulastya 
 as spokesman, proceeds to narrate the history of 
 Rama, his descendants, and his posterity ; in which 
 the compiler seems to have taken the poem of 
 Kalidasa, the Raghu Vamsa, for his chief autho- 
 rity. An originality of addition may be suspected, 
 however, in the adventures of the horse destined 
 by Rama for an Aswamedha, which forms the 
 subject of a great many chapters. When about 
 to be sacrificed, the horse turns out to be a 
 Brahman, condemmed by an imprecation of 
 Durvasas, a sage, to assume the equine nature. 
 
32 
 
 PljRANAS, 
 
 and who, by having been sanctified by connection 
 with Rama, is released from his rpetamorphosis, 
 and despatched as a spirit of light, to heaven. 
 This piece of Vaishnava fiction is followed by 
 praises of Sri Bhagavata, an account of Krishna's 
 juvenilities, and the merits of worshipping Vishnu. 
 These accounts are communicated through a 
 machinery borrowed from the Tantras : they are 
 told by Sadasiva to Parvati, the ordinary inter- 
 locutors of Tantrika compositions. 
 
 The Uttara Khanda is a most voluminous 
 aggregation of very heterogeneous matters, but it 
 is consistent in adopting a decidedly Vaishnava 
 tone, and admitting no compromise with any other 
 form of faith. The chief subjects are first discuss- 
 ed in a dialogue between king Dilip and the Muni 
 Vasistha, such as the merits of bathing in the 
 month of Magha, and the potency of the Mantra 
 or prayer adressed to Laksmi Narayana. But the 
 nature of Bhakti, faith in Vishnu—the use of 
 Vaishnava marks on the body— the legends of 
 Vishnu's Avataras, and especially of Rama— and 
 the construction of images of Vishnu— are too 
 important to be left to mortal discretion. They are 
 explained by Siva to Parvati, and wound up .by 
 the adoration of Vishnu by those divinities. The 
 dialogue theu reverts to the king and the sage, 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 33 
 
 m\A the latter states why Vishnu is the only one of 
 the tria^ entitled to respect, Siva being licentious, 
 Brahma arrogant, and Vishnu alone pure. Vasistha 
 then repeats, after Siva, the Mahatmya of the 
 Bhagavata Gita ; the merit of each book of which 
 is illustrated by legends of the good consequences, 
 to individuals, from perusing or hearing it. Other" 
 Vaishnava Mahatmyas occupy considerable por- 
 tions of this Khanda, especially the Karttika 
 Mahatmya, or holiness of the month Karttika, 
 illustrated, as usal by stories, a few of which are 
 of an early origin, but the greater part modern> 
 and peculiar to this Purana. 
 
 The Kriya Yoga Sara is repeated by Suta, to 
 the Rishis, after Vyasa's communication of it to 
 Jaimini, in an answear to an inquiry how religious 
 merit might be secured in the Kali age, in which 
 men have become incapable of the penances and 
 abstraction by which final liberation was formerly 
 to be attained. The answer is, of course, that 
 which is intimated in the last book of the Vishnu 
 Purana— personal devotion to Vishnu. Thinking 
 of him, repeating his names, wearing his marks^ 
 worshipping in his temples, are a full substitute for 
 all other acts of moral, or devotional, and contem^ 
 plative, merit* 
 
 . ^he different portigns o{ Padma Purana 
 3 
 
3* 
 
 in all probability,, as many different' workiS)- nei&^ 
 o£ which approches to the original defin,ition. 06 
 a Parana. There may be some connexion between^ 
 the three first portions^ at least as to time : but 
 there is no reason^ to consider them> as^of high^ 
 antiquity. They specify the |ainas> both by name 
 and practices ;; th^y talk of Milechchas,/*barbari- 
 ans/' flourishing in India; they commend the- 
 use of the^ frontal and otheF Vaishnava marks 
 and they notice other subjects which, Uke these,, 
 are of no remote origin* The Patai Ehanda^ 
 dwells copiously upon the Bhagabat, and is, consi- 
 quently posterior to it. The- Uttara Khanda is, 
 intolerantly Vaishnava, and is,: therefore, unques- 
 tionably modern. It enjoins the veneration ot 
 the Salagrama stone and Tiilsi plant, the use ot 
 the Tapta-mudra, or stamping with a hot iron the 
 name of Yishnu on the skin, and a variety o£ 
 practices and observances undoubtedly no part 
 of the original system. It speaks of the shrines^ 
 •of Sriranga and Venkatadri in the Dekkan, temples 
 that have no pretension to remote antiquity ani 
 it names Haripura on the Tungabhadra. which is 
 in likelihood, the city of Vijayanagara, founded 
 in the middle of the fourteenth century. The- 
 Kriya Yoga Sara is equally a modern, atid apparent*- 
 iy, a Beagali gompositioa, Na portioa of th© 
 
35 
 
 Padma Parana is, probably, older than the twelfth 
 century ; and the last parts may be as recent as 
 the fifteenth or sixteenth. 
 
 3. Vishnu Purana. "That in which Parasara, 
 beginning with the events of the Varaha Kalpa 
 expounds all duties, is called the Vaishnava : and the 
 learned know its extent to be tweenty three thousand 
 stanzas. It may here be observed, however, that the 
 actual member of verses contained in it falls far short 
 of the enumeration of the Matsya, with which the 
 Bhagabata concurs. Its actual contents are not 
 seven thousand stanzas. All the copies and, in this 
 Instance, they are not fewer than seven in num- 
 ber,— procured both in the east and in the west of 
 India, agree ; and there is no appearance of any 
 part being wanting. There is a beginning, a 
 middle, and an end, in both text and comment ; 
 and the work, as it stands, is, incontestably, entire. 
 How is the discrepancy to be explained ? 
 
 4. Vayu Purana. The Purana in which Vayii 
 has declared the laws of duty, in connexiion with 
 the Sweta Kalpa, and which comprises the 
 Mayatmya of Rudra, is the Vayaviya Purana: it 
 contains twenty-four thousand verses. The Siva' 
 or Saiya Purana is, as above remarked, omitted 
 in some of tb^ lists; and, in general, when that 
 ij^th^sa^ejtis yepla^ed by the Vayaor Vayavia, 
 
tUHANAS. 
 
 When the Siva is specified, as in the Bhagabata^ 
 then the Vayu is omitted ; intimating th©^ possibi® 
 identity of these two works. This, indeed, is cOn-* 
 firmed by the Matsya, which describes the Vaya- 
 viya Parana as characterised by its account of the 
 greatness of Rudra or Siva : and Balam Bhatta 
 mentions, that the Vayaviya is also called the Siva, 
 though, according to some, the latter is the name of 
 the Upapurana. Colonel Vans Kennedy observes, 
 that, in the west of India, the Saiva is considered 
 to be an Upapurana or minor Purana. 
 
 Another proof that the^ same work is intended 
 by the authorities here followed, the Bhagabata anA 
 Matsya, under different appellations, is their con- 
 currence in the extent of the work; each specifying 
 its verses to be twenty four thousand. A copy of 
 the Siva Purana, of which an index and analysis 
 have been prepared, does not contain more than 
 about seven thousand. It cannot, therefore, be the 
 Siva Purana of the Bhagabata: and we may safely 
 consider that to be the same as the Vayaviya of the 
 Matsya. 
 
 The Vayu Purana is narrated, by Suta, to the 
 Rishis at Naimisharanya, as it was formerly told; 
 /at the same place, to similiar persons, by Vayu • a 
 re{>etition of circumstances hot uncharacteristic of 
 Jibe ipartlfigial. style of this Puraaai It is divided 
 
PURANAS.' 
 
 37. 
 
 ftito four Padas, termed, severally, Prakriya, Upad- 
 ghata, Aaushang^ and Upasamhara ; a classifica- 
 tion peculiar to' this work. These are preceded 
 by an index, or heads of chapters, in the manner 
 of the Mahabharata and Ramayan — ^another peculi- 
 arity. 
 
 The Prakriya portion contains but a few chap- 
 ters, and treats, chiefly, of elemental creation and 
 the first evolutions of beings, to the same purport 
 as the Vishnu, but in a more obscure and un^ 
 methodical style. The Upodghata then centiuues 
 the subject of creation, and describes the various 
 Kalpas or periods during which the world has ex^ 
 isted ; a greater number of which is specified by 
 the Saiva, than by the Vaishnava, Puranas. Thirty 
 three are here described, the last of which is the 
 Swettaor white *Kalpa/ from Siva's being born, in 
 it, of a white complexion. Then geneologies of 
 the patriarchs, the description of the universe, and 
 the incidents of the first six Manwantaras are all 
 treated of in this part of the work ; but they are 
 intermixed with legends and praises of Siva, as the 
 sacrifice of Daksha, the Maheswara Mahatmya, the 
 Nilakanta stotra, and others. The geneologies, 
 altlwugh, in the main, the same as those in tl^^ 
 Vaishnava Puranas, present some variations. 
 , A long account of the Pltris or progenitors is al§o 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 peculiar to the Parana ; as are stories of some of 
 the most celebrated Rishis who ^were engaged in 
 the distribution of the Vedas. 
 
 The third division commences with an account 
 of the seven Rishis and their descendants, and 
 describes the origin of the different classes of 
 creatures from the daughter of Daksha, with a pro. 
 fuse copiousness of nomenclature, not found in 
 any other Purana. With the exception of the greater 
 minutesness of detail, the particulars agree with 
 those of the Vishnu Purana. A chapter then 
 occurs on the worship of Pitris ; another on Tirthas 
 or places sacred to them ; and several, on the per- 
 formance of Sraddhas, contituting the Sraddha 
 Kalpa. After this comes a full account of the 
 solar and lunar dynasties, forming a parallel to that 
 in the following pages, with this difference, that it 
 is throughout, in verses, whilst that of our text, as 
 noticed in its place, is, chiefly in prose. It is ex- 
 tended, also, by the insertion of detailed accounts 
 of various incidents, briefly noticed in the Vishnu, 
 though derived, apparently, from a common ori- 
 ginal. The section terminates with similiar ac- 
 • counts of future kings, and the same chronological 
 Calculations, that are found in the Vishnu. 
 
 The last portion, the Upasamhara describes 
 -briefly the future Manwantaras, the measures of 
 
3^ 
 
 ^ace and time, the end of the world, the efficacy 
 of Yog^, and the glories of Sivapura, or the dwelU 
 ing of the Siva, with whom the Yogin Is to bo 
 'united. The manuscript concludes with a different 
 history of the successive teachers of the Vayu 
 Parana, tracing them from Brahma the Vayu, 
 from Vayu to Brihaspati, and from him, through 
 various deities and sages, to Dwaipayana and Suta. 
 
 The account given of this Purana in the journal 
 •of the Asiatic Society of Bengal was limited to 
 something less than half the work ; as I had not 
 then been able to procure a larger portion I have 
 now a more complete one of my own • and there 
 are several copies in the East India Company's 
 library, of the like extent. One presented by His 
 Highness the Gaikwar, is dated Samvat 1540 or 
 A. D, 1482, and is, evidently, as old as it professed 
 to be. The examination I have made of the work 
 confirms the view I formerly took of it ; and, from 
 the internal evidence it affords, it may perhaps, 
 be regarded as one of the oldest and most authen- 
 tic specimens, extant, of a primitive Purana. 
 
 It appears, however, that we have not yet a 
 copy of the entire Vayu Purana. The extent of it 
 ia» mentioned above, should be twenty fpur thou- 
 sand verses. The Gaikwar Ms. has but twelve 
 thousand, and is denommated the Purvardha or 
 
40 
 
 PURANASJ 
 
 first portion. My copy is of the like extent. The 
 index also shows, that several subjects remain un- 
 told; as, subsequently to the description of the 
 sphere of Siva, and the periodical dissolution of the 
 world, the work is said to contain an account of a 
 succeeding creation, and of various events that oc- 
 cured in it, as the birth of several celebrated Rrshis, 
 including that of Vyasa, and a description of his 
 distribution of the Vedas ; an account of the en- 
 mity between Vasistha and Vishwamitra ; and a 
 Naimisharanaya Mahatmya. These topics are, 
 however,, of minor importance, and can scarcely 
 carry the Parana to the whole extent of the verses 
 which it is said to contain. If th© number is ac- 
 curate, the index must still omit a considerable 
 portion of the subsequent contents. 
 
 3. Sri Bhagavata Purana. "That in which 
 ample details of duty are described, and which 
 opens with (an extract from) the Gayatri ; that in 
 which the death of the Asura Vritra is told, and 
 in which the mortals and immortals of the Saras- 
 wata Kalpa, with the events that happened 
 to them in the world, are related ; that is cele- 
 brated as the Bhagavata, and consists of eighteen 
 thousand verses/' Bhagavata is a work of great 
 celebrity in India, and exercises a more direct 
 and powerful influence upon the opinions and 
 
PURANAS* 
 
 4i 
 
 feelings of the people than, perhaps, any other 
 of the •Purana^ It is placed the fifth in all the 
 lists; but the Padma Parana ranks it as the 
 eighteenth, as the extracted substance of all the 
 rest. According to the usual specification it con^ 
 sists of eighteen thousand Slokas, distributed 
 amongst three hundred and thirty-two chapters 
 divided into twelve Skandas or books. It is 
 named Bhagavata from its being dedicated to the 
 glorification of Bhagavata or Vishnu. 
 
 The Biiagavata is communicated to the Rishis 
 at Naimisharanya by Suta, as usual : but he only 
 repeats what was narrated by Suka, the son of 
 Vyasa, to Parikshil, the king cf Hastinapur, 
 the grandson of Arjuna. Having incurred the 
 imprecation of a hermit, by which he was sen- 
 tenced to die of the bite of a venomous snake at 
 the expiration of seven days, the king, in prepara- 
 tion for this event, repairs to the banks of the 
 Ganges, whither also come the gods, and sages 
 to witness his death. Amongst the latter is Suka ; 
 and it is in reply to Parikshit's question ; what 
 a man should do who is about to die, that he 
 narrates the Bhagavata, as he had heard it from 
 Vyasa: for nothing secures final happiness so 
 certainly, as to die whilst t4ie thoughts are wholljr 
 engrossed by Vishnu. ... j 
 
The course of the narration opens with a cos* 
 inogony, which, although, in most respects, (Similar 
 to that of other Puranas, fs more largely intermixed 
 with allegory and mysticism, and drives its tone 
 more from the Vedanta than the Sankhya philo- 
 sophy. The doctrine of active creation by the 
 supreme, as one with Vasudeva, is more distinctly 
 asserted, with a decided enunciation of the effects 
 being resolvable into Maya or illusion. There are 
 also, doctrinal peculiarities highly characteristic 
 of this Purana, amongst which the assertion., that 
 it was originally communicated by Brahma to 
 Narada, that all men whatsoever, Hindus of every 
 <:aste, and even Mlechchas, out-castes or bar- 
 barians, might learn to have faith in Vasudeva. 
 
