History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c90.60

v7.c90.60

It will be noticed from the table that the total number of verses in the 18 Purāṇas according to the figures furnished by most Purāṇas comes to 400600 ślokas This closely agrees with the total of four lakhs assigned to the eighteen Purāṇas in some of the Purāṇas (vide note 1349 above) But several of the extant Purāṇas contain much smaller numbers of ślokas than are assigned to them For example, it appears from the commentaries called Viṣṇucittī¹³⁵¹ and Vaiṣṇavākūṭacandrikā on Viṣṇupurāṇa III. 6. 23 that the estimates of the extent of the Viṣṇupurāṇa varied from 6, 8, 9, 10, 22, 23 to 24 thousand ślokas and that both the commentaries comment on a text of the Viṣṇupurāṇa that has only 6000 ślokas. Similarly, the extent of the Kūrma is said to be 17000 or 18000 ślokas by most of the Purāṇas that furnish the extent of Purāṇas, but the extant Kūrma has hardly 6000 ślokas. The Brahma contains 10000 ślokas according to the Nāradīya and 25000 according to the Agni, but the printed Brahma (of the Ānandāśrama ed.) contains about 14000 verses. On the other hand, the Skanda (that has two recensions at present) is said to contain 81000 ślokas, but the Skanda printed by the Venk. Press contains several thousands more. The Bhaviṣya (Brāhmaparva)¹³⁵⁵ states that all Purāṇas had originally 12000 verses each, but their extent increased by the addition of tales, so that the Skanda was inflated to the extent of one lakh of ślokas and the Bhaviṣya to 50000 ślokas. The order in which the Purāṇas are enumerated is not quite uniform. Most Purāṇas put the Brāhma in¹³⁵⁶ the first place and set out the order as in the table above, yet the Vāyu (104. 3) and the Devībhāgavata (I. 3. 3) begin the list of Purāṇas with Matsya. The Skanda (Prabhāsakhaṇḍa 2. 8–9) puts the Brahmāṇḍa in the first place. The Bhāgavata (XII. 7. 23–24) enumerates the eighteen Purāṇas in a somewhat different order. The Vāmana¹³⁵⁷ regards the Matsya as the foremost among Purāṇas. Notices of the contents of all the 18 Purāṇas occur in Matsya (chap. 53), Agni (chap. 272), Skanda (Prabhāsakhaṇḍa 2. 28-76), Nārādīya (which devotes 18 chapters from I. 92. 30-43 to I. 109 to the contents of 18 Purāṇas from Brahma to Brahmāṇḍa). There is almost complete agreement among the Purāṇas as to the names of the 18 principal Purāṇas, except as to the Vāyupurāṇa.