Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.2764

c8.2764

Statements about Purāṇas are found even in the Brāhmaṇas. Therefore it is to be surmised that Purāṇas existed even before historic times. Mahābhārata has used the term Purāṇa to mean stories about devas and siddhas. The Upaniṣads say that Purāṇas are itihāsas and as such constitute the fifth Veda. Smṛti says that Purāṇas are commentaries on Vedas. From all these statements it can be gathered that Purāṇas have a hoary past. The great Sanskrit scholar Raṅgācārya has defined Purāṇa as Purā nava (Purā = old; nava = new) meaning things which are as good as new though existing from olden times. Though there are large portions of wide imagination dealing with the human side in the Purāṇas many truths about the universe can be grasped from them. All the Purāṇas contain praises of Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Maheśvara. In most of the Purāṇas of old, new additions and interpolations are often. The Purāṇas in original were in existence before Christ.