[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879) › c5.1418 # A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1418 A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1418 - **Language:** English ### [c5.1418.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1418.1) PURĀNA. ‘Old,’ hence an ancient legend or tale of olden times. The Purānas succeed the Itihāsas or epic poems, but at a considerable distance of time, and must be distinguished from them. The epics treat of the legendary actions of heroes as mortal men, the Purānas celebrate the powers and works of positive gods, and represent a later and more extravagant development of Hinduism, of which they are in fact the Scriptures. The definition of a Purāna by Amara Sinha, an ancient Sanskrit lexicographer, is a work “which has five distinguishing topics:—(1.) The creation of the universe; (2.) Its destruction and renovation; (3.) The genealogy of gods and patriarchs; (4.) The reigns of the Manus, forming the periods called Manwantaras. (5.) The history of the Solar and Lunar races of kings.” These are the Pancha-lakshanas or distinguishing marks, but no one of the Purānas answers exactly to the description; some show a partial conformity with it, others depart from it very widely. The Vishnu Purāna is the one which best accords with the title. Wilson says, “A very great portion of the contents of many is genuine and old. The sectarial interpolation or embellishment is always sufficiently palpable to be set aside without injury to the more authentic and primitive material; ### [c5.1418.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1418.2) and the Purānas, although they belong especially to that stage of the Hindu religion in which faith in some one divinity was the prevailing principle, are also a valuable record of the form of Hindu belief which came next in order to that of the Vedas, which grafted hero-worship upon the simpler ritual of the latter, and which had been adopted, and was extensively, perhaps universally, established in India at the time of the Greek invasion.” According to the same authority, Pantheism “is one of their invariable characteristics,” and underlies their whole teaching, “although the particular divinity who is all things, from whom all things proceed, and to whom all things return, is diversified according to their individual sectarian bias.” The Purānas are all written in verse, and their invariable form is that of a dialogue between an exponent and an inquirer, interspersed with the dialogues and observations of other individuals. Thus Pulastya received the Vishnu Purāna from Brahmā; he made it known to Parāsara, and Parāsara narrated it to his disciple Maitreya. The Purānas are eighteen in number, and in addition to these there are eighteen Upa Purānas or subordinate works. The Purānas are classified in three categories, according to the prevalence in them of the qualities of purity, gloom, and passion. Those in which the quality of Sattwa or purity prevail are—(1.) Vishnu, (2.) Nāradīya, (3.) Bhāgavata, (4.) Garuda, (5.) Padma, (6.) Varāha. ### [c5.1418.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1418.3) These are Vaishnava Purānas, in which the god Vishnu holds the pre-eminence. The Purānas in which Tamas, the quality of gloom or ignorance, predominates are—(1.) Matsya, (2.) Kūrma, (3.) Linga, (4.) Siva, (5.) Skanda, (6.) Agni. These are devoted to the god Siva. Those in which Rajas or passion prevails relate chiefly to the god Brahmā. They are—(1.) Brahma, (2.) Brahmanda, (3.) Brahma-vaivarta, (4.) Mārkandeya, (5.) Bhavishya, (6.) Vāmana. The works themselves do not fully justify this classification. None of them are devoted exclusively to one god, but Vishnu and his incarnations fill the largest space. One called the Vāyu Purāna is in some of the Purānas substituted for the Agni, and in others for the Siva. This Vāyu is apparently the oldest of them, and may date as far back as the sixth century, and it is considered that some of the others may be as late as the thirteenth or even the sixteenth century. One fact appears certain: they must all have received a supplementary revision, because each one of them enumerates the whole eighteen. The Mārkandeya is the least sectarian of the Purānas; and the Bhāgavata, which deals at length with the incarnations of Vishnu, and particularly with his form Krishna, is the most popular. The most perfect and the best known is the Vishnu, which has been entirely translated into English by Professor Wilson, and a second edition, with many valuable notes, has been edited by Dr. F. E. Hall. ### [c5.1418.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1418.4) The text of the Agni and Mārkandeya Purānas is in course of publication in the Bibliotheca Indica. The Purānas vary greatly in length. Some of them specify the number of couplets that each of the eighteen contains. According to the Bhāgavata, the sum total of couplets in the whole eighteen is 400,000; the Skanda is the longest, with 81,000, the Brahma and the Vāmana the shortest, with 10,000 couplets each. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1418](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1418) · Pramāṇa