History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c90.14
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c90.14
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v7.c90.14.1
From the above discussion it appears that, though we are not in a position to make definite statements about the contents of the Purāṇa or Purāṇas referred to in the Atharva, Śat. Br, Tai. Ār. and the Upaniṣads, by the time of Āp. and Gautama, Purāṇas approaching in contents to some extent at least some of the extant Purāṇas had come into existence. The Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya states that ¹³³¹ 'trayī' means the three Vedas, viz. Sāmaveda, Ṛgveda, Yajurveda and that the Atharvaveda and Itihāsaveda are (also) vedas'. It follows that in Kauṭilya's time Itihāsa was a definite work like the three vedas. In another place Kauṭilya provides 'a minister proficient in Arthaśāstras and bent on the good of the king should, by means of itivṛtta (history or historical occurrences) and Purāṇas, admonish (and bring to the right path) a king led astray by other guides.' In laying down a time-table for the king's daily routine of work, ¹³³² Kauṭilya provides that in the latter part of the day the king should listen to Itihāsa and defines the latter as comprehending Purāṇa, *itivṛtta*, ākhyāyikā (narrations), udāharaṇa (heroic examples), Dharmaśāstra and Arthaśāstra (science of government and statecraft). It appears that Kauṭilya meant by 'Itihāsa' a Mahābhārata more or less very like the extant one, which describes ¹³³³ itself as the best of itihāsas, as a Dharmaśāstra, Arthaśāstra, Kāmaśāstra and as Kārṣṇaveda.
v7.c90.14.2
Among the officials ¹³³⁴ to be maintained by the king with salaries are mentioned astrologers, persons conversant with portents and auspicious times, Paurāṇika, Sūta and Māgadha, who were to be paid 1000 (paṇas) as salary. The Dakṣasmṛti, ¹³³⁵ which is comparatively an early smṛti prescribes the reading of Itihāsa and Purāṇa for all *dvija* house-holders in the 6th and 7th parts of the day (divided into eight parts). The Auśanasa-smṛti prescribes that the Vedāṅgas and Purāṇas should be studied in the dark half of the months after Utsarjana (vide Jīv. part I p 515). When the Manusmṛti¹³³⁶ provides that in a śrāddha rite the brāhmaṇas invited for dinner should recite the Vedas, the Dharmaśāstras, stories, Itihāsas, Purāṇas and khila hymns (such as Śrīsūkta), it should be taken as referring to Purāṇa works closely resembling the extant ones. The Yājñavalkya¹³³⁷ smṛti enumerates the fourteen Vidyāsthānas (branches of knowledge) and sources of dharma as Purāṇa, Nyāya (logic), Mīmāṁsā (rules of Vedic interpretation), Dharmaśāstras, the aṅgas of the Veda and the (four) Vedas These fourteen are probably arranged in the order of importance and authoritativeness at the time of the Yājñavalkya-smṛti. Yāj. refers to sages that expounded or promulgated the Vedas, Purāṇas, the vidyās (six aṅgas), the Upaniṣads, the ślokas (itihāsa?), aphoristic works (like those of Jaimini or on nyāya), the *bhāṣyas* and whatever other literature exists. In another place Yāj.
v7.c90.14.3
recommends that a householder after a bath in the morning and worship of gods and pitṛs should engage in japa-yajña, in which he should mutter according to his ability parts of the Veda, of Atharvaveda, Itihāsa and Purāṇas and philosophical texts. These passages from Yājñavalkya establish that Itihāsa and Purāṇa went together, that both were works distinct from Vedic literature and that both had attained a status of sacredness and authoritativeness in matters of dharma in the time of the Yājñavalkya-smṛti not later than 3rd century (A. D.). A Vārtika mentioned by the Mahābhāṣya on Pāṇ IV. 2. 59-60 provides for the formation of words with the affix 'thak' (*ika*) in the case of ākhyāna (such as Yāvakrītika, Yāyātika), ākhyāyikā (such as Vāsavadattika, Saumanottarika), itihāsa (aitihāsika), Purāṇa (paurāṇika) in the sense of one who studies or knows that ¹³³⁸ In numerous passages the Mahābhārata mentions Purāṇa in the singular as in Ādi 5. 2, 31. 3–4, 51. 6, 65. 52, Udyoga 178. 47–48, Karṇa 34. 44, Śānti 208. 5, Anuśāsana 22. 12, 102. 21) and sometimes Purāṇas in the plural (as in Ādi 109. 20, Virāṭa 51.10, Strīparva 13. 2, Śānti 339. 106, Svargārohaṇa 5. 46–47 (which refers to Purāṇas as 18)¹³³⁹ Further, the Matsya-purāṇa and a Purāṇa proclaimed by Vāyu are mentioned in the Vanaparva.¹³⁴⁰ It is impossible to hold that all the numerous references to Purāṇas are later interpolations, though a few may be so.
v7.c90.14.4
It is not correct to say that no Purāṇa resembling the extant ones existed before the time when Purāṇa stories were collected in the Mahābhārata. There is hardly any evidence to support any such view.