 In the third book, the interlocutors are changed 
 to Maitreya or Vidur, the former of whom is the 
 disciple in the Vishnu Purana ; the latter was the 
 half-brother of the Kuru princes. Maitreya again 
 gives an account of the Shristi-lila, or sport of 
 creation, in a strain partly common to the Puranas 
 partly peculiar ; although he declares he learned 
 it from his teacher Parasara, at the desire of 
 Pula^tya referring, thus, to the fabulous origin of 
 the Vishnu Purana and furnishing evidence of 
 Its priority. Again however, the authority is 
 <;hanged ; and the narrative is said to have been that 
 
PURANAS, 
 
 4^3 
 
 which wis communicated by Sesha to the Nagas. 
 The oreation jDf Brahma is then described, and 
 the divisions 'of time are explained. A very long 
 and peculiar account is given of the Varaha incar- 
 nation of Vishnu, which is followed by the creation 
 of the Prajapati and Swayambhuva whose daughter 
 Devahuti is married to Kardama Rishi, an incident 
 peculiar to this work, as that follows, the Avatara of 
 Vishnu as Kalpa the son of Kardama and Davahuti, 
 the author of the Sankhya philosophy, which be 
 expounds after a Vaishnava fashion, to his mother, 
 in the last nine chapters of this section. 
 
 The Manwantaras of Swayambhuva, and the 
 multiplication of the patriarchal families,' are, next 
 -described with some peculiarities of nomenclature. 
 The traditions of Dhruba, Vena, Prithu, and other 
 princes in the period, are the other subjects of the 
 fourth Skandha, and are continued in the fifth, to 
 that of the Varata who obtained emancipation. The 
 details generally conform to those of the Vishnu 
 Purana ; and the same words are often employed ; 
 so that it would be difficult to determine which 
 work had the best right to them, had not the Bha- 
 gavata itself indicated Its obligation to the Vishnu. 
 The reminder of the fifth book is occupied with the 
 description of the universe ; and the same confor- 
 mity with the Vishnu codtinues. 
 
44 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 This is only partially the cause with the sixth 
 book, which contains a variety of ^legends ©of a 
 miscellaneous description, intended to iliustratrate 
 the merit of ^worshipping Vishnu. Some of them 
 belong to the early stock ; but some are apparently 
 novel. The seventh book is, mostly, occupied with 
 the legend of Prahlada. In the eighth, we have an 
 account of the remaining Manwantaras; in which^ 
 as happening in the course of them, a variety of an- 
 cient legends are repeated, as the battle between' the 
 king of the elephants and an alligator, the churning 
 of the ocean, and the dwarf and fish Avataras. The 
 ninth [book narrates the dynasties of the Vaivaswata 
 Manwantara, or the princes of the solar and lunar 
 races to the time of Krishna. The particulars con* 
 form, generally, with those recorded in the Vishnu. 
 
 The tenth book is the characteristic part of this 
 Parana, and the portion upon which its popularity is 
 founded. It is appropriated entirely to the history 
 of Krishna, which it narrates much in the same 
 manner as the Vishnu, but in more detail ; holding 
 a middle place, however, between it and the extra- 
 vagant prolixity with which the Harivamsa repeats 
 the story. It is not necessary to particularise it 
 further. It has been translated into, perhaps, aH 
 the languages in India, and is a favourite work 
 with all descriptions of people. 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 45 
 
 Tne eleventh book describes the destruction of 
 the Yadavas ^d the death of Krishna. Previous to 
 the latter event, Krishna instructs Uddhava in the 
 performance of Yoga ; a subject consigned by the 
 Vishnu, to the concluding passages. The narrative 
 is much the same, but something more summary 
 than that of the Vishnu. The twelfth book conti- 
 nues the lines of the kings of the Kali age, pro- 
 pheticaily, to a similiar period as Vishnu, and gives 
 a like account of the deterisration of all things and 
 their final dissolution. 
 
 Consistently with the subject of the Purana, the 
 serpent Takshaka bites Parikshit, and he expires 
 and the work should terminate ; or the close might 
 be extended to the subsequent sacrifice of Janame- 
 jaya, for the destruction of the whole serpent race. 
 There is a rather awkwardly introduced description 
 however of the arrangement of the Vedas and 
 Puranas by Vyasa, and the legend of Markandeya's 
 intervie\y with the infant Krishna, during a period 
 of worldly dissolution. We then come to the end 
 of the Bhagavata in a series of encomiastic com^- 
 mendations of its own sancity and efficacy to salv4 
 iion. 
 
 • Mr. Colebrooke observes of the Bhagavata 
 Purana, "I am, myself, inclined to adopt an opinion 
 supported by many4earned Hindus, ^ho gonsideit 
 
4$ 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 the celebrated Sri Bhagavata as the work of a grar©* 
 xnarian [Bopedeva] supposed to have lived about 
 six hundred years ago.'^ Colonel Vans Kennedy 
 considers this m incautious admission^ because 
 *'it is unquestionable that the number of the Puranas 
 have been always held to be eighteen ; but, in 
 most of the Puranas th&.names of the eighteen are 
 enumerated, amongst which the Bhagavata is inva- 
 riably included ; and consequently, if it were com- 
 posed only six hundred years ago, the others must 
 be of an equally modern date." Some of them are^ 
 P0 doubt, more recent;: but, as already remarked 
 no weight can be attached to the specification o£ 
 eighteen names; for they are always complete; 
 each Purana enumerates all. Which is the- last? 
 which had the opportunity of naming its seventeen 
 predecessors, and adding itself? The argument 
 proves too much. There can be little doubt that 
 the list has been inserted, upon the authority of 
 tradition either by some improving transcriber, or 
 by the copipiler of a work more recent than the 
 jeighteen genuine Puranas. The object is also 
 rebutted by the assertion,, that there was another 
 Purana to which the name applies, and which is still 
 to be met with, the Devi Bhagavata. 
 
 For the authenticity of the Bhagavata is on^ 
 pf tUe fe^w (juestious, effecting their sagged Ut^j-**, 
 
ture, which Hindu writers have ventured to discuss. 
 The qpcasion is furni&hed by the text itself. In 
 the fourth chapter of the first book,, it i& said that 
 Vyasa arranged the Yedas, and divided them into, 
 four, and that he then^ compiled the Itihasa and 
 Puranas, as a fifth Veda. The Vedas he gave to- 
 Paila and the rest; the Itihasa and Puranas, to 
 Xomaharshana, the father of Suta.. Then, reflecting: 
 that these works may not be accessible to women, 
 Sudras,. and mixed casts,, he composed the Bharata^ 
 for the purpose of placing religious knowledge 
 within their reach. S-till,. he felt dissatisfied, and 
 wandered,, in much perplexity, along the banks 
 of the Saraswati, where hia hermitage waa situated,, 
 while Narada paid him a visit.. Having confided 
 to him his secret and seemingly causeless dissatis* 
 faction,,. Narada suggested that it arose from his^ 
 not having sufiiciently dwelt, in the works he had 
 finished,, upon the merit of worshipping Yasudeva.. 
 Yyasa at once admitted its truth, and found a 
 remedy for his uneasiness in the composition of 
 Bhagavata, which he taught to Suka, his son*. 
 There, therefore, is the most positive assertion 
 that the Bhagavata was composed subsequently 
 tot the Puranas and given to a difierent pupil^ 
 and was not, therefore, oae of the eighteen o£ 
 ^hiQh JRomaharshaaa the Sma^ was, agiQQrdiog^ 
 
PUR AN AS. 
 
 to all concurrent testimonies, the depositary. Still 
 the Bhagavat is named amongst the t^ighteen 
 Puranas, by the inspired authorities : and how 
 can these incongruities be reconciled. 
 
 The principal point in dispute seems to have 
 been started by an expression of Shridhara Swamin 
 a commentator on the Bhagavata, who somewhat 
 incautiously made the remark, that there was no 
 reason to suspect that by the term Bhagavata, any 
 other work than the subject of his labours was 
 meant. This was therefore, an admission that 
 some suspicions had been entertained of the cor- 
 rectness of the nomenclature, and that an opinion 
 had been expressed, that the term belonged, not 
 to the Sri Bhagavata, but to the Devi Bhagavata ; 
 to a Saiva, not a Vaishnava composition. With 
 whom doubts prevailed prior to Sridhara Swamin, 
 or by whom they were urged, does not appear ; 
 for as far as we are aware, no works anterior to 
 his date, in which they are advanced, having been 
 written on the subject. There are three in the 
 library of the East India Company, the Durjana 
 Mukha Chapetika. * A slap of the face for the 
 vile,' by Ramasrama ; the Durjana Mukha Maha 
 Chapetika.' A great slap of the face for the 
 wicked,' by Kasinalha Bbatta ; and the Durjani 
 3Iukha F^ma £aduka« A slipper' fgr fhe saise 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 49 
 
 part of the same persons, by a nameless dispu- 
 tant. The first maintains the authenticity of the 
 Bhagavata ; the second asserts, that Devi Bhagavata 
 is the genuine Parana ; and the third replied to 
 the arguments of the first. There is, also, a work 
 by Purushathama, entitled. ' Thirteen arguments 
 for dispelling all doubts of the character of the 
 Bhagavata' (Bhagavata Swarupa Vishya Sanka Nirasa 
 Trayadasa) ; whilst Balam Bhatta, a commentator 
 on the Mitakshara, indulging in a dissertation on 
 the meaning of the word Purana, adduces reason 
 for questioning the inspired origin of this Purana. 
 
 The insertion of a Bhagavata amongst the 
 eighteen Puranas is acknowledged ; but this, it is 
 said, can be the Devi Bhagavata alone : for the 
 circumstances apply more correctly to it than to 
 Vaishnava Bhagavata. Thus, a text is quoted, by 
 Kasinatha, from a Purana — he does not state which 
 that says, of the Bhagavata, that it contains eighteen 
 thousand verses, twelve books, and three hundred 
 and thirty two chapters. Kasinatha asserts that 
 the chapters of the Sri Bhagavata are three hundred 
 and thirty five, and that the numbers apply, through- 
 out, only to the Devi Bhagavata. It is also said that 
 tbe Bhagavata contains an account of the acquire- 
 ment of holy knowledge by Hayagriva, the parti- 
 culars of the Saraswata Kalpa" adialouge between 
 4 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 Ambarisha and. Suka ; and that it commences with 
 the Gayatri, or, at least, a citation of it. These all 
 apply to the Devi Bhagavata alone, bxcept the last : 
 but it also is more true of the Saiva than of the 
 Vaishnava work ; for the latter has only one word 
 of the Gayatri, dhimahi. Sre meditate,' whilst the 
 former to dhimahl adds, yo nah' prachodaya't 'who 
 may enlighten us/ To the third argument it is, in 
 the first place, objected, that the citation of the Bha- 
 gavata by modern writers is no test of its authenticity; 
 and, with regard to the more ancient commentary 
 of Sankara Acharya, it is said, ''Where is it"? 
 Those who advocate the sancity of the Bhagavata 
 reply : ^*It was written in difficult style, and became 
 obsolete, and is last," *'A very unsatisfactory 
 plea," retort their opponents; ''for we still have 
 the works of Sankara, several of which are quite 
 as difficult as any in the Sanskrit language" The 
 existence, of this comment, too rests upon the au- 
 thority of Madhwa, or Madhava, who, in a com- 
 mentary af his own, asserts that. Ije , has consulted 
 eight others. Now, amongst these is one by the 
 monkey Hanqmat^and, although a Hindu dis- 
 putant may believe in the reality of such a com- 
 position, yet we may recieve its citation as a proof 
 that Madhwa was not very scrupulous in the veri- 
 fication of authorities. 
 
PURANAS* 
 
 51 
 
 There are other topics urged, in this controversy 
 on both ^ides, same of which are simple enough, 
 some are ingenious : but the statement of the text 
 is, of itself, sufficient to show, that, according to 
 the recieved opinion, of all the authorities, of the 
 priority of the eighteen Purans, to the Bharata, 
 it is impossible that the Sri Bhagavata, which is 
 subsequent to the Bharata, should be of the num- 
 ber; and the evidence of style, the superiority of 
 which to that of the Puranas in general is admitted 
 by the disputants, is also a proof that it is the work 
 of a different hand. Whether the Devi Bhagavata 
 has a better title to be considered as an original 
 composition of Vyasa, is equally questionable ; but 
 it can not be doubted that tfie Sri Bhagavata is 
 the product of uninspired erudition. There does 
 not seem to be any other ground than tradition for 
 ascribing it to Bopadeva the grammarian ; but 
 there is no reason to call the tradition in question. 
 Bopadeva flourished at the court of Hemadri, Raja 
 of Devagiri, Deogur or Dowlatabad, and must, 
 consequently, have lived prior to the conquest of 
 that principality by the Mahomadans in the four- 
 teenth century. The date of the twelth century, 
 commonly assigned to him, is, probably, correct, 
 arid is that of the Bhagavat Purana. 
 
 6. Narada or Naradiya Purana. Where Narada 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 ILLINOIS LIBRARY 
 AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGf 
 
52 
 
 PUR ANAS. 
 
 has described the duties which were observed m 
 the Brihat Kalpa, that is called the, Npradiya, 
 having twenty five thousand stanzas. If the num- 
 ber of verses be here correctly stated, the Purana 
 has not fallen ' into my hands. The copy I have 
 analysed contains, not many more than three thou- 
 sand slokas. There is another work which might 
 be expected to be of greater extent, the Brihan 
 Naradiya or great Narada Purana , but this, ac- 
 cording 10 the concurrence of three copies in my 
 possession, and of five others in the Company's 
 library, contains but about three thousand five 
 hundred verses. It may be doubted, therefore, if 
 the Narada Purana of the Matsya exists. 
 
 According to the Matsya, the Narada Purana is 
 related by Narada, and gives an account of the 
 Brihat Kalpa. The Naradiya Purana is communi- 
 cated, by Narada, to the Rishis at Naimisharanya 
 on the Gomati river. The Brihan Naradiya is re- 
 lated to the same persons, at the same place, by 
 Suta, as it was told by Narada to Sanatkumar. 
 Possibly, the term Brihat may have been suggested 
 by the specification which is given in the Matsya: 
 but there is no description, in it^ of any particular 
 Kalpa or day of Brahma. 
 
 From a cursory examination of these Puranas 
 it is very evident that they have no conformity to 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 S3 
 
 the definition of a Parana, and that both are 
 sectarial and giodern compilations, intended to 
 support the doctrine of Vakti or faith in Vishnu. 
 With this view, they have collected a variety of 
 prayers addressed to one or other form of that 
 divinity ; a number of observances and holydays 
 connected with his adoration; different legends 
 some, perhaps, of an early, others of a more recent 
 date, illustrative of efficacy of devotion to Hari. 
 Thus, in tha Narada, we have the stories of Dhruva 
 and Prahlada; the latter told in the words of 
 Vishnu : whilst the second portion of it is occupied 
 with a legend of Mohini, the will-born daughter 
 of a king called Rukmangala ; beguiled by whom, 
 the king offers to perform for her whatever she 
 may desire. She calls upon him either to violate 
 the rule of fasting on the eleventh day of the fort- 
 night, a day sacred to Vishnu, or put his son to 
 death j and he kills his son, as the lesser sin of the 
 two. This shows the spirit of the work. Its date 
 may also be inferred from its tenor ; as such mons- 
 trous extravagances in praise of Bhakti are, cer- 
 tainly, of modern origin. One limit it furnishes, 
 itself ; for it refers to Sukaand Parikshit, the inter- 
 locutors of the Bhagavata; and it is consequently, 
 subsequent to the date ot the Purana. It is. pro- 
 bably, considerably later ; for it affords evidence? 
 
