History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c90.264

v7.c90.264

The date of the Viṣṇupurāṇa is a difficult question. There is no doubt that it is one of the early Purāṇas and that its text is not very much inflated. Hundreds of verses quoted in the three early digests viz. Kalpataru, Aparārka and Smṛticandrikā can be traced in the current text and this leads to the inference that the text has remained fixed for at least a thousand years. One important fact is that in this Purāṇa Vyāsa and the Sūta do not play a prominent part as in many other Purāṇas. It states as some other Purāṇas do, that Vyāsa had four pupils to whom he imparted the four Vedas and a fifth pupil the Sūta Romaharṣaṇa (III. chapters 3-7). But the sūta does not appear anywhere as the narrator of this Purāṇa. In the 4th aṁśa one remarkable matter is the mention of Śākya, Śuddhodana and Rāhula and it is stated that Śuddhodana was 23rd in descent from Bṛhad-bala of the Ikṣvāku line (chap. 22). The possibility of interpolations, particularly in the prose passages, would have to be admitted. Rāśis are referred to in III. 14. 5 (rāśiṣvarke ca gacchati) and the words lagna and horā also appear (in a prose passage). Vācaspati in his commentary on the Yogabhāṣya 2. 32 quotes it by name on *yamas* and *niyamas* (Viṣṇu VI. 7. 36-38) and a half verse 'evam bhadrāsanādīnām' etc, Viṣṇu VI. 7. 49 in com. on Yogabhāṣya III. 49. Vācaspati wrote his Nyāyasūcinibandha in *vatsara* 888 which should be taken as Vikrama year as he was a northerner and as the word 'vatsara' is used (and not śaka) i. e. 841 A. D.