History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c90.86

v7.c90.86

The extant Purāṇas contain far more subjects than the five. Some Purāṇas barely touch these five and deal at great length with altogether different topics Only a few of the extant Purāṇas can be said to deal with all the five topics at some length. The five characteristic topics occupy less than three percent of the extent of the extant Mahāpurāṇas. Of all Purāṇas the extant Viṣṇu alone closely agrees with the definition of Purāṇa as 'pañcalakṣaṇa,' though it also contains a good many other topics. On a modest calculation the four subjects of vrata, śrāddha, tīrtha and dāna cover at least one hundred thousand ślokas in the extant eighteen main Purāṇas. Several of them have identical chapters on several topics (e. g. Matsya¹³⁷² and Padma, Vāyu and Brahmāṇḍa contain long passages that agree *verbatim* with one another in many matters and details). It is probable, therefore, that the extant principal Purāṇas are partial and gradually inflated representatives of an earlier group of Purāṇas (not necessarily 18 in number) that existed before Yājñavalkya. In the present state of our knowledge it is almost an insoluble problem to find out what these Purāṇas were or contained. The number 18 was probably due to the fact that the number is prominent in several connections as regards the Mahābhārata. The Bhārata war was fought for 18 days, the total of the vast armies engaged in the conflict came to 18 akṣauhiṇīs, the epic has 18 *parvans*, the Gītā also has 18 chapters ¹³⁷³