History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c90.3

v7.c90.3

The History of Dharmaśāstra (vol. I pp. 160-167) has a brief chapter on the Purāṇas. It has been shown therein how the Taittirīya Āraṇyaka, the Chāndogya and Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣads mention Itihāsa and Purāṇa (sometimes collectively as 'Itihāsapurāṇam' and sometimes separately as 'Itihāsaḥ Purāṇam') and how some of the extant Purāṇas are much earlier than the 6th century A D. It is further pointed out there that the number of the principal Purāṇas has been traditionally handed down as eighteen,¹³²⁴ that some purāṇas such as the Matsya, the Viṣṇu, the Vāyu and Bhaviṣya contain much Dharmaśāstra material, that the Garuḍa-purāṇa and the Agnipurāṇa contain several hundred verses each that are identical with verses of the Yājñavalkya smṛti, that there is great divergence as to the extent of almost all Purāṇas, that some of the Purāṇas themselves enumerate minor works called Upapurāṇas, that the Purāṇas are divided into three groups, viz. *sāttvika*, *rājasa* and *tāmasa* (as done by Garuḍa I. 223. 17-20, and Padma VI. 263. 81-84). Details were also furnished as to the chapters of the Purāṇas in which the several topics of Dharmaśāstra (such as *ācāra*, *āhnika*, *dāna*, *rājadharma*, *śrāddha*, *tīrtha*) were dealt with.