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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s5: Purāṇas

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s5

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Purāṇas

c14.s5.1

The entire *Purāṇa* literature should be taken as having assumed an almost final shape in the previous period, i.e., from Harṣa to Hemādri. But in the Moslem *milieu*, i.e., from the beginnings of the fourteenth to the beginnings of the nineteenth century new socio-cultural conditions must have furnished authors with inspiration for additions, alterations and modifications. It will take quite a long time to disentangle these new incorporations in each *Purāṇa* and assign to each its time and space value, i.e., the period and the region.

c14.s5.2

We need not spend time over the *Purāṇas* in this period. But it is interesting to observe that the following *Purāṇas* are quoted in the *Vivādaratnākara* of Chaṇḍeśvara:²¹

c14.s5.3

²¹ Text of the *Vivāda-ratnākara* (in the Bibliotheca Indica Series) edited by Dinanath Vidyalamkara, Calcutta 1887, Preface, p. vi.

c14.s5.4

| 1. | *Devī Purāṇa* | 3. | *Matsya Purāṇa* |
| 2. | *Brahma Purāṇa* | 4. | *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa.* |

c14.s5.5

The following *Purāṇas* are quoted by Mādhava in his commentary on the *Āchārakāṇḍa* of *Parāśara Saṃhitā*:²²

c14.s5.6

²² Text of *Parāśaradharma Saṃhitā* edited by V. S. Islampurkar (Bombay 1893), Vol. I, Part I., Preface, pp. 4-15.

c14.s5.7

| 1. | *Agni Purāṇa*, *Āgneya* or *Vahni Purāṇa*, | 9. | *Viṣṇu Purāṇa* |
| 2. | *Kūrma Purāṇa* | 10. | *Śaiva Purāṇa.* |
| 3. | *Garuḍa Purāṇa* | 11. | *Kālikā Purāṇa* |
| 4. | *Nrisiṃha Purāṇa* | 12. | *Vāmana Purāṇa* |
| 5. | *Matsya Purāṇa* | 13. | *Skanda Purāṇa* |
| 6. | *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa* | 14. | *Nandī Purāṇa* |
| 7. | *Linga Purāṇa* | 15. | *Nārada Purāṇa* |
| 8. | *Varāha Purāṇa* | 16. | *Parāśaropapurāṇa.* |

c14.s5.8

These extracts furnish us with an idea as to the *Purāṇas* well known by the middle of the fourteenth century.²³

c14.s5.9

²³ Vol. I. Part II. Preface, pp. 6-10; Vol. II. Part II. Preface, pp. xi-xvii.

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