Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c8.37

c8.37

Genealogies and the deeds of famous kings and rishis constituted two subjects. Traditions about gods and (to some extent) the most ancient rishis and kings would divide themselves into the three subjects of creation, its obvious end and dissolution, and the Manvantaras. The matters then with which the Purana would have dealt were these five subjects, and the truth of the old verse about the five subjects that every Purana should treat of becomes manifest, namely, original creation, dissolution and re-creation, the Manvantaras, ancient genealogies and accounts of persons mentioned in the genealogies.² These gave rise to the term pañca-lakṣaṇa, as a special epithet of the ‘Purana’. This term manifestly could not have been coined after the Puranas substantially took their present composition, comprising great quantities of other matters, especially brahmanic doctrine and ritual, dharma of all kinds, and the merits of tīrthas, which are often expounded with emphatic prominence. It belongs to a time before these matters were incorporated into the Puranas. It is therefore ancient, characterizes the earliest Puranas, and shows what their contents were.