54 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 that it was written after India was in the hands of 
 the Mahomedans. In the concluding ^ passage 
 it is said : ''Let not this Purana be repeated.in the 
 presence of the *killers of cows' and contemners of 
 the gods." It is, possibly, a compilation of the 
 sixteenth or seventeenth century. 
 
 The Brihan Naradiya is a work of the same 
 tenor and time. It contains little else than pene- 
 gyrical prayers addressed to Vishnu, and injunc- 
 tions to observe various rites, and keep holy certain 
 seasons, in honour of him. The earlier legends 
 introduced are the birth of Markandeya, the des- 
 truction of Sagara's sons, and the dwarf Avatara, 
 but they are subservient to the design of the whole, 
 and are rendered occasions for praising Narayana. 
 Others, illustrating the efficacy of certain Vaishnava 
 observances, are purile inventions, wholly foreign 
 to the more ancient system of Pauranik fiction. 
 There is no attempt at cosmogony, or patriarchal 
 or regal geneology. It is possible that those topics 
 may be treated of in the missing stanzas : but it 
 seems more 1 kely that tie Narada Purana of the 
 lists has little in common with the words to which 
 its name is applied in Bengal and Hindusthan. 
 
 7. Markanda or Markandeya Purana. 'That 
 Purana in which, commencing with the story of the 
 birds that were acquainted with right and wrong 
 
^RANAS. 
 
 55 
 
 every thing is iiarrated fully by M^tkan as it 
 was expflamed by holy sages, in reply to the ques- 
 tion of the Muni, is called the Markandeya, con- 
 taining nine thousand verses." This is so called 
 from its being, in the first instance, narrated by 
 Markandeya Muni, and, in the second place, by 
 certain fabulous birds ; thus far agreeing with the 
 account given of it in the Matsya. That as well as 
 other authorities, specify its containing nine thou- 
 sand stanzas ; but my copy closes with a verse 
 affirming that the number of verses recited by the 
 Muni was six thousand nine hundred ; and a copy 
 in the East India Company's library has a similiar 
 specification. The termination, is, however, some- 
 what abrupt ; and there is no reason why the sub- 
 ject with which it ends should not have been car- 
 ried on further. One copy in the Company's 
 library, indeed belonging to the Guickwar's collec- 
 tion, states, at the close, that it is the end of the 
 first Kanda or section. If the Purana was ever 
 completed, the remaining portion of it appears to 
 be lost. 
 
 Jaimini, the pupil of Vyasa, applies to Markan- 
 deya to be made acquainted with the nature of 
 Vasudeva, arid for an explanation of some of the 
 incidents described in the Mahabharata ; with the 
 ambrosia of which divine poeiii, Vyasa, he declares 
 
\ 
 
 S6 PURANAS* 
 
 has watered the whole world: a reference which > 
 establishes the priority of the Bharat^. to the Mar- 
 kandeya Parana, however incompatible this may be 
 with the tradition, that, having finished the Puranas 
 Vyasa wrote the poem. 
 
 Markandeya excuses himself saying he has a 
 religious rite to perform ; and he refers Jaimini to 
 some very sapient birds who reside in the Vindhya 
 mountains ; birds of celestial origin, found, when 
 just born by the Muni Samika, on the field of Kuru- 
 kshetra, and brought up by him, along with his 
 scholars ; in consequence of which, and by virtue 
 of their heavenly descent, they became profoundly 
 versed in the Vedas and a knowledge of spiritual 
 truth. This machinery is borrowed from the Maha- 
 bharat, with some embellishment. Jaimini, accord- 
 ingly, has recourse to the birds, Pingaksha and 
 his brethern, and puts to them the questions he 
 had asked of the Muni : *'Why was Vasudeva 
 born as a mortal ? How was it that Draupadi was? 
 the wife of the five Pan da vas ? Why did Baladeva 
 do penance for Brahmanicide ? And why were the 
 children of Draupadi destroyed, when they had 
 Krishna and Arjuna to defend them ?" The answers 
 to these inquiries occupy a number of chapters, 
 and form a sort of supplement to the Mahabharata ; 
 supplying, partly by invention, perhaps, and partly,. 
 
FUR ANAS. 
 
 £7 
 
 by reference to equally ancient authorities, the- 
 blanks left in sqpe of its narrations. 
 
 Legends of Britrasura's death, Baladeva's 
 penance, Harish Chandra's elevation to heaven, and; 
 the quarrel between Vasistha and Vishwakarma, are 
 followed by a discussion respecting birth, death, 
 and sin ; which leads to a more extended descrip- 
 tion of the different hells than is found in other 
 Puranas. The account of creation which is con- 
 tained in the work is repeated by the birds, after 
 Markandeya's account of it to Kraushtuki, and is 
 confined to the origin of the Vedas and patriarchal 
 families, amongst whom are new characters, as 
 Daksaha and his wife Marshiti, and their descen- 
 dants ; allegorical personages, representing in 
 tolerable iniquity and its consequences. There is 
 then a description of the world, with, as usual to 
 this Purana, several singularities, some of which 
 are noticed in the following pages. This being the 
 state of the world in the Swayambhu Manwantara 
 an account of the other Manwantaras succeeds, in 
 which the birth of the Manus, and a number of other 
 particulars are peculiar to this work. The present or 
 Vaivaswata Manwantara is very briefly passed over ; 
 batthenext, the first of the future Manwantaras 
 contains the long episodical narrative of the actions 
 of the goddess Durga, which is the special boast 
 
58 
 
 PURANAs. 
 
 of this Purana, and is the text book of the worsliip- 
 pers of Kali, Chandi, or Durga, m Bengal. It is 
 the Chandi Patha, or Durga Mahatmya in which 
 the victories of the goddess over different evil 
 beings or Asuras are detailed with considerable 
 power and spirit. It is read daily in the temples of 
 Durga, and furnishes the pomp and circumstances 
 of the great festival of Bengal, the Durga Pooja, 
 public worship of that Goddess. 
 
 After the account of the Manwantaras is com- 
 pleted, there follows a series of legends, some new, 
 some old relating to the sun and his posterity ; 
 continued to Vaivaswata Manu and his sons, and 
 their immediate descendants ; terminating with 
 Dama, the son of Narishyanta. Of most of the 
 persons noticed the work narrates particulars not 
 found elsewhere. 
 
 This Purana has a character different from that 
 of all the others. It has nothing of a sectarial 
 spirit, little of a religious tone ; rarely inserting 
 prayers and invocations to any deity ; and such as 
 are inserted are brief and moderate. It deals little 
 in precepts, ceremonial or moral. Its leading 
 feature is narrative; and it presents an unintereupt- 
 ed succeseion of legends, most of which, when an- 
 cient, are embellished with new circumstances, and, 
 when new, partake so far of the spirit of the old, 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 59 
 
 that they are u'sinterested creations of the imagina- 
 tion, having n*:^ particular motive being designed ta 
 recommend no special doctrine or observance. 
 Whether they are derived from any other source^ 
 or whether they are original inventions, it is not 
 possible to assertain. They are, most probably, 
 for the greater part, at least original ; and the whole 
 has been narrated in the compiler's own manner, 
 a manner superior to that of the Puranas in general, 
 with exception of the Bhagavata. 
 
 It is not easy to conjecture a date for this 
 Puraua. That it is subsequent, is doubtful. It is, un- 
 questionably, more ancient than such works as the 
 Brahma Purana, and, Naradiya Purana ; and its 
 freedom from sectarial bias is a reason for suppos- 
 ing it anterior to the Bhagavata. At the same time 
 its partial conformity to the definition of a Purana, 
 and the tenor of the additions which it has made to 
 received legends and traditions, indicate a not very 
 remote age ; and, in the absence of any guide to a 
 more positive conclusion, it may, conjecturally, be 
 placed in the ninth or tenth century, 
 
 8. Agni Purana. " The Purana which des- 
 cribes the occurances of the Isana Kalpa, and was 
 related by Agni to Vasistha, is called Agneya. It 
 consists of sixteen thousand stanzas. The Agni 
 or Agneya Purana derives its na,me from its having 
 
6o 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 being communicated, orio;inally, by Agni, the deity 
 of fire, to the Muni Vasistha, for t,he purpose of 
 instructing him in the two-fold knowledge of 
 Brahma. By him it was taught to Vyasa, who 
 imparted it to Suta ; and the latter is represented as 
 repeating it to the Rishis at Naimisharanya. Its 
 contents are variously specified as sixteen thousand, 
 fifteen thousand, or fourteen thousand stanzas. 
 The two copies which were employed by me con- 
 tain about fifteen thousand slokas. There are two, 
 in the company's library, which do not extend to 
 twelve thousand verses ; but they are, in many 
 other respects different from mine. One of them 
 was written at Agra, in the reign of Akbar, in 
 A. D. 1859. 
 
 The Agni Purana, in the form in which it has 
 been obtained in Bengal and Beneras, presents a 
 striking contrast to the Markandeya. It may be 
 doubted if a single line of it is original. A very 
 great proportion of it may be traced to other 
 sources ; and a more careful collation — if the tash 
 was worth the time it would require — would 
 probably discover the remainder. 
 
 The early chapters of this Purana describe the 
 Avatars, and in those of Rama and Krishna, 
 avowedly follow the Ramayan and Mahabharata. 
 A considerable portion is appropriated to 
 
PORANAS. 
 
 6l 
 
 instructions for the performance of religious 
 ceremoiiies ; many of wliicli belong to the Tantrika 
 rituals and are apparently transcribed from the 
 principal authorities of that system. Some belong 
 to mystical forms of Saiva worship, little known in 
 Hindusthan, though, perhaps, still practised in the 
 south. One of these is the Diksha or initation of 
 a novice; by which with numerous ceremonies and 
 invocations, in which the mysterious monosyllables 
 of Tantras are constantly repeated, the disciple is 
 transformed into a living personation of Siva, and 
 receives, in that capacity, the homage of his Guru, 
 Interspersed with these are chapters descriptive of 
 the earth and of the universe, which are same as 
 those of the Vishnu Purana ; and Mahatmyas or 
 legends of holy places, , particularly of Gaya. 
 Chapters on the duties of kings and on the art of 
 war then occur, which have the appearance of being 
 extracted from some older work, as is, undoubtedly, 
 the chapter on judicature, which follows them, and 
 which is the same as the text of the Mitakshara. 
 Subsequent to these we have an account of the distri- 
 bution and arrangement of the Vedas and Puranas 
 and, in a chapter on gifts, we have a description of 
 the Puranas, which is precisely the same, and in 
 the same situation, as the similar subject in the 
 Matsya Purana* The geneological chapters are 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 rneagre lists,, diff^ring^^ in- a few respects, from 
 those; commonly received, as hereafter notic?,d, but 
 unaccompanied by any particulars such as those 
 recorded or invented in the Markandeya. The next 
 subject is medicine, compiled, avowedly, but inju- 
 diciously, from the Susruta. A series ef chapters 
 on the mystic worship of Siva and Devi follows; 
 and the work winds up with a treatise on rhetoric, 
 prosody, and grammar, according to the Sutras, 
 of Pingala and Panini. 
 
 The cyclopadical character of the Agni 
 1 Purana, as it is now described, excludes it from 
 any legitimate claims to be regarded as a Purana, 
 and proves that its origin cannot be very remote. 
 It is subsequent to the Itihasas, to the chief works on 
 grammar, rhetoric, and medicine, and to the intro- 
 duction of the Tantrika worship of Devi. When 
 this latter took place, is yet far from determined ; 
 but there is very probability that it dates long after 
 the beginning of our era. 
 
 The materials of the Agni Purana are, however, 
 no doubt, of some antiquity. The medicine of 
 Susruta is considerably older than the ninth cen- 
 tury ; and the grammar of Panini probrably pre- 
 cedes Christianity. The chapters on archery and 
 arms, and on regal administration, are also distin- 
 guished by an entirely Hindu character, and 
 
PURANAS.? 
 
 63 
 
 must have been written long anterior to the Maho* 
 medan ^invasion* So far the Agni Parana is 
 valuable, as em1)odying and preserving relics of 
 antiquity, although compiled at a more recent 
 date. 
 
 Colonel Wilford has made great use of a list o£ 
 kings derived from an appendix to the Agni Purana, 
 which professes to be the sixty-third or last section* 
 As he observes, it is seldom found annexed to the 
 Purana. I have never met with it, and doubt its 
 ever having formed any part of the original com-* 
 pilation. It would appear, from; Colonel Wilford*s 
 remarks that this list notices Mahammed as the 
 institutor of an era but his account of his is not 
 very distinct. It mentions, explicitly, however, 
 that the list speaks of Salivahan and Vikramaditya 
 and this is quite sufficient to establish its character. 
 The compilers of the Puranas were not such bung- 
 lers as to bring within their chronology as well 
 known a personage as Vikramaditya* There 
 are, in all parts of India, various compilations 
 ascribed to the Puranas, which never formed any 
 portion of their contents, and which although, 
 offering sometimes, useful local information, and 
 valuable as preserving popular traditions, are not, 
 in justice, to be confounded with the Puranas, so 
 as to cause to them to be charged with even more 
 
^4 
 
 PtJi^ANAS. 
 
 serious errors and anachronisms than those of 
 which they are guilty. 
 
 The two copies of this work in- the library of 
 the East India Company appropriate the first half 
 to a description of the ordinary and occasional 
 observances of the Hindus, interspersed with a few 
 legends. The latter half treats exclusively of the 
 history of Rama. 
 
 9. Bhavishya Purana. The Purana in which 
 Brahma, having described the greatness of the sun, 
 explained to Manu the existence of the world, and 
 the characters of all created things, in the course 
 of the Aghor Kalpa, that is called the Bhavishya ; 
 the stories being for the most part, the events of a 
 future period, It contains fourteen thousand five 
 hundred stanzas." This Purana, as the name 
 implies, should be a book of prophecies, foretell- 
 ing what will be (Bhavishyati), as the Matsya 
 Purana intimates. Whether such a work exists, is 
 doubtful.- The copies, which appear to be entire, 
 and of which there are three in the library of the 
 East India Company, agreeing in their contents, 
 with two in my possession, contain about seven 
 thousand stanzas. There is another work, entitled 
 the Bhavishyattara, as if it was a continuation or 
 supplement of the former, containing, also, about 
 s^even thousand verses, but the subjects of both 
 
t>URANAS. 
 
 65 
 
 these works are but to a very imperfect degree 
 analogus to these to which the Matsya alludes. 
 
 The Bhavishya Purana, as I have it, is a work 
 In a hundred and twenty-six short chapteis, repea* 
 ted by Sumantu to Satanika, as king of the Pandu 
 family. He notices, however its having origianted 
 with Swayambhu or Brahma, and describes it as 
 consisting of five parts ; four dedicated, it should 
 seem, to as many deities, as they are termed, 
 Brahma, Vaishnava, Saiva, and Twashtra; whilst 
 the fifth is the Partisharga or repeated creation, 
 Possibly> the first part only may have come into 
 my hands ; although it does not so appear by the 
 manuscript. 
 
