History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c90.152

v7.c90.152

In connection with the Purāṇas the author must refer at some length to the Introductory remarks of Ballālasena, king of Bengal, in his Dānasāgara, edited in the B. I. series (1953-1956) by Mr. Bhabatosh Bhattācārya (three parts of text pp. 1-722 and 4th part an Introduction in English with Indices). Those remarks evince a bold critical faculty rare in our medieval Sanskrit writers. He mentions, besides the Gopathabrāhmaṇa, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata, the smṛtis and dharmaśāstras of Gautama, Manu, Yājñavalkya, (counting Śaṅkha Likhita as two), Dāna-Bṛhaspati and Bṛhaspati (as separate), Vasiṣṭha and others (in all 28), the Chandoga-pariśiṣṭa of Kātyāyana, thirteen principal Purāṇas viz. Brāhma, Vārāha, Āgneya, Bhaviṣya, Mātsya, Vāmana, Vāyavīya, Mārkaṇḍeya, Vaiṣṇava, *Śaiva*, Skānda, Pādma and Kaurma and the Upapurāṇas named in Kūrma and Ādi Purāṇas as containing the procedure of (various) dānas, viz. Ādya, Sāmba, Kālikā, Nānda (v. l. Nandin), Āditya, Nārasiṁha, Viṣṇudharmottara (declared by Mārkaṇḍeya) and the śāstra called Viṣṇudharma (eight in all). He mentions that he drew upon all these for the production of his work on dānas, 1375 in number (verses 11-20 pp. 2-3). Then he mentions certain Purāṇas and Upapurāṇas which he discarded in his work on dānas for various reasons.