The Purana Index v1.c3.2

v1.c3.2

As early as the thirties of the last century Mr. H. H. Wilson did some pioneer work in Purāṇa literature. From the Purāṇas available to him in print and manuscript he came to the hasty conclusion that they are a special kind of literature ‘compiled for the evident purpose of promoting the preferential or in some cases the sole worship of Viṣṇu or Śiva’. He was also of the view that Purāṇas as a class of literature must have come into existence not later than the 10th century A.D. and not earlier than the 7th and 8th centuries of the Christian era, when Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism had become firmly established in the land. In other words, Wilson took the view that the Purāṇas were sectarian in character. The erroneous position which Wilson took in regard to the Purāṇa literature did not go unrefuted by his own contemporaries. In this connection the name of Colonel Vans Kennedy may be prominently mentioned. He protested against the views of Wilson in the form of letters to the London Asiatic Journal, (1840-41) and these have been reprinted by the late Editor of Wilson's Vishnu Purāṇa as an appendix to that Purāṇa. He put up an eloquent defence to the effect that the Purāṇas as a whole were as much a sacred work of the Hindus as the Vedic literature, and that Wilson misunderstood the preferential worship inculcated in this branch of literature as the exclusive worship of a particular deity and the votaries to be sectaries of either Viṣṇu or Śiva He strongly upheld that the Purāṇas must be deemed as a class of ancient literature and that there was no proof satisfactory enough to show that the Purāṇas were late compositions We have next a set of scholars who took an abiding interest in the study of the Purāṇas and these were E. Bournouf who has translated and edited the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Colonel Wilfred, and the compilers of catalogues of manuscripts like Thomas Aufrecht and Julius Eggeling.