 Whatever it may be, the work in question 
 is' not a Purana. The first portion, indeed, treats 
 of creation; but it is little else that a transcript 
 of the words of the first chapter of Manu. The 
 rest is entirely a manual of religious rites and 
 ceremonies. It explains the ten Samskaras or 
 initiatary rites; the performance of theSandhya; 
 the reverence to be shown to a Guru ; the duties 
 of the different Asramas and castes; and enjoins 
 a nniJlber of Vratas or observances of fasting 
 and the like, appropriate to different lunar days. 
 A few legends enliven the series of precepts: 
 That af th^ sage Chyavana is told at considerable 
 5 
 
66 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 length, taken, chiefly, from the Mahabbarata. 
 The Naga Panchami, or fifth lunation sacred to 
 the serpent Gods, gives rise to a description of 
 different sorts of snakes. After these, which occupy 
 about one third of the chapters, the remainder 
 of them conform, in subject, to one of the topics 
 referred to by the Matsya. They chiefly represent 
 conversations between Krishna, his son Sambo,— 
 who had become, a lepar by the curse of Dur- 
 vasas, — Vasistha, Narada and Vyasa, upon the 
 power and glory of the sun, and the manner in 
 which he is to be worshiped. There is som& 
 curious matter in the last chapters, relating to the 
 Magas, silent worshippers of the sun, from Saka- 
 dwipa ; as if the compiler had adopted the persian 
 term Magh, and connected the fire worshippers of 
 Iran with those of India. This is a subject, how- 
 ever, that requires further investigation. 
 
 The Bhavishyottara is, equally with the preced- 
 ing, a sort of manual of religious offices; the 
 greater portion being appropriated to Vratas, and 
 the remainder, the forms and circumstances with 
 which gifts are to be presented. Many of the 
 ceremonies are obsolete, or are observed in a 
 different manner, as the Rathayatra or car-festival 
 and the Madanotshava or festival of spring. The 
 descriptions of those throw some light upon the 
 
PORANAS, 
 
 67 
 
 public condition of the Hindu religion at a period 
 probably prior <o the Mahomedan conquest. The 
 different ceremonies are illustrated by legends, 
 which are, sometimes, ancient; as, for instance, 
 the destruction of the God of love by Siva, and 
 his thence becoming Ananga, the disembodied 
 lord of hearts. The work supposed to be commu- 
 nicated by Krishna to Yudhisthira, at a great 
 assemblage of holy persons {at the coronation 
 of the latter, after the conclusion of the great 
 war. 
 
 10. Brahma Vaivarta Purana. 'That Purana 
 which is related by Savarni to Narada, and contains 
 the account of the greatness of Krishna, with 
 the occurances of the Rathantara where, also, the 
 story of Brahmavaraha is repeatedly told, is called 
 the Brahma Vaivarta, and contains eighteen thou- 
 sand stanzas.'' The account here given of the 
 Brahma Vaivarta Purana agrees with its present 
 state, as to its extent. The copies rather exceed 
 than fall short of eighteen thousand stanza?. It 
 also correctly represents its comprising a Mahatmya 
 or legend of Krishna; but it is very doubtful, 
 nevertheless, if the same work is intended. 
 
 • The Brahma Vaivarta, as it now exists, is 
 narrated, not by Savarni, but the Rishi Narayana, 
 to Narada, by whom it is communicated to Vyasa : 
 
PUR AN As. 
 
 he teAche$ it to Suta; and the latti^r repea^ it to 
 the Rishis at Naimisharauya, It is divided intq 
 four Khandas or books, Brahma? Prakriti, Ganesa, 
 and Krishna Janma Khandas ; dedicated, severally 
 to describe the acts of Brahma, Devi, Ganesa, 
 and Krishna; the latter, however, throughput 
 absorbing the interest and importance of the work. 
 In none of these is there any accoujit of the 
 Varaha Avatara of Vishnu, — which seems to be 
 intended by Matsya, — nor any reference to a, 
 Rathantara Kalpa. It may also be observed, that 
 in describing the merit of presenting a copy of 
 this Purana, the Matsya adds: "whoever makes 
 such gift is honoured in the Brahma-loka a sphere 
 which is very inferior in dignity to that to which at 
 worshipper of Krishna is taught to aspire by tjiis 
 Purana. The character of the work is, iu truth, 
 so decidedly sectarial, and the sect to whicJ^Jt; 
 belongs so distinctly marked,— that, qf thp worship- 
 pers of the Juvenile Krishna iind Ra^Iha, %form of; 
 belief of known modern, o^igin,rr:that it cani 
 scarcely haye found a notice ia a work: tp: wh|ch, 
 like the Matsya, a much mpre. reniiot^ date seem,^^^ 
 to belong, A^l^ough, therefore, th^ Matsya may^ 
 be received in propf of: there haying^ been a 
 Brahma Vaiyarta P^ra,Qa^ at. the, datf^,;Qf itscpj^^r, 
 piUliOHi d^kJ^ed e^p^i^lly tQi t- hsomm. qC 
 
PUR ANAS. 
 
 t9 
 
 krishna, yet we cannot credit the possibility of 
 its Beih^ the saftie we now possess. 
 
 Ateough some of the legends, believed to be 
 ancient, are scattered through the different portions 
 of this Purana, yet the great mass of it is taken 
 up with tiresome descriptions of Brindavana and 
 Goloka, the dwelling of Krishna on earth and in 
 heaven ; endless repetitions of prayers and invoca- 
 tions addressed to him ; and with insipid descrip- 
 tions of his person and sports, and the love of 
 the Gopis and Radha towards him. There are 
 some particulars of the origin of the artificer- 
 castes,— which is valuable, because it is cited 
 as authority in matters affecting them,— contained 
 in the Brahma Khanda, and, in the Prakriti and 
 Ganesa Khandas, are legends of those divinities, 
 not wholly, perhaps, modern inventions, but Of 
 which the source has not been traced. In the 
 life of Krishna, incidents recorded are the 
 siirie as ttio^e narrated in the Vishnu and in the 
 Bhagavata ; but the stories absurd as thay are, 
 ai^e much compressed to make room for original 
 matter still mdre purile and tiresome. The 
 Bfdhma Vaivarta has not the slightest title to be 
 regarded as a Purana, 
 
 II. Linga Purana. Where Maheswara, pre- 
 sent in th^ Agni Linga, explained (the objects of 
 
70 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 life) virtue, wealth, pleasure and final liberation 
 at the end of the Agni Kalpa, th^t Pura^a, con- 
 sisting of eleven thousand stanzas, was called the 
 Linga by Brahma himself. 
 
 The Linga Purana conforms accurately enough 
 to this description, The Kalpa is said to be the 
 Isana, but this is the only difference, It consists 
 of eleven thousand stanzas. It is said to have 
 been originally compesed by Brahma ; and the 
 primitive Linga is a pillar of radiance, in which 
 Maheswara is present. The work is, therefore, 
 the same as that referred to by the Matsya. 
 
 A short account is given in the beginning, of 
 elemental and secondary creation, and of the patri- 
 archal families; in which, however, Siva takes 
 the place of Vishnu, as the indescrible cause of 
 all things. Brief accounts of Siva's incarnations 
 and proceedings in different Kalpas next occur, 
 offering no interest, except as characteristic of 
 sectarial notions. The appearance of the great 
 fiery Linga takes place, in the interval of a creation 
 to separate Vishnu and Brahma, who not only 
 disputes the supremacy, but fights for it; 
 when the Linga suddenly springs up, and puts 
 them both to shame ; as after travelling upwards 
 and downwards for a thousand years in each 
 direction, neither can approach to its termination. 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 71 
 
 Upon the Linga the sacred monosyallable Om is 
 visible*; and *e Vedas proceed from it, by which 
 Brahma and Vishnu become enlightened, and 
 acknowledge and eulogise the superior might and 
 glory of Siva. 
 
 A notice of the creation in the Padma Kalpa 
 then follows; and this leads to praises of Siva 
 and Vishnu and Brahma. Siva repeats the story 
 of his incarnations, twenty.eight in number ; in- 
 tended as a counterpart, no doubt, to the twenty- 
 four Avataras of Vishnu, as described in the 
 Bhagabata ; and both being amplications of the 
 original ten Avataras, and of much less merit as 
 fictions. Another instance of rivalry occurs in 
 the legend of Dadhichi, a Muni and worshipper 
 of Shiva. In the Bhagavat, there is a story of 
 Ambarisha being defended against Durvasas by 
 the discus of Vishnu, against which that Saiva sage 
 is helpless. Here Vishnu pulls his discus at 
 Dadhichi: but it falls, blunted, to the ground; 
 and a conflict ensues in which Vishnu and his 
 partisans are all overthrown by the Muni. 
 
 A description of the universe, and of the 
 regal dynasties of the Vaivaswata Manwantara to 
 Ihe time of Krishna, runs through a number of 
 chapters in substance, and very commonly, in 
 words, the same as other Purans; after which 
 
72 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 thq work resumes its proper character narrating 
 legends, and enjoining rites, and ^ reciting prayers 
 intending to dp honour to Siva under various 
 forms. Although, however, the Linga hold$ a 
 prominent place amongst |them, the spirit of the 
 worship is as little influenced by the character of 
 of the type as will be imagined. There is nothing 
 like the phallic orgies of antiquity : it is all mysti- 
 cal and spiritual. The Linga is two-fold, external 
 and internal. The ignorant, who needs a visible 
 sign, worship Siva to a 'mark' or ' type —which 
 is the proper meaning of the word *Linga'—of 
 wood or stone; but the wise look upon this out- 
 ward emblem as nothing, and contemplate, in 
 their minds, the invisible, inscrutable type, which 
 is Siva himself. Whatever may have been the 
 origin of this form of worship in India, the notion 
 upon which it was founded, according to the 
 impure fancies of European writers, are not to be 
 traced in even the Saiva Puranas. 
 
 Data for conjecturing the era of this work are 
 defective. But it is more ritual than a Purana ; 
 and the Pouranik chapters which it has inserted, in 
 order to keep up something of its character, have 
 been, evidently, borrowed for the purpose. The 
 incarnations of Siva, and their 'pupils', as specified 
 in one place, and the importance attached, to the 
 
73 
 
 practice of the Yoga remJer it possible that, imdet 
 the for^ier, am intended those teachers erf Saiv^ 
 religion who belong to the Yoga school, which 
 seems to have flourished about the eighth or ninth 
 century. It is not likely that the work is earlier : 
 it may be considerably later. It has preserved, 
 apparently, some Saiva legends of an early date ; 
 but the greater part is ritual and mysticism ci 
 comparatively recent introduction. 
 
 12. Varaha Purana. « That in which the glory 
 of the great Varaha is predominant, as it was re* 
 vealed to earth by Vishnu, in connexion, wise 
 Munis, with the Manava Kalpa, and which contains 
 twenty four thousand verses, is called the Varaha 
 Purana." 
 
 It may be doubted if the Varaha Purana of the 
 present day is here intended. It is narrated by 
 Vishnu as Varaha, or in the boar incarnation, to 
 the personified earth, Its extent, however, is not 
 half that specified ; little exceeding ten thousand 
 stanzas. It furnislies also itself, evidence of the 
 prior currency of some other work, similiarly de- 
 nominated ; as, in the description of Mathura, con-^ 
 
 tained in it, Sumantu, a Muni, is made to observe. 
 
 '^•The divine Varaha in former times expounded a 
 
 Purana for the purpose of solving the perplexity 
 
 of Earth." 
 
74 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 Nor can Varaha Parana be regarded as a 
 Parana agreeably to the common idefinitioli ; as it 
 contains but a few scattered and brief allusions to 
 the creation of the world and the reign of kings : 
 it has no detailed geneologies, either of the patri- 
 archal or regal families, and no account of the 
 reigns of the Manus. Like the Linga Purana, it 
 is a religious manual, almost wholly occupied 
 with forms of prayer and rules for devotional 
 observances, addressed to Vishnu; interspersed 
 with legendary illustrations, most of which are 
 peculiar to itself, though some are taken from the 
 common and ancient stock. Many of them, rather 
 incompatibly with, the general scope of the 
 compilation, relate to the history of Siva and 
 Durga. A considerable portion of the work is 
 devoted to descriptions of various Tirthas, places 
 of Vaishnava pilgrimage, and one of the Mathura 
 enters into a variety of particulars relating to 
 the shrines of that city constituting the Mathura 
 Mahatmya. 
 
 In the sectarianism of the Varaha Purana 
 there is no leaning to the particular adoration of 
 Krishna : nor are the Rathayatra and Janmastomi 
 included amongst the observances enjoined. 
 There are neither indications of its belonging to 
 an earlier stage of Vishnu worship ; and it may, 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 75 
 
 perhaps be referred to the age of Ramamya, the 
 early part of ^he twelfth century. 
 
 13. Skanda Purana- "The Skanda Purana^ 
 is that in which the six^faced deity (Skanda) has 
 related the events of the Tatpurusha Kalpa, enlarg- 
 ed with many tales, and subservient to the duties 
 taught by Maheswara. It is said to contain eighty 
 one thousand one hundred stanzas : so it is asserted 
 amongst mankind/' 
 
 It is uniformly agreed that the Skanda Purana, 
 in a collective form, has no existence ; and the 
 fragments in the shape of Samhitas, Khandas, and 
 Mahatmyas, which are affirmed, in various parts 
 of India, to be portions of the Purana, present a 
 much more formidable mass of stanzas than even 
 the immense number of which it is said to consist. 
 The most celebrated of these portions, in Hin- 
 dustan, is the Kasi Khanda, a very minute des- 
 cription of the temples of Siva in or adjacent to 
 Benares, mixed with directions for worshipping 
 Maheswara, and a great variety of legends expla- 
 natory of its merits and of the holiness of Kasi* 
 Many of them are purile and uninteresting ; but 
 some are of a higher character. The story of 
 Agastya records, probably, in a legendary style, 
 the propagation of Hinduism in the south of 
 India, and in the history of Divodasa, a king of 
 
76 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 Kasi, re have an embellished tfadUioii 6f the tem- 
 porary depression of the tvdrship df^Siva, es^eri in 
 its metropolis, before the ^^endancy of the fol- 
 lowers of Bhdha ; there is etery reasbn to Believe 
 the greater part of the ebntehts of the Kasi Khanda 
 interior to the first attack upon Benares by Mahmud 
 Ghajini. The Kasi Khanda alone contains fifteen 
 thousand stanzas. 
 
 Another considerable work ascribed, in Upper 
 India, to a Skanda i?urana, is the Utkala Khanda, 
 giving an account of the holinesss of Orissa, and 
 the Kshetra of Purushottama or Jaganiiatha. The 
 same vicinity is the site of templet once of great 
 magnificience and extent, dedicated to Siva, as 
 Bhuvaneshwara, which forms an excuse for at- 
 taching an*account of a Vaishnava Tiftha to an 
 eminently Saiva Piirana. There can be little doubt 
 however, that the Utkala Khaiida is uhwarrant- 
 ably included amongst the progeny of the parent 
 work* Besides this, there is a Brahmottera Khanda 
 a Reva Khanda, a Siva Rahashya Khanda,— a 
 Himavat Khanda and others. Of the Samhitas 
 the chief are the Suta Samhitai, Sainatkumar Sinihita 
 Saura Sambita, and Kapila Samhrta, there are 
 several denominated Samhitas. The Mahatmyas 
 are more numerous still. According to the Suta 
 Siimhita$ as quotedby Colonel Vans Kennedy, 
 
PURANAS? 
 
