The Purana Index v1.c3.s1.19

v1.c3.s1.19

It is difficult to ascertain the time and the occasion when these eighteen Purāṇas were moulded into their present shape. It does not stand to reason that all the Purāṇas were composed at one and same time and afforded the occasion to the compiler of each Purāṇa to mention the names of the eighteen. The eighteen versions seem to have been the result of their version in different parts of the land. We would be lacking in historical sense, if we say, that all these Purāṇas were confined to a certain locality like the Naimiśāraṇya. At the most the then busy centres of religious activity were perhaps the locale of the Purāṇa compilations. The chief places of pilgrimage were often thronged by a large number of people from all parts of India, and were the best venue for the propogation of this literature. From the detailed glorification of certain places, we may venture to conjecture that the particular version of the Purāṇa sprang up in that centre. A Purāṇa that deals with the Gayā māhātmya in extenso may be reasonably taken to have been compiled in the city of Gayā or its environs. In that way we must look for the compilation of this or that version of a particular Purāṇa in one locality or other.