History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c90.226

v7.c90.226

The Mit on Yāj. I. 297 expressly quotes all the nine verses of chap 94 of the Matsya (about the form of the images of the planets) and two verses from chap 93 (11-12) about the position to be assigned to each with white grains of rice in a mandala The Kalpataru quotes hundreds of verses from Matsya on vrata, quotes about 750 on dāna from Matsya (all of which except 20 are identified in the present Matsya by the editor); about 410 on Rājadharmakānda, 157 verses on tirtha (of which 100 are identified by the editor in the Matsya), 115 verses in Gṛhastha-kānda, 112 verses on śrāddha, about 67 on niyatakāla (all except 12 identified), 18 in vyavahārakānda, 6 in brahmacāri and 2 in moksa, in all about 2000 verses Aparārka quotes about 400 verses from Matsya (about 250 being on dāna). It is not necessary after the preceding statement to go into the large number of verses quoted in Dānasāgara, Smrti-candrikā and Hemādri. It may be said without fear of contradiction that long before 1000 A D the Matsya-purāna had the same arrange-ment and presented almost the same appearance as at present. This is more than what can be said about the other Purānas except Visnu, Vāyu, probably Bhavisya (I), Mārkandeya.