 77 
 
 Skanda Puranas contains six Sa;nhitas, five hundred 
 Khandas, and, five hundred thousand stanzas; 
 more than what is even attributed to all the Puranas. 
 He thinks judg'ing from internal evidence, that all 
 the Khandas and San^hltas may be admitted to be 
 genuine, though the Mahatmyas have rather 
 questionable appearance. Now one kind of in- 
 ternal evidence is the quantity ; and, as no more 
 than eighfy-one thousand one hundred stanzas 
 have ever been claimed for it, all in excess 
 ahove that amount must be questionable-i But; 
 n^any of the Khanda^, the Kasi Khanda for 
 instance, are quite a^ local, as the Mafeatmyas, 
 being legendary stories relating to the erection 
 and safictily, erf <:ertain temples, m groups of 
 temples, audi tO; certain 1-ingas ; the interested, 
 origin c^f which Tendens them,> very reasonably,, 
 object of suspicion. In the: present state of our 
 acquaintance with the reputed portions of the 
 Skanda Purana, my own views of their authenticity 
 a^re SQ opposed to those entertained by Colonel 
 Vans Kennedy, that, instead of admitting all the 
 Samhitas and Khandas to be genuine, I doubt if 
 any one of them was ever a part of the Skaada 
 PjU,raria, 
 
 14, Ymf^mw 'Pmm. "That Itk whicb the 
 
7S 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 «nce, as subservient to the account of the greatness 
 of Trivikrama, which treats, also, of (Ahe Siva^-Kalpa 
 and which consists of ten thousand stanzas, is 
 called the Vamana Purana." 
 
 The Vamana Purana contains an account of 
 the dwarf incarnation of Vishnu : but it is related 
 by Pulastya to Narada, and extends to but about 
 seven thousand stanzas. Its contents scarcely 
 establish its claim to the character of a Purana. 
 There is little ot no order in the subjects which 
 this (work recapitulates, and which arise out of 
 replies made by Pulastya to questions put, abrupity 
 and unconnectedly by Narada^ The greater parT 
 of them relate to the worship of the Linga; a 
 rather strange topic for a Vaishnava Purana, 
 but engrossing the principal part of the compila- 
 tion. They are, however, subservient to the object 
 of illustrating the sancity of certain holy places ; 
 so that the Vamana Purana is little else than a suc- 
 cession of Mahatmyas. Thus, in the opening, 
 almost, of the work occurs the story of Daksha's 
 sacrifice, the object of which is to send Siva to 
 Papamochan Tirtha, at Beneras, where he is re- 
 leased from the sin of Brahmanicide. Next comes 
 the story of burning Kamadeva for the purpose of 
 illustrating the holiness of a Siva Linga at Kedares- 
 war^ in the Himalaya, and of Badarikasrama. 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 79 
 
 The larger part of the work consists of the Saro* 
 mahatmya, or legendary exemplifications of the 
 holiness of Sthanu Tirtha ; that is, of the sancity of 
 various Lingas and certain Pools at Thansar and 
 Kurukshetra, the country north-west from Delhi. 
 There are same stories, also, relating to the holi- 
 ness of the Godavari river : but the general site of 
 legends is in Hindusthan. In the course of these 
 accounts, we have a long narrative of the mar- 
 riage of Siva with Uma, and the birth of Kartti- 
 keya. 
 
 There are a few br ief allusions to creation and 
 the Manwantaras ; but they are merely incidental : 
 and all the five charicteristies of a purana are difi- 
 cient. In noticing the Swarochisha Manwantara, 
 towards the end of the book, the elevation of Bali 
 monarch of the Daityas, and his subjugation of the 
 universe, the gods included, are described ; and 
 this leads to the narration that gives its tittle to the 
 Purana, the birth of Krishna as a dwarf for the 
 purpose of humilating Bali by fraud, as he was in- 
 vincible by force. The story is told as usual ; but 
 the scene is laid at Kurukshetra. 
 
 A more minute examination of this work than 
 that which has been given to it, might, perhaps, 
 discover some hint from which to conjecture its 
 date. It is of a more tolerant character than the 
 
8o 
 
 PURANASi 
 
 Puranas, and divides its homage between Siva and 
 Vtshnu with tolerable impartiality. It is not con- 
 nected, therefore, with any sectarial principles, and 
 may have proceeded their introduction. It has 
 not, however, the air of any antiquity ; and its com- 
 pilation may have amused the pleasure of some 
 Brahman of Beneras three or four centuries 
 ago. 
 
 15. Kutma Purana. '*That in which janardan 
 in the form of a tortoise, in the regions under the 
 earth, explained the objects of life— duty, wealth, 
 pleasure^, and liberation*— in communication with 
 Indradyumna and the Rishis in the proximity of 
 Sakra, which refers to the Lakshmi Kalpa, and 
 contains seventeen thousand stanzas, in the Kurma 
 Ptnrana;. 
 
 Inthefirst chapter of Kurma Purana, it gives 
 an account of itself, which does not exactly agree 
 with this description. Suta who is repeating the 
 naTration> is made to say to the Rishis; 'This 
 most excellent Kurma Purana is the fifteenth. 
 Samhitas are fourfold, from the variety of the col- 
 lections. The Brahmi, Bhagavali, Sour i, and Vai- 
 shnavi are well known as the four Samhitas which 
 confer virtue, wealth, pleasure and liberation. 
 This is the Brahmi Sanhitas, conformable to the 
 four Vedas > in" which there are six thous^nd slokas; 
 
8t 
 
 Unij by It, the importance of the four objects of 
 lite, 0 great sages, holy knowledge and Paramesh- 
 \vara is*known.* There is an irreconcilable diffe- 
 rence in this specification of tbe number of stanzas 
 and that given abeve. It is not very clear what 13 
 ^eant by a Samhita, as here used. 
 
 A Samhita, as observed above is some- 
 thing different from a Parana. It may be an 
 assemblage of pfayers and legends, extracted pro* 
 fessedly> from a Purana, but is not, usually, appli- 
 cable to the original. The four Samhitas - here 
 specified refer rather to their religious character 
 than to their connexion with any specific work ; and, 
 In fact, the same terms are applied to what are , 
 called Samhiias of the Skanda, In this sense, a • 
 Purana might be also a Samhita; that isj it might 
 %e an assemblage of formulae and legends belong- 
 ing to a division of Hindu system ; and the work 
 'in question, like the Vishnu Purana, does adopt 
 both titles. It says: '*This is the excellent Kurma 
 Purana, the fifteenth of the series,'* and again t 
 "This is the Brahmi Samhita.'' At any rate> no 
 other work has been met with pretending to be the / 
 -Kurma Purana. / 
 With regard to the other particulars specifie d , 
 /by the Matsya, traces of them are to be found. 
 Although, in two ai9(0^&ts of the traditional 
 
82 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 communication of the Parana, no mention is 
 made to Vishnu as one of the teachers, yet Suta 
 repeats, at the out set, a dia^.ogue between 
 Vishnu, as the Kurma and Indradyumna, at the 
 at the time of the churning of the ocean; and 
 much of the subsequent narrative is put into the 
 mouth of the former. 
 
 The name being that an Avatara ©f Vishnu, it 
 might lead us to expect a Vaishanava work, but it 
 is always, and correctly, classed with the Saiva 
 Puranas; the greater portion of it incalculating 
 the worship of Siva and Durga. It is divided into 
 two parts, of nearly equal length. In the first part 
 accounts of the creation, of the Avataras of Vishnu 
 of the solar and lunar dynasties of the kings to 
 the time of Krishna, of the universe, and of the 
 Manwantaras, are given, in general in a summary 
 manner, but not unfrequently, in the words em- 
 ployed in the Vishnu Purana. With these are 
 blended hymns addressed to Maheswaraby Brahma 
 and others ; the defeat of Andhakasura by Bhairava, 
 the origin of four Saktis, Maheswari, Siva, Sati 
 and Haimavati, from Siva ; and other Saiva legends. 
 One chapter gives a more distinct and connected 
 account of the incarnations of Siva, in the pre- 
 sent age, than the Linga, and it wears, still more, 
 the appearance, of an attempt to ideutify the 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 teachers of the Yoga school with personations of 
 their preferential deity. Several chapters form a 
 Kasi M*ahatmy^, a legend of Benares. In the 
 second part there are no legends. It is divided 
 into two parts, the Iswara Gita, and Vyasa Gita. 
 In the former, the knowledge of God, that is of 
 Siva, through xcontemplative devotion, is taught. 
 In the latter the same object is enjoined through 
 works, or observance of the ceremonies and pre- 
 cepts of the Vedas. 
 
 The date of the Kurma Purana cannot be very 
 remote ; for it is avowedly posterior to be estab- 
 lishment of the Tantrika, the Sakta and the Jaina 
 sects. In the twelfth chapter it is said : — " The 
 Vairava, Vama, Arhata, and Yamala Sastras are 
 intended for delusion. There is no reason to be- 
 lieve that the Vairava and Yamola Tantras are 
 are very ancient works, or that the practices of the 
 kft hand, Saktas, or the doctrines of Arhat or 
 Jina, were known in early centuries of our era. 
 
 i6. Matsya Purana. That in which, for the 
 sake of promulgating the Vedas, Vishnu, in the 
 beginning of a Kalpas related to Manu the story 
 of Narashimha, and the events of several Kalpas ; 
 that, O sages, know to be the Matsya Purana, 
 containing twenty thousand stanzas.'' 
 
 We might, it is to be supposed, admit the 
 
84 PURANAs, 
 
 description which the Matsya gives of itself to be 
 correct ; and yet, as regards the number of verses 
 there seems to be a mis-statemeiVt. Three very 
 good copies — one in my possession, one in the 
 Company's library, and one in Radcliffe library- 
 concur in all respects, and in containing no more 
 than between fourteen and fifteen thousand stanzas, 
 In this case Bhagavata is nearer the truth, when it 
 assigns to it fourteen thousand. We may conclude 
 therefore, that the reading of the passage is, in this 
 respect erroneous. It is correctly said, that the sub- 
 jects of the Purana were communicated by Vishnu, 
 in the form of fish, to Manu. 
 
 The Purana, after the usual prologue of Suta 
 and the Rishis, opens with the account of the 
 Matsya or fish Avatara of Vishnu, in which he pre- 
 serves a king, named Manu, with the seeds of all 
 things, in an ark, from the waters of that inunda- 
 tion which, in the season of a Pralaya, overspreads 
 the world. This story is told in the Mahabharata, 
 with reference to the Matsya as its authority ; from 
 which it might be inferred, that the Purana was 
 prior to the poem. This, of course, is consistent 
 with the tradition that the Furanas were first com- 
 posed by Vyasa. But there can be no doubt that 
 the greater part of the Mahabharata is much older 
 than any extant Purana. The present instance i^^ 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 85 
 
 itself, a proof; for the primitive simplicity with 
 which the story of the fish Avatara is told in the 
 Mahabharata, is of a much more antique com- 
 plexion than the mysticism and extravagance of 
 the actual Matsya Purana. In the former, Manu 
 collects the seeds of existing things in the ark ; it 
 is not said how: in the latter, he brings them 
 together by the power of Yoga. In the latter 
 the great serpent comes to the king, to serve as 
 a cord wherewith to fasten the ark to the horn of 
 the fish : in the former a cable made of ropes is 
 more intelligibly employed for the purpose. 
 
 Whilst the ark floats, fastened to the fish, Manu 
 enters into conservation with him ; and his ques- 
 tions and the replies of Vishnu form the main 
 substance of the compilation. The first subject is 
 the creation, which is that of Brahma and the 
 patriarchs. Some of the details are the usual 
 ones; others are peculiar, especially those relating 
 to the Pitris or progenitors. The regal dynasties 
 are next described ; and then follow chapters on 
 the duties of different orders. It is in relating 
 those of house-holders, in which the duty of making 
 gifts to Brahmana is comprehended, that we have 
 the specification of the extent and subjects of the 
 Puranas. It is meritorious to have copies made of 
 them, and to give them away on particular occa- 
 
86 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 sions. Thus, it is said, of Matsya : ''Whoever 
 gives it away at either equinox, along with a golden 
 fish, and a milch cow, gives away the whole earth 
 that is he reaps a like reward, in the next migration. 
 Special duties of the house-holder — Vratas or occa- 
 sional acts of piety — are then described at consi- 
 derable length, with legendary illustrations. The 
 account of the universe is given in the usual strain. 
 Saiva legends ensue; as the destruction of Tri- 
 purasura ; the war of the gods with Taraka and the 
 Daityas, and the consequent birth of Karttikeya, 
 with the various circumstances of Uma's birth and 
 marriage, the burning of Kamadeva, and other 
 events involved in that narrative ; The destruction 
 of the Asuras, Maya and Andhaka ; the origin of 
 the Matris, and the like ; interspersed with the 
 Vaishnava legends of the Avataras. Some Mahat- 
 myas contain some interesting particulars. There 
 are various chapters on law and morals, and one of 
 which furnishes directions for building houses and 
 making images. We then have an account of the 
 kings of future periods ; and the Purana concludes 
 with a chapter on gifts. 
 
 The Matsya Purana, it will be seen, even from 
 this brief sketch of its contents, is a miscellaneous 
 compilation, but including, in its contents, the 
 elements of a genuine Purana. At the same time 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 it is of too mixed a character to be considered as 
 a genuine work^ofthe Pauranik class ; and, upon 
 examining it carefully, it may be suspected that it is 
 indebted to various works, not only for* its matter, 
 but for its words. The geneological and historical 
 chapters are much the same as those of the Vishnu, 
 and many chapters as those on the pitris and 
 Sraddhas, are precisely the same as those of the 
 Sristi Khanda of the Padma Purana. It has 
 drawn largely also from the Mahabharat. Amongst 
 other instances, it is sufficient to quote the story 
 of Savitri, the devoted wife of Satyavat, which is 
 given in the Matsya in the same manner, but con- 
 siderably abridged. 
 
 Although a Saiva work, it is not exclusively so ; 
 and it has not such sectarial absurdities as the 
 Kurma and Linga. It is a composition of cons- 
 derable interest; but, if it has extracted its materials 
 from the Padma— which it also quotes on one 
 occasion, the specification of the Upapuranas,— it 
 is subsequent to that work, and, therefore, not 
 very ancient. 
 
 17. Garuda Purana. 'That which Vishnu re- 
 cited in the Garuda Kalpa, relating, chiefly, to the 
 birth of Garuda from Vinata, is here called the 
 Garuda Purana and in it there are read fifteen 
 thousand verses/'. 
 
