History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c90.80

v7.c90.80

It is not quite clear why the Amarakośa seized upon the above mentioned five topics as characteristics of Purāṇas. Amarakośa¹³⁶⁷ cannot be placed later than the 5th century A. D. It is likely that before that time the number of Purāṇas was not large, that they had not become very inflated, and that, as Itihāsa and Purāṇa were often lumped together as the 5th Veda in the Upaniṣads, they both had certain matters in common. Itihāsa did not probably deal with creation, dissolution and manvantaras, but contented itself with the dynasties of kings and with the deeds and legends about the heroes of the past. Rarely, Itihāsa (Mahābhārata) is called Purāṇa and some extant Purāṇas describe themselves as Itihāsa. For example, the Vāyu¹³⁶⁸ calls itself in the same context both itihāsa and purāṇa. The Brahmapurāṇa calls itself Purāṇa as well as ākhyāna (245. 27 and 30). The Mahābhārata¹³⁶⁹, though generally called itihāsa by itself (as in Ādi. 1. 19, 26, 54) or the best of itihāsas, still applies to itself the words. 'ākhyāna¹³⁷⁰ (as in Ādi 2. 388-89), Kāvya (Ādi 2. 390), Kārṣṇaveda (Ādi 1. 264) and Purāṇa (Ādi 1. 17). From this it appears that originally the line of demarcation between the two was rather thin. In defining Purāṇa as 'pañcalakṣaṇa' the Amarakośa and some of the Purāṇas seized upon such topics as distinguished Purāṇas from Itihāsa and other branches of Sanskrit literature. It has been shown above that the Purāṇa and Bhaviṣyatpurāṇa that existed before Āpastamba contained not only sarga and pratisarga but also some smṛti materials as well. From the definition given in the Purāṇas and the Amarakośa it does not at all follow that those five topics alone were the constituent parts of the very ancient *Purāṇas*, as Kirfel holds;¹³⁷¹ What could be said at the most is that five were the distinctive topics that differentiated the Purāṇa class of works from other branches of literature and probably cognate works called Itihāsa or it may be that the five are generalized as an ideal for Purāṇas and that the very early representatives of this class (that existed before Āp. Dh. S.) had not these five as characteristics