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Studies in the Puranic Records on Hindu Rites and Customs c5: Preface

Studies in the Purāṇic Records on Hindu Rites and Customs c5

Language
English

Preface

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The extant Purāṇas present a very rich collection of materials for the study of the development of Hindu rites and customs during the centuries intervening between Yājñavalkya and the Smṛti-Nibandhas. During this long period, the Hindu society passed through numerous vicissitudes, so much so that in many respects the Hindu rites and customs, as found in the Nibandhas, differ from those in the Codes of Manu and Yājñavalkya. Hence the study of the Purāṇas is of immense importance for a clear understanding of the whole course of the development. But none of the extant Purāṇas being assignable to any positive date, the greatest difficulty which makes their study impracticable and unscientific is the want of a proper chronology of the chapters constituting the individual Purāṇas. Unfortunately no systematic attempt was made to remove this long felt want, probably because, as Mr. P. V. Kane says, ‘the chronology of the Purāṇas is, like that of the epics, a subject full of perplexing problems’. The work, done by such eminent scholars as H. H. Wilson, F. E. Pargiter and Haraprasad Shastri even in regard to the approximate dates of only a few of the Purāṇic works, is not at all considerable, nor are their conclusions always acceptable. Hence the first thing, on which attention has been directed in this work, has been to determine as approximately as possible the chronology of the Purāṇic chapters, or parts thereof, on Hindu rites and customs. I should mention here that in this chronology, which is based only on such evidences as are contained in the majority of the editions of the individual Purāṇas, attention has been given especially to those chapters which are devoted mainly to the treatment of the above mentioned topics; and, the scope of this work being limited to the study of these matters during the period ranging approximately from 200 to 1000 A.D., those Purāṇas, which have been found to be hardly earlier than the tenth century, have been dealt with very briefly. However, on the basis of this chronology, which forms Part I of this work, I have attempted to describe in Part II the different stages in the development of the Purāṇic rites and customs. I have tried to show that these rites and customs are not the productions of a single social dictator or of a particular period of time, but were revised from generation to generation and reshaped

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gradually to their present character with such additions as the changes in society demanded. With an eye to the notable changes in the religious and political history of ancient India, I have tried, further, to ascertain the factors which determined the stages in the development of the Purāṇic Dharma (i.e. law and custom) and moulded its character. This enquiry, which has been found absolutely necessary for a clear understanding of the nature and growth of the Purāṇic rites and customs, and which has in many cases led to interesting results, has involved an investigation into the origin of Purāṇic Hinduism, because in India, as in all other eastern countries, religion is inseparably connected with customs.

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Besides the two parts, of which the present work mainly consists, there is an Appendix containing a long list of quotations which I have traced in the extant Purāṇas. This list has been extremely necessary not only for understanding the nature of the Purāṇas during the ages they were used by the commentators and Nibandha-writers but also for determining the dates of those Purāṇic chapters from which the quotations were made. This list may also be of some use to those scholars who will, in future, set themselves to the solution of textual problems relating to the Purāṇas.

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Being concerned with a field of research hitherto almost unexplored, this work may interest those who want to study the Purāṇic literature and the Hindu social institutions. Attempts have been made to solve many problems relating to the Purāṇas and the Purāṇic Dharma; but no conclusion has been drawn which has not been sufficiently evidenced by the facts of the case. The chronological scheme in Part I is necessarily tentative, but all available materials have been fully considered and taken into account.

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As this work is the result of a general study of the Purāṇic chapters on Hindu rites and customs, no attention has been given to the divergent opinions held by the different Purāṇas on the niceties of any particular rite or custom. Such detailed study would require a separate volume and has consequently been avoided.

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Though this work is based on a first-hand study of the original sources, the accounts given in it of the rise and spread of Jainism, Buddhism and Ājīvakism (i.e. the religion preached by Gosāla Maṅkhaliputta) are mainly based on those given in such authoritative works as the Cambridge History of India (Vol. I), V. A. Smith's Early History of India, and the like. In translating

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some of the passages of the Purāṇas and Smṛti works, H. H. Wilson's Viṣṇu Purāṇa, F. E. Pargiter's Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Taluqdar's Matsya Purāṇa (S.B.H., Vol. XVII), Mahendra Nath Chatterjee's Śrīmadbhāgavata, and Bühler's Laws of Manu (S.B.E., Vol. XXV), Institutes of Gautama (S.B.E., Vol. II) and Institutes of Baudhāyana (S.B.E., Vol. XIV) have been extremely helpful to me. In studying the Purāṇas I have, in addition to the different printed editions, utilised the large collection of Purāṇa and Smṛti manuscripts existing in the Dacca University Library. Of the Dānasāgara of Ballālasena I consulted the India Office manuscript, which was secured for me on loan by the Dacca University Library. As to the dates of the Smṛti-Saṃhitās and the Nibandhas, I have been generally guided by the indications of the veteran scholar Mr. P. V. Kane, M.A., LL.M., whose History of Dharmaśāstra (Vol. I) is undoubtedly the most valuable work on the subject.

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By way of explaining why in a few cases I have used the Vangavāsī editions of the Purāṇas, printed in Bengali characters, in preference to the more widely used Devanāgarī editions, I should only say that these editions, though not critically accomplished from sufficient Manuscript material, are not always so negligible as scholars may take them to be. They are often, if not in all cases, based on Bengal Mss and have consequently different texts with less number of additional passages than the South Indian editions. However, the comparative notes on the different editions, which have been added to the analyses of the Purāṇas, will enable scholars to trace the references in the South Indian and other Devanāgarī editions.

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My thankful obligations are due to my professor Dr. S. K. De, M.A., D.LIT., for his valuable suggestions and guidance. It was at his instance that I took up the Purāṇas as a subject of study. During the three years I worked with him on this subject he took very keen personal interest in the progress of my work and accorded to me such facilities as very few students of his department have ever enjoyed. In spite of his heavy duties and responsibilities he ungrudgingly took the trouble of going through the whole thesis step by step, as well as when it was finally completed. I am particularly grateful to our Vice-Chancellor, Dr. R. C. Majumder, M.A., PH.D., for kindly securing books and manuscripts for my use from different libraries as well as for enabling me to publish my work as a Bulletin of the University. But for his help and sympathy the book would never have seen light so soon. I am also much obliged to Mr. Subodh Chandra Banerjee, M.A., of the Dacca University Mss Library, for giving me all possible help in consulting the valuable collections of Sanskrit manuscripts in his charge, as well as for pointing out to me the reference to the Padma-purāṇa in a marginal note contained in a manuscript of the Yathārtha-mañjarī.

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All necessary information regarding the editions of the Purāṇas and other works, which have been utilised, has been given in the Bibliography. Words, admitting of alternative spellings, have sometimes been used in both forms, viz., Vasiṣṭha and Vasiṣṭha, Lomaharṣaṇa and Romaharṣaṇa, Kalkin and Kalki, Śambhala and Sambhala, Pāṃśula, and Pāṃsula, Sātvata and Sāttvata, etc.; and, except in only one place (in Part I, Chapter I), the word ‘Smṛti’ has been used in its restricted sense to mean ‘Dharma’ i.e. ‘law and custom’.

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Though a portion of this work was published as isolated articles in different oriental journals, I have considerably improved the whole work, including the published portion, by adding much new material and, in a few cases, by modifying my views already expressed in those articles.

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DACCA February, 1940.

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RAJENDRA CHANDRA HAZRA

Cites (10)