88 
 
 The Garuda Parana which has been the su?k 
 ject of my examination corresponds^ln no respect 
 with this description, and is, probably a different 
 \\ork, though entitled the Garuda Purana. It is 
 identical,however,wrth two copies in the Company's 
 library. It consists of no more than about seven 
 thousand stanzas ; it is repeated by Brahma ta 
 Indra;andit contains no account of the birth of 
 Garuda. There is a brief notice of the creation ; 
 but the greater part is occupied with descriptioo 
 of Vratas or religious observances,, of bolydays, of 
 sacred places dedicated to the sun, and with 
 prayers from the Tantrika ritual addressed to the 
 sun, to Siva, and to Vishnu. It contains, also^ 
 chapters on astrology ,palmistry,and precious stones^ 
 and one, still more extensive on medicine. The 
 latter portion called the Preta Kalpa, is taken up 
 with directions for the performance of obsequial 
 rites. There is nothing, in all those, to justify the 
 application of the name. Whether a genuine 
 Garuda Purana exists is doubtful. The description 
 given in the Matsya is less particular than even the 
 brief notices of other Puranas and might have 
 easily been written without the knowledge of the 
 book itself ; being, with the exception of the number 
 of stanzas, confined to cireumstaaces that the title 
 aioue indicates^ 
 
FURANAS. 
 
 89 
 
 18. Brahmanda Purana. '*That which has 
 declareci, in tv^elve thousand two hundred verses^ 
 the magnificence of the egg of Brahma, and in 
 which the account of the future Kalpa is contained 
 is called the Brahmanda Purana and was revealed 
 by Brahma/' 
 
 The Brahmanda Purana is usually considered 
 to be in much the same predicament as the Skanda 
 no longer procurable in a collective body, but re- 
 presented by a variety of Skandas and Mahatmyas, 
 professing to be derived from it. The facility with 
 which any tract may be thus attached to the non- 
 existent original, and the advantage that has been 
 taken of its absence to compile a variety of un- 
 authentic fragments, has given to the Brahmanda, 
 Skanda, and Padma, according to Colonel Wilford, 
 the character, of being *^the Puranas of thieves or 
 imposters/' This is not applicable to the Padma, 
 which, as above shown, occurs entire and the same 
 in various parts of India. The imposition of which 
 the other two are made the vehicles can deceive no 
 one; as ihi purpose of the particular legend is al- 
 ways too obvious to leave any doubt of its origin. 
 
 Copies of what profess to be the entire Brah- 
 manda Purana are sometimes, though rarely, pro- 
 curable. I met with one in two portions, the for- 
 mer containing one hundred and twenty-fpur 
 
90 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 chapters, and the latter, seventy-eight ; and the 
 whole containing about the number of stanzas 
 to the Purana^ The first and largest portion, how- 
 ever, proved to be the same as the Vayu Purana, 
 with a passage occasionally slightly varied, and at 
 the end of each chapter the common phrase, Iti 
 Brahmanda Purane' substituted *Iti Vayu Purane/ 
 I do not think there was any intended fraud in the 
 substitution. The last section of the first part of 
 Vaya Purana is termed the Brahmanda section, 
 giving an account of the dissolution of the universe 
 and a careless or ignorant transcriber might have 
 taken this for the title of the whole. The checks 
 to the identity of the work have been honestly 
 preserved, both in the index and the frequent 
 specification of Vayu as the teacher or narrator of 
 it. The second portion of . this Brahmanda is not 
 any part of the Vayu ; it is, probably, current in the 
 Dakhin as a Sanihita or Khanda. Agastya is re- 
 presented as going to the city Kanchi (Ccnjevram), 
 1 where Vishnu, as Hayagriva, appears to him, and, 
 in answear to his inquiries, imparts to him the 
 means of salvation, the worship of Parasakti. In 
 illustration of the efficacy of this form of adora- 
 tion, the main subject of the work is an account 
 of the exploits of the Lalita Devi, a form of 
 Durga and her destruction of the demon Bhan- 
 
PURANA5. 
 
 91 
 
 dasur. Rules for her worship are decidedly of a 
 Sakta or Tantrlka type and this work cannot be ad- 
 mitted, therefore, to be a part of a genuine Purana. 
 
 UPAPURANAS. 
 The Upapuranas, in the few instances which 
 are known , differ a little in extent or subject, from 
 some of those to which the title of Purana is ascri- 
 bed. The Matsya enumerates but four ; but the 
 Devi Bhagavata has a more complete list and spe- 
 cifies eighteen. They are: i. Sanatkumar, 2. 
 Narasimha, 3. Naradiya, 4, Siva, 5. Durvasasa, 6. 
 Kapila, 7. Manava, 8. Ausanasa, 9. Varuna, 10. 
 Kalika, II. Samba, 12. Nandi, 12. Saura, 14, 
 Parasara, 15. Aditya, 16. Maheswara, 17. Bhaga- 
 vata 18. Vasistha. The Matsya observes, of the 
 second, that is named in the Padma Purana, and 
 contains eighteen thousand verses. The Nandi 
 is called Nanda, and says, that Karttikeya tells, in 
 it, the story of Nanda. A rather difierent list is 
 given in the Reva Khanda ; or : i. Sanatkumar, 2, 
 Narasimha, 3. Nanda, 4, Sivadharma, 5. Daurva- 
 * sasa, 6. Bhavishya, related by Narada or Naradiya 
 7. Kapila 8. Manava, 9. Ausanasa, 10. Brahmanda 
 II. Varuna, 12. Kalika, 13. Maheswara, 14. Samba 
 15. Saura, 16. Parasara, 17. Bhagavata, 18. Kaur- 
 
92 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 ma. These authorities, however, are of question- 
 able weight ; having in view, no doulit, the preten- 
 sions of the Devi Bhagavata to be considered as the 
 authentic Bhagavata. 
 
 Of these Upapuranas few are to be procured. 
 Those in my possession are the Siva, considered 
 as distinct from the Vayu, the Kalika, and, perhaps 
 one of the Naradiyas, as noticed above. I have, 
 also three of the Skandas of the Devi Bhagavata, 
 which, most undoubtedly, is not the real Bhaga- 
 vata, supposing that any Purana so named preceded 
 the work of Bopadeva. There can be no doubt 
 that in any authentic list the name of Bhagavata 
 does not occur .amongst that Upapuranas : It has 
 been tried there to prove that there are two works 
 so entitled, of which the Purana is the Devi Bhaga- 
 vata, the Upapurana, the Sri Bhagavata. The true 
 reading should be Bhargava, the Purana of Bhrigu 
 and the Devi Bhagavata is not even an Upapurana. 
 It is very questionable if the entire work, which, as 
 far as it extends, is eminently^ Sakta composition, 
 ever had existence. 
 
 The Siva Upapurana contains about six thou- 
 sand stanzas, distributed into two parts. It is 
 related by Sanatkumar to Vyasa and the Rishis at 
 Naimisharanya ; and its character may be judged 
 of from the questions to which it is a reply. 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 93 
 
 *'Teach us'* said the Rishis, *'the rules of worship- 
 ping the Linga, and of the god of gods adored 
 under * hat typ,e : describe to us his various forms, 
 the places sanctified by him, and the prayers with 
 which it is to be addressed.'' In answer, Sanat- 
 kumar repeats the Siva Purana, containing the 
 birth of Vishnu and Brahma ; the creation and 
 divisions of the universe ; the origin of all things 
 from the Linga; the rules of worshipping it and 
 Siva; the sancity of times, places, and things, [dedi- 
 dated to him, the delusion of Brahma and Vishnti 
 by the Linga; rules for various observances in 
 honor of Mahadeva ; the mode of practising the 
 Yoga; the glory of Benares and other Siva Tirthas; 
 and the perfection of the objects of life by union 
 with Maheswarar. These subjects are illustrated in 
 the first part, with very few legends ; but the second 
 is made up almost wholly, of Saiva stories, as th6 
 defeat of Tripurasura ; the sacrifice of Daksha ; the 
 births of Karttikeya and Ganesha, (the sons of Siva) 
 and Nandi and Bhringriti (his attendants), and 
 others ; together with descriptions of Beneras and 
 other places of pilgrimage, and rules for observing 
 such festivals as the Sivaratri. This work is a Saiva 
 manuel, not a Purana. 
 
 The Kalika Purana contains about nine thousand 
 Stanzas, in, ninety-eight chapters, and is the only 
 
94 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 work of the series dedicated to recommend the wor- 
 ship of the biide of Siva, in one or other of her 
 manifold forms, as Girija, Devi, Bh^drakali,* Kali, 
 Mahamaya. It belongs, therefore^, to the Sakia 
 modification of Hindu belief, or the worship of the 
 female powers of the deities. The influence of this 
 worship shows itself in the very first pages of the 
 work,which relates the incestuous passion of Brahma 
 for his daughter Sandhya, in a strain that has no- 
 thing analogous to it in the Vayu, Linga, or Siva 
 Puranas. 
 
 The marriage of Siva and Parvati is a subject 
 early described, with the sacrifice of Daksha, and 
 the death of Sati. And this work is an authority for 
 Siva's carrying the dead body about the world ; 
 and the origin of the Pithasthanas or places where 
 the different members of it were scattered, and 
 where Lingas were, consequently, erected. A 
 legend follows of the birth of Bhairava and Vetala 
 whose devotion to different forms of Devi furnishes 
 occasions to describe, in great details, the rites and 
 formulae of which her worship consists, including 
 the chapters on [sanguinary sacrifices, translated in 
 the Asiatic researches. Another pecularity in this 
 work is afforded by very prolix descriptions of a 
 number of rivers and mountains at Kamarupa 
 Tirtha, in Asam and rendered holy ground by the 
 
PUR ANAS. 
 
 95 
 
 celebrated temple of Durga in that country, as 
 Kamakshi or Kamaskya. It is a singular, and yet 
 uninvestigated? circumstance, tiiat Assam, or, at 
 least, the north-east of Bengal, see^iis to have been, 
 in great degree, the source from which *the Tantrika 
 and Sakta corruptions of the religion of the Vedas 
 and Puranas proceeded. 
 
 The specification of the Upapuranas, whilst it 
 names several of which the existence is problema- 
 tical, omits other works bearing the same designa- 
 tion, which are sometimes met with. Thus, in the 
 collection of Colonel Mackenzie, we have a portion 
 of the Bhgavata, and a Mudgala Purana, which is, 
 probably the same with the Ganesa Upanishada 
 cited by Colonel. Vans Kennedy. I have also, a 
 copy of the Ganesa Upapurana, which seems to 
 agree with that of which he speaks the second por- 
 tion being entiled the Krida Khanda, in which the 
 pastimes of Ganesa,including a variety of legendary 
 matters, are described, The main subject of the 
 work is the greatness of Vanesa : and prayers and 
 formulae appropriate to him are abundantly detailed. 
 It appears to be a work originating with the Gana- 
 patya sect or worshippers of Ganesa. There is, 
 also, a minor Purana called Adi or 'first,' not inclu^- 
 ded in the list. This is a work, however, of no 
 great extent or importauge, and is gonfined to a 
 
96 
 
 WRANAS. 
 
 •detail of the sports'of the juvenile Krishna. Ffoift 
 the sketch thus offered of the subjects of the Pura* 
 Has, and which, although admitting of collection, is 
 believed to be, in the main, a candid and accurate 
 summary, it will be evident, that in their present 
 conditions they must be received with caution, as 
 authorHies for the mythological religion of the Hin- 
 dus at any remote period. They preserve no doubt 
 many ancient notions and traditions ; but these have 
 been so much taken up with foreign matter intended 
 to favour the popularity of perticular forms of wor* 
 ship, or articles of faith, that they can not be unre- 
 servedly recognized as genuine representations of 
 what we have reason to believe the Puranas origin* 
 ally were. 
 
 The safest sources, for the ancient legends of 
 the Hindus, after the Vedas, are no doubt, the two 
 great poems, [the Ramayana and Mahabharata. 
 The first offers Only a [few ; but they are of a pri* 
 mitive character. The Mahabharata is more fer* 
 tile in fiction ; but it is more miscellaneous; and 
 much that it contains is of equivocal authenticity 
 [and uncertain date. Still, it affords many mate- 
 rials that are genuine : and it is, evidently, the 
 great fountain from which most, if not all, of the 
 . Puranas have drawn ; as it intimates, itself, when 
 U declares, that there is no legend (urrent ia tUe 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 97 
 
 world which has not its origin in the Mahabharata. 
 
 A work of some extent, professing to be part 
 of the Mahabharata, may, more accurately, be 
 ranked with the Pauranik compilatiops of least 
 authenticity and latest origin. The Harivamsa is 
 chiefly occupied with the adventures of Krishna'; 
 but, as introductory to his era, it records particulars 
 of the creation of the world, and of the partiar- 
 chal and regal dynasties. This is done with much 
 carelessness and inaccurancy of compilation ; as 
 1 have had occasion, frequently, to notice in the 
 following pages. The work has been very indus- 
 triously translated by M. Langlois, 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF VISHNUPURAN. 
 
 A comparison of the subjects of the following 
 pages with those of the other Puranas will suffi* 
 ciently show, that, of the whole series, the Vishnu 
 most closely conforms to the definition of a Pancha 
 Lakshana Purana, or one which treats of five 
 specified topics. It comprehends them all; and 
 although it has infused a portion of extraneous and 
 seetarial matter, it has done so with sobriety and 
 with judgement, and has not suffered the fervour 
 of its religious zeal to transport it into ver)' wide 
 7 
 
98 
 
 PUR AN AS. 
 
 deviations from th« prescribed path. The legen- 
 dary tales which it has inserted are few, ^nd are 
 conveniently arranged, as that they do not distract 
 the attentioi? of the compiler from objects of more 
 permanent interest and importance. 
 
 The first book of the six, into which the work 
 is divided, is occupied chiefly with the details of 
 creation, primary (Sarga) and secondary (Prati* 
 sarga) ; the first explaining how the universal pro- 
 ceeds from Prakriti or eternal crude matter ; the 
 second in what manner the forms of things are 
 developed from the elementary substances pre- 
 viously evolved, or how they reappear after their 
 temporary destruction. Both these creations are 
 periodical; but the termination of the first occurs 
 only at the end of the life of Brahma, when not 
 only all the gods and all other forms are annihilat- 
 ed, but the elements are again merged into {primary 
 substance, besides which, one only spiritual being 
 exists. The latter takes place at the end of every 
 Kalpa or day of Brahma, and affects on\^ the 
 forms of inferior creatures, and lower worlds ; leav^ 
 ing the aubstance of the universe entire, and 9flges : 
 wd gods unharmed. The explanation of tbes^e 
 events involves a description of the periods of time 
 upon which they depend, and which are, accords 
 in^ly, detailed, Their character has been a source?, , 
 
99 
 
 of every unntices^aty f^rplexity to European 
 writersij as the^ belong to a scheme of chronology 
 wholly mythological, having no reference to any 
 real or supposed history of the Hindus,* but appli- 
 cable, according to their system, to the infinite and 
 eternal revolutions of the universe. In these no- 
 tions, and in that of the co-eternity of the spirit 
 and matter, the theogony and cosmogony of the 
 Puranas, as they appear in the Vishnu Purana, 
 belong to and illustrate systems of high antiquity, 
 of which we have only fragmentary traces in the 
 records of other nations. 
 
