Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.2769

c8.2769

The method of narration is in the form of teaching his disciple Maitreya by sage Parāśara. Since there is a reference in it to the Maurya dynasty it is to be surmised that this was composed in the first or second century A.D. The narrator himself states thus:— “Vyāsa an adept in the compositon of Purāṇas composed this Purāṇasamhitā with ākhyānas, Upākhyānas, gāthās and Kalpanirṇayas. A Sūta named Romaharṣaṇa was Vyāsa’s chief disciple. The broad-minded Vyāsa gave that samhitā to that sūta. Romaharṣaṇa had six disciples named Sumati, Agnivarcas, Mitrāyus. Śāmśapāyana, Akṛtavraṇa, and Sāvarṇi. Of these Akṛtavraṇa, Sāvarṇi and Śāmśapāyana born in the Kaśyapagotra have composed Purāṇasamhitās. There is yet another samhitā composed by Romaharṣaṇa which was the basis of the samhitas of his three disciples. I have composed Viṣṇupurāṇa basing on the above four samhitas.”