History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c91.42

v7.c91.42

The Padmapurāṇa¹⁴⁷³ narrates the interesting story of a person called Dhanaśarmā whose father followed only the Vedic path (śrauta-mārga), who did not engage in such Paurāṇika prescriptions as Vaiśākhasnāna and who therefore became a horrible and distressed preta. Some of the verses are very interesting. 'I performed in my ignorance only Vedic rites and I never observed Vaiśākhasnāna in honour of God Mādhava (Viṣṇu), nor observed a single Vaiśākha *Full Moon* vrata which is like an axe for cutting the tree of sins that afflicts one like a conflagration fed by the fuel of sinful deeds &c.; to one who studies many śāstras and several Vedas with their extensive ancillary literature, learning does not come, if he has not studied Purāṇas'. This shows what importance came to be attached to Purāṇas not only for śūdras but even for brāhmaṇas who performed the Vedic rites prescribed for them.