 The course of the elemental creation is, in the 
 Vishnu, as in other Puranas, taken from the Sankya 
 philosophy; but the agency that operates upon 
 passive matter is confusedly exhibited, in conse- 
 quence of a partial adoption of the illusory theory 
 df the Vedanta philosophy, and the prevalence of 
 Pauranik doctrine of pantheism. However incom- 
 patible with the independent existence of Pradhan 
 or crude matter, and however incongruous with 
 the separate condition of pure spirit or Purusha, it 
 is declared, repeatedly, that Vishnu, as one with 
 the supreme being, is not only spirit, but crude 
 nsatter, and not only the latter, but all visible sub- 
 stance, and Time. He is Purusha, 'spirit' ; Pra- 
 dhana, 'crude matter'; Vyakta, /visible form'; aa4 
 
100 PURANAS. 
 
 Kala, 'time'. This cannot but be regarded as a 
 departure from the primitive dogmas of the Hmdus, 
 in which the distinctness of the Deity and his 
 ; works was enunciated ; in which, upon bis willing 
 the world to be, it was ; and in which his inter- 
 position in creation, held to be inconsistent with 
 the quiescence of perfection, was explained away 
 by the personification of attributes in action, which 
 afterwards came to be considered as real divinities, 
 Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, charged, severally, for 
 a given season^ with the creation, preservation and 
 temporary annihilation of material forms. These 
 divinities are, in the following pages, consistently 
 with the tendency of a Vaishnava work, declared 
 to be no other than Vishnu. In Saiva Puranas, 
 they are, in like*manner, identified with Siva ; the 
 Puranas thus displaying and explaining incompati- 
 bility, of which there are traces in other ancient 
 mythologies, between three distinct hypostases of 
 one superior deity, and the identification of one or 
 other of those hypostases with their common and 
 separate original. 
 
 After the world has been fitted for the reception 
 of living creatures, It is peopled by the will- 
 engendered sons of Brahma, the Prajapatis or 
 patriarchs, and their posterity. It would seem as if 
 a. primitive tradition of the descent of mankind froiu 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 101 
 
 seven holy personages had at first prevailed, but 
 that, 11/ the course of time, it had been expanded 
 into complicated, and not always consistent, ampli- 
 fication. How could these Rishis oi patriarchs 
 have posterity ? It was necessary to provide them 
 with wives. In order to account for their existence, 
 the Manu Swayambhuva and his wife Satarupa 
 were added to the scheme. Or Brahma became 
 twofold, male and female ; and daughters are then 
 begotten, who are married to the Prajapatis. Upon 
 this basis various legends of Brahma's double 
 nature, some, no doubt, as old as the Vedas, have 
 been constructed. But, although they may have 
 been derived, in some degree, from the authentic 
 tradition of the origin of mankind from a single 
 pair, yet the circumstances intended to give more 
 interest and precision to the story are, evidently, of 
 an allegorical or mystical description, and con- 
 ducted, in apparently later timeS; to a course 
 of realization which was neither the letter nor spirit 
 of the original legend. Swayambhuva the son of 
 the self-born or uncreated, and his wife Satarupa, 
 the hundred-fotmed or multiform, are, themselves, 
 allegories; aud their female descendants, who 
 became the wives of the Rishis, are Faith, Devo- 
 tion, Content, Intelligence, Tradition, and the like ;< 
 whilst, amongst their posterity, we have the difier# 
 
102 
 
 PURANASr 
 
 ent phases o£ the moon and the sacrificial fires. 
 In another creation, the chief source of creatures 
 is the patriarch Daksha (ability ),whose daughters- 
 virtues^ or Passions, or Astronomical Phenomena — 
 are the mothers of all existing things. These 
 legends, perplexed as they appear to be, seem to 
 admit of allowable selection, in the conjecture that 
 the Prajapatis and Rtshis were real personages, the 
 authors of the Hindu system of social, moral, and 
 religious obligations, and the first observers of the 
 heavens, and teachers of astronomical science. 
 
 The regal personages of Swayambhuva Man- 
 wantara are but few ; but they are described, in 
 the outset, as governing the earth in the dawn of 
 society and as introducing agriculture and civiliza- 
 tion. How much of their story rests upon a tradi- 
 tional remembrance of their actions, it would be 
 useless to conjecture; although there is no extrava- 
 gance in supposing that the legends relate to a 
 period prior to full establishment, in India, of the 
 Brahmanical institutions. The legends of Dhruva 
 and Prahlada, which are intermingled with these 
 particulars, are, in all probability, ancient; but 
 they are amplified, in a strain conformable to 
 the Vaishnava purport of this Parana, by doctyine^ 
 and prayers asserting the identity of Vishnu with 
 Sapreipe^ It is clear that the stories do npt origin 
 
PUR AN AS. 
 
 103 
 
 nate With this Patanl. In that of Prahlad^, parti, 
 cularlyi* as he^fter pointed Out/ circumstances 
 essential to the completeness of the story are only 
 alluded to, not recounted; showing, indisputably, 
 the writer having availed himself of 6ome prior 
 authority for his narration. 
 
 The second book opens with a continuation of 
 the kings of the first Manwantaraf amongst whom, 
 Bharata is said to have given a name to India, 
 called, after him, Bharata- Varsha. This leads to a 
 detail of the geographical system of the Paranas, 
 with mount Meru, the seven circular continents, 
 and their surrounding oceans, to the limits of the 
 world ; all of which are mythological fictions, in 
 which there is little reason to imagine that any to- 
 pographical truths are concealed. With regard to 
 Bharata or India, the case is different. The moun- 
 tains and rivers which are named are readily verifi- 
 able ; and the cities and the nations that are parti- 
 cularized may, also in many instances, be proved to 
 have had a real existence. The list is not a very 
 long one, in the Vishnu Purana, and is, probably, 
 abridged from some more ample detail, lik6 that 
 which the Mahabharata affords, and which, in the 
 hope of supplying information .with respect to a sub- 
 ject yet imperfeGriy investigated, the ancient political ' 
 cmiiiion of India, I have ii^serted and elucidated. 
 
104 
 
 PURANAs. 
 
 The description which this book also contains 
 ei the planetary and other spheres, is rqually sny tho* 
 logical, although occasionaily presenting practical 
 details and nation in which there is an approach to 
 accuracy. The concluding legend of Bharata— in 
 his former life, the king so named, but now a 
 Brahman, who acquires true wisdom, and thereby 
 attains, liberation — is, palpably, an invention of the 
 compiler and is peculiar to this Purana. 
 
 The arrangement of the Vedas and other writ- 
 ings considered sacred by the Hindus — being in 
 fact, the authorities of their religious rites and 
 belief, — which is described in the beginning of the 
 third book, is of much importance to the history 
 of Hindu literature and of the Hindu religion. 
 The sage V^asa is here represented, not as the 
 author but the arranger or compiler, of the Vedas, 
 the Itihasas, and Puranas. His name denotes his 
 character, meaning the * arranger' or 'distributor'; 
 and the recurrence of many Vyasas, many indi- 
 duals who re-modelled the Hindu scriptures, 
 has nothing, in it, that is improbable, except the 
 fabulous intervals by which their labours are 
 separated. The re-arranging, the re-fashioning, of 
 old materals is nothing more than the progress 
 of time would be Jikely to render necessary. The 
 last recognizing compilation is that of Krishna 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 105 
 
 Dwaipayana, assisted by Brahmans, who were al- 
 ready •convers.^nt with the subjects respectively, 
 assigned to them. They were the members of 
 the College, or school, supposed by* the Hindus 
 to have flourished in a period more remote, no 
 doubt, than the truth, but not at all unlikely to 
 have been instituted at some time prior to the 
 accounts of India which we owe to Greek writers, 
 and in which we see enough of the system 
 to justify our inferring that it was then entire. 
 That there have been other Vyasas and other 
 schools since that date, that Brahmans unknown 
 to fame have remodelled some of the Hindu 
 scriptures, and especially, the Puranas, cannot 
 reasonably be contested, after dispassionately 
 weighing the strong internal evidence, which all of 
 them afford, of their intermixture of unauthorized 
 and comparatively modern ingredients. But the 
 same internal testimony furnishes proof equally 
 decisive, of the anterior existence of ancient 
 materials; and it is, therefore, as idle as it H 
 irrational, to dispute the antiquity or authenticity 
 of the greater portion of the contents of the 
 Puranas, in the face of abundant positive and 
 circumstantial evidence of the* prevalance of the 
 doctrines which they teach, the currency of the 
 legeads which thqy narrate, and the intdgi ity of 
 
I06 
 
 the institutions which they describe, at least three 
 centuries before the Christian era. cBut the« origin 
 developement of their doctrines, traditions, 
 ^nd institutions were not the work of a day ; and 
 the testimony that establishes their existence three 
 centuries before Christianity, carries it back to a 
 much more remote antiquity^ to an antiquity that 
 i^, probably, not surpassed by any of the Iprevail- 
 ing fictions, institutions, or belief of the ancient 
 world. 
 
 The remainder of the third book describes 
 the leading institutions of the Hindus, the duties 
 of castes, the obligations of different stages ©£ 
 life, and the celebration of obsequial rites, in a 
 short but primitive strain, and in hermony with 
 the laws of Manu, It is a distinguishing feature 
 of the Vishnu Purana, and it is characteristic of 
 its being the [work of no earlier period than most 
 of the Puranas, that it enjoins no sectarial or other 
 acts of supererogation; no Vratas^ or occasional 
 self imposed observances, no holiday^ no birthdays 
 of Krishna, no nights dedicated to Lakshmi ; 
 no sacrifices or modes or worship other than those 
 conformable to the ritual of the Vedas. It con- 
 tains no Mahatmy^ or golden legends, even of 
 the temples in which Vishnu is adored. 
 
 The fourth book contains alt that the Hindus 
 
puranas. 
 
 107 
 
 have of their ancient history^ It is a tolerably 
 comprehensive Jist oi dynasties and individuals : 
 it is a barren record of events. It can scarcely 
 be doubted, however, that much of it Is a genuine 
 chronicle of persons, if not of occurances. That 
 it is discredited by palpable absurdities in regard 
 to the longevity of the princes of the earlier dynas-» 
 ties, must be granted; and the particulars 
 preserved of some of them, are trivial and fabulous. 
 Still, there is an artificial simplicity and consistency 
 in ttee succession of persons, and a possibility 
 and probability in some of the transactions, which 
 give to these traditions the semblance of authentic 
 city, and render it likely, that these are not alto** 
 gether without foundation. At any rate, m the 
 absence of all other sources of information, the 
 record, such as it is, deserves not to be altogether 
 set aside. It is not essential to its credibility; 
 or its usefulness, that any exact chronological 
 adjustment of the difierent reigns should be at^ 
 tempted. Their distribution amoi^gst the several 
 yugas, undertaken by Sir William Jones, Or bis 
 Pandits^ finds no countenance from the original 
 texts, further than an incidental notice of the 
 a|:e in which a particular monarch ruled, or the 
 genera^l ia<ct tteal; the dynai5tie& prior to Krishna 
 pr€{Cpd§ ;th9 M"!^ Qi thje greal jr^if andthje bepn-^ 
 
io8 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 ning: of the Kali age, both which events, 
 are placed five thousand years ago. To that 
 age the solar dynasty of princes offers ninety- 
 three descents, the lunar, but forty five ; though 
 they both commence at the same time. Some 
 names may have been added to the former 
 list, some omitted in the latter; and it seems 
 most likely, that, notwithstanding their synchro- 
 nous beginning, the princes of the lunar race 
 were subsequet to those of the solar dynasty. 
 They avowedly branched off from the solar line; 
 and the legend of Sudyumna, that explains the con-- 
 nexion, has every appearance of having been contri- 
 ved for the purpose of referring it to a period 
 more remote than the truth. Deducting, however, 
 from the larger number of princes a considerable 
 proportion, there is nothing to shock probability in 
 supposing, that the Hindu dynasties and their rami- 
 fications were spread through an interval of about 
 twelve centuries anterior to the war of the Maha- 
 bharata, and, conjecturing that event to have hap- 
 pened about fourteen centuries before Christianity 
 thus carrying the commencement of the regal 
 dynasties of India to about two thousand six hun- 
 dred years before that date. This may, or may 
 not, be too remote ; but it is suflScient, in a subject 
 where precision is impossiblei to be satisfied with: 
 
the general impression, that, in the dynasties of 
 kings detailed \^ the Puranas, we have a record 
 which, although it can not fail to have suffered 
 detriment from age, and may have beens injured by 
 careless or injudicious compilation, preserves an 
 account not wholly undeserving of confidence, of 
 the establishment and succession of regular monar- 
 chies, amongst the Hindus, from as early an era, 
 and for as continuous a duration, as any in the cre- 
 dible annals of mankind. 
 
 The circumstances that are told of the first 
 princes have evident relation to the colonization 
 of India, and the gradual extension of the authority 
 of new races over an uninhabitant or uncivilized 
 region. It is commonly admitted, that the 
 Brahmanical religion and civilization were brought 
 into India from without. Certainly, there are 
 tribes on the borders, and in the heart of the 
 country, who are still not Hindus, and ^passages in 
 the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and Manu, and 
 the uniform tradition of the people themselves, 
 point to a period when Bengal, Orrssa, and the 
 whole of the Dakhin were inhabited by degraded 
 or outcaste, that is, by barbarous, tribes. The 
 ^ traditions of the Puranas confirm these views : but 
 they lend no assistance to the determination of the 
 question whence the Hindus came ; whether from 
 
IK) 
 
 PWANAS. 
 
 a centred asiatic nation, as Sir William Jones sup- 
 posed, or from the Caucasiatt ^oiintaii;»,Sj the 
 plains of Babylonia, or the borders of the Caspian, 
 as conjectur^ed bj Klaproth, Vans Kennedy, and 
 Schlegel. The affinities of Sanskrit language 
 prove a common origin of the new widely scattered 
 nations amongst whose dialects they are traceable, 
 and render it unquestionable that they must all 
 have spread abroad from some central spot in 
 that part of the globe first inhabited by mankind, 
 according to the inspired record. Whether any 
 indication of such an event be discoverable in the 
 Vedas, remains to be determined ; but it would 
 have been obviously incompatible with the Paura- 
 nik; system to have referred the origion of Indian 
 princes and principalities to other than native 
 sources. We need not, therefore, expect, from them 
 any information as to the foreign derivation of the 
 Hindus. 
 
 We have, then, wholly insufficient means for 
 arriving at any information concerning the Anti- 
 Indian period of Hindu History,beyond the general 
 conclusion derivable from the actual presence of / 
 barbarous and, apparently, aboriginal tribes — from . 
 the admitted progressive extension of Hinduism 
 into parts of India where it did not prevail when 
 the code of Manu was compiled--from the general 
 
PURANAS* 
 
 II I 
 
 use of dialects \n Indh, tbotq less copious, which 
 are difi^erent from Sanskrit— and irom the affini- 
 ties of that language wltb forms of speech cmrent 
 ia the western world— that a people ^ who spoke 
 Sanskrit, and followed the religion af the Vedas, 
 came into India, in some very distant age, from 
 lands west of the Indus, Whether the date and 
 circumstances of their immigratien will ever be 
 ascertained, is extemely doubtful : but it is di^cult 
 to form a plausible outline of their early site and 
 progressive colonization. 
 
 The earliest seat of the Hindus, within the con- 
 fines of Hindustan, was, undoubtedly, the eastern 
 confines of the Panjab. The holy land of Manu • 
 and the Puranas lies between the Drishadwati and 
 Sataswaii rivers, — the Caggar and Sursooty of our 
 barbarous maps. Various adventures of the first 
 princes and most famous sages occur in this vici* 
 nity ; and the Asrams or religious domiciles of 
 several of the latter are placed on the bank of the 
 Saraswati According to some authorities, it was 
 the abode of Vyasa, the compiler of the Vedas arid > 
 Purans ; and, agreeably to another, when, on one ' 
 occasion, the Vedas had fallen into disuse and 
 been forgotten, the Brahmana§ were instructed in 
 them by Saraswata, the son of Saraswti. One of 
 the nw)8t distinguished of the tribes of the Brah- 
 
112 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 manas is known as the Saraswata ; and the same 
 word was employed, by Mr. Colebrqoke, to denote 
 that modification of Sanskrit which is termed 
 generally Pr^kriti, and which, in this case, he sup- 
 poses to have been the language of the Saraswata 
 nation, "which occupied the banks of the river 
 Saraswati/* The river itself receives its appellation 
 from Saraswati, the goddess of learning, under 
 whose auspicies the sacred literature of the Hindus 
 assumed shape and authority. These indications 
 render its certain, that, whatever creeds were import- 
 ed from without, it was in the country adjacent 
 to the Saraswati river that they were first planted, 
 land cultivated, and reared in Hindusthan. 
 
 The tract of land thus assigned for the first 
 establishment of Hinduism in India, is of very 
 circumscribed extent, and could not have been 
 the site of any numerous tribe or nation. The 
 traditions that evidence the early settlement of 
 the Hindus in this quarter, ascribe to the settlers 
 more of a philosophical and religious, than of 
 a seculior, character, and combine, with the very 
 narrow bounds of the holy land, to render it 
 possible, that the earliest emigrants were the 
 members, not of a political, so much as of a 
 religious, community ; that thy were a colony of 
 priests, not in the restricted sense in which we use 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 the term, but in that in which it still applies in 
 India, ?o an Ag»rahara, a village or hamlet of Brah- 
 raans who, although married, and having families, 
 and engaging in tillage, in domestic duties, aiid 
 in the conduct of secular interests affecting the 
 community, are still, supposed to devote their 
 principal attention to sacred study and religious 
 offices. A society of this description, with its arti- 
 ficers and servants, and, perhaps, with a body of 
 martial followers, might have found a home in the 
 Brahmanvarta of Manu, the land, which thence, 
 was entitled the * holy,' or mor« literally, the 
 Brahman, religious," and may have communicated 
 to the rude, uncivilized, unlettered aborigines> the 
 rudiments of social organization, literature, and 
 religion ; and partly, in all probablity, brought 
 along with them, and partly devised and fashioned 
 by degrees, for the growing necessities of new 
 conditions of society. Those, with whom this 
 civilization commenced, would have had ample 
 inducements to prosecute their successful work ; 
 and in the course of time, the improvement, which 
 germinated on tbe banks of the Saraswati, was 
 extended beyond the borders of the Jamuna and 
 the Ganges, ' 
 
 We have no satisfactory intimation of the stages 
 hj whi^h the pgliti<;al grg^nizaticn of the people 
 8 
 
114 
 
 PURANAs. 
 
 of Upper India traversed the space between the 
 Saraswati and the more easterly co^mtry, wfeere it 
 seems to have taken a concentrated form, and 
 whence it diverged, in various directions, through- 
 out Hindustan. The Manu of the period, Vaivas- 
 wata, the son of the sun, is regarded as the founder 
 of Ayodhya; and that city continued to be the 
 capital of the most celebrated branch of his des- 
 cendants, the posterity of Ikshwaku. The Vishnu 
 Purana evidently intends to describe the tradition 
 of conquest or colonization from this spot, in the 
 accounts it gives of the dispersion of Vaivaswata's 
 posterity ; and although it is difficult to understand 
 what could have led early settlers in India to such 
 a site, it is not inconveniently situated as a com- 
 manding position whence emigrations might pro- 
 ceed to the east, the west, and the south. This 
 seems to have happened. A branch from the 
 house of Ikshwaku spread into Tirhoot constituting 
 the Maithili kings and the posterity of another of 
 Vaivaswata's sons reigned at Vaisati, in Southern 
 Tirhoot^ or Sarun. 
 
 The most adventurous emigration, however,. 
 tQok place through the lunar dynasty, which as 
 observed above, originates from the solar; making 
 in fact,., but one race and, source for the whole. 
 I^eayipg out of gonsideraiio^ the legend of Sudy/.^ 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 umna's double transformation, the first prmce of 
 Pratirfithana,-a city south from Ayodhya, was one 
 of Vaivaswata's children, equally with IkshwakU. 
 The sons of Pururavas, the second o^ this branch, 
 extended by themselves, or their posterity, in every 
 direction : to the east, to Kasi, Magadha, Benares, 
 and Behar ; southwards, to the Vindhya hills, and, 
 across them, to Vidharva or Behar; and westwards 
 along the Narmada, to Kusasthali or Dwaraka, 
 in Gujrat; arid in a north-westerly direction, to 
 Mathura and Hastinapur. These movements are 
 very distinctly discoverable amidst the circum- 
 stances narrated in the fourth book the Vishnu 
 Purana, and are precisely such as might be ex. 
 pected from a radiation of colonies from Ayodhya. 
 Intimations also occur of settlements in Bangal, 
 Kalinga, and the Dukshin ; but they are brief and 
 indistinct, and have the appearance of additions 
 subsequent to the comprehension of those countries 
 within the pole of Hinduism. 
 
 Besides these traces of migration and settle- 
 ment, several curious circumstances, not likely to 
 be unauthorized inventions, are hinted in these 
 historical traditions. The distinction of castes was 
 'not fully developed prior to ^he coloni2;ation. Of 
 the sons of Vaivaswata, some, as kings, were 
 Kshatriyas; but one founded a tribe of Brahmans, 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 and another became a Vaisya, and a fourtli^ a 
 Sudra. It is also said, of other pri^ices, th^t they 
 established the four castes amongst their subjects. 
 There are 5IS0 various notices of Brahmanical 
 Gotras or families proceeding from Kshatriya races 
 and there are several indications of severe struggles 
 between the two ruling castes, not for temporal 
 but for spiritual dominion — the right to teach the 
 tie Vedas. This seems to be the especial purport 
 of the inveterate hostility that prevailed between 
 the Brahmana Vas istha, and Kshatriya Viswamitra, 
 who, as the Ramayan relates, compelled the gods 
 to make him iBrahmana also, and whose posterity 
 became celebrated as the Kausika Brahman. 
 Other legends, again such as Daksha's sacrifice, 
 denote sectarian strife; and the legend of Para- 
 surama reveals a conflict even for temporal autho- 
 rities, between the two ruling castes. More or less 
 weight will be attached to these conjectures, ac- 
 cording to the temperament of different inquiries. 
 But, even, whilst fully aware of the facility with 
 which plausible deductions may cheat the fancy, 
 and little disposed to relax all curb upon the 
 imagination, I find it difficult to regard these 
 legends as wholly unsubstantial fictions, or devoi(! 
 of all resemblance to the realities of the past. 
 After the date of the great war, the Yishau 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 117 
 
 Parana, in common with those Puranas, which con- 
 tain si/niliar li^ts, specifies kings and dynasties with 
 greater precision, and offers political and chrono- 
 logical particulars to which, on the iscore of pro- 
 bability, there is nothing to object. In truth 
 their general accuracy has been incontrovertibly 
 established. Inscriptions on columns of stone 
 on rocks, on coins, deciphered only of late years, 
 through the extraordinary ingenuity and persever- 
 ance of Mr. James Prinsep, have verified the 
 names of races and titles of princes— the Gupta 
 and Andhra Rajas, mentioned in the Puranas— and 
 have placed beyond dispute the ideritity of Chandra- 
 gupta and Sandrocoptus ; thus giving us a fixed 
 point from which to compute the date of other 
 persons and events. Thus the Vishnu Purana 
 specifies -the interval, between the Chandragupta 
 and the great war, to be eleven hundred years ; and 
 the occurance of the latter little more than fourteen 
 centuries B. C. as shown in my observations on 
 the passage, remarkably concurs with inferences 
 of the like date from different premises. The 
 historical notices that then follow are considerably 
 confused ; but they probably afford an accurate 
 .picture of the political distractions of India at the 
 time when they were written : and much of the per* 
 plexity arises from the corrupt state of the manus- 
 
*r'|58 PURANAS. 
 
 cripts, the obscure brevity of the record, and our 
 total want of the means of collateral €ilIustrafe^ion. 
 
 The fifth book of the Vishnu Purana is exclu- 
 sively occupied with the life of Krishna. This is 
 'one of the distinguishing characteristics of the 
 Purana, and is one argument against its antiquity. 
 It is possible, though not yet proved, that Krishna 
 ^as an Avatara of Vishnu, is mentioned in an 
 indisputably genuine text of the Vedas. He is 
 conspicuously prominent in the Mahabharata, but 
 very contradictorily described there. The part 
 ^that he usually performs is that of a mere mortal ; 
 although the passages are numerous that attach 
 divinity to his person. There are, however, no 
 descriptions, in the Mahabharata, of his juvenile 
 frolics, of his sports in Brindabana, his pastimes 
 with the cow-boys, or even his destruction of the 
 Asuras sent to kill him. These stories have, all, 
 a modern complexion ; they do not harmonize with 
 ^he ancient legend, which, is generally, grave, 
 and, sometimes, majestic. They are the creation 
 of a purile taste and grovelling imagination. These 
 chapters of the Vishnu Porana cifer some diffi- 
 culties as to their originality. They are the same 
 lis those on the sam^ subject in the Brahma Purana; 
 they sire not very dissimilar to those of the Bhaga- 
 vata. The latter has some incidents which the 
 
PURANAS. 
 
 Vishnu has not, and may, therefore, be thought to 
 have irr^proved^^^ upon the prior narrative of the 
 latter. On the other hand, abridgement is equally 
 a proof of posterity, as amplificAtion. The 
 simpler style of Vishnu Purana is, however, in 
 favour of its priority ; and miscellaneous composi- 
 tion of the Brahnria Purana renders it likely to have 
 borrowed these chapters from the Vishnu. The 
 life of Krishna in the Hari Vamsha and the Brahma 
 Vaivarta are, indisputably, of later origin. 
 
 The last contains an account of the dissolution 
 of the world, in both its major and minor cata- 
 clysms ; and, in the particulars of the end of all 
 things by fire and water, as well as in the principle 
 of their perpetual renovation, presents . a faithful 
 exhibition of opinions that were general in the 
 ancient world. The metaphysical annihilation of 
 the universe, by the release of the spirit from bodily 
 existence, offers, as already remarked, other ana- 
 logies to doctrines and practices taught by Pytha- 
 goras and Plato, and by the Platonic Christians of 
 later days. 
 
 The Vishnu Purana has kept very clear of 
 particulars from which an approximation to its 
 date may. be conjectured. Nq place is described 
 of jvhich the sacredness has any known limit, nor 
 anx;^work gited of probabje reQej\t QompositlonM 
 
120 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 The Vedas, the Puranas, other works forming the 
 body of Sanskrit literature, are namec^ ; and '^o is 
 the Mahabharat, to which, therefore, ' it is subse- 
 quent. Both 'Buddhas and Jainas are averted to. 
 It was, therefore, written before the former had 
 dissappeared. But they existed, in some parts 
 of India, as late as the twelfth century, at least ; 
 and it is probable that the Puranas were compiled 
 before that period. The Gupta kings reigned in 
 the seventh century. The historical record, of the 
 Purana which mentions them, was therefore, latter : 
 and there seems little doubt that the same alludes 
 to the first incursions of the Mahommadans, which 
 took place in the eighth century ; which brings 
 it still lower. In describing the latter dynasties, 
 some, if not all, of which were, no doubt, contem^ 
 porary, they are described as reigning, altogether, 
 one thousand seven hundred and ninety six years. 
 Why this duration should have been chosen doe 
 not appear; unless, in conjunction with the number 
 of years which are said to have elapsed between the 
 Great War and the last of the Andhra dynasty, which 
 preceded these different races, and which amount- 
 ed to two thousand three hnndred and fifty, the 
 compiler was influenced by the actual date at which 
 he wrote. The aggregate of the two periods would 
 be the Kalryeaii: 4146, equivalent to A. D. i045» 
 
PURANAS, 
 
 121 
 
 There are same variety and indistinctness in the 
 enumviration the periods which compose this 
 total : but the date which results it is not unlikely 
 to be an approximation to that oi' the Vishnu 
 Purana. 
 
 It is the boast of inductive philosophy, that it 
 draws its conclusions from the careful observation 
 an4 accumulation of facts ; and it is, equally, the 
 business of all philosophical research to determine 
 its facts before it ventures upon speculation. This 
 procedure has not been observed in the investiga- 
 tion ot mythology and traditions of the Hindus. 
 Impatience to generalize has availed itself greedily 
 of whatever promised to afford materials for genera- 
 lization ; and the most erroneous views have been 
 confidently avocated, because the guides to which 
 their authors tiusted were ignorant or insufficient. 
 The information gleaned by Sir William Jones was 
 rather in an early season of Sanskrit study, before 
 the field was cultivated. The same may be said of 
 the writings of Paslinoda S. Bartolomeo, with the 
 further disadvantage of his having been imperfectly 
 acquainted with the Sanskrit language and litera- 
 ture, and his veiling his deficiencies under loftiness 
 of pretension and a prodigal display of misappliqci 
 erudition. The documents to which Wilford trust- 
 ed proved to be, iiv great^ pi^U, fabrications, and 
 
122 
 
 PURANAS. 
 
 where genuine were mixed up with so much loose 
 and unauthenticated matter and so bverwheimed 
 with extravagance of speculation, that his citations 
 need to be carefully and skilfully sif4;ed, before 
 they can be serviceably employed. The descrip- 
 tions of Ward are too deeply tinctured by his preju- 
 dices to be implicity confided in ; and they are 
 also derived, in a great measure, from the oral or 
 written communications of some Pandits, who 
 ate not, in general, very deeply read in the authori- 
 ties of their mythology. The accounts of Tolier 
 were, in like manner, collected from questionable 
 sources; and his My thologic des Indous presents 
 an heterogeneous mixture of popular and Puranik 
 tales, of ancient traditions, and legends apparently 
 invented for the occasion, which renders the publi- 
 cation worse than useless, except in the hands of 
 those who can distinguish the pure metal from the 
 alloy. Such are the authorities to which Maurice, 
 Taber, and Crenzer have exclusively trusted, in 
 their description of the Hindu mythology; and it is 
 no marvel that there should have been an utter 
 confounding ofgood andbad in their selection of 
 materials, and an inextricable mixture of truth and 
 ^rror in their ccnclusiuns. 
 
THE SOCIETY FOR THE RESUSCITATION OF 
 mDIAN LITERATURE- 
 OBJECTS. 
 
 1. To undertake the publication of rare Sanskrit 
 texts not published before, 
 
 2. To undertake the publication of cheap editions 
 of the texts already published. 
 
 3. To publish popular editions of works relating 
 to the antiquity of Indian literature. 
 
 4. To publish such works of oriental scholars as 
 are already out of print. 
 
 5. To undertake translations of standard Sans« 
 krit works into various living languages. 
 
 For other particulars please apply 
 
 To THE Secretary. 
 65/2 Beadon Streetj Calcutta, 
 
 N» Any donation or pecuniary help may be 
 forwarded to the Secretary.