Hindu Scripture - The Puranas

from Hinduism, Ancient and Modern

The last great authorities in matters of religion are the Puranas which form the basis of popular Hinduism of the present day. All these treatises are supposed to be the work of Vyasa, the compiler of the Vedas, the Mahabharata and the Brahma Sutras, and orthodox Hinduism is shocked at being told that they are the work of sectarian writers promulgated at various intervals of time to support, sectarian views. The word Purana, as it occurs in the Upanishads and the Mahabharata, means legends of kings and rishis like those of Harishchandra, Pururava, etc. According to the Vishnu Purana, a Purana ought to contain "accounts of the creation of the universe, its successive generations, genealogies of patriarchs and kings, the Manvantaras and the royal dynasties."

There are eighteen Puranas: the Brahma, Padama, Vaishnava, Saiva, Bhagavata, Naradiya, Markandeya, Agneya, Bhavishyata, Brahma Vaivarta, Lainga, Varaha, Skanda, Vamana, Kaurma, Matsya, Garuda and Brahmanda. The Purana, which was recited by Brahma, is called the Brahma Purana, Vishnu Purana is so called because it treats of the exploits of Vishnu, and Padma, because it deals with the events of the Padma Kalpa. The Siva Purana treats of the exploits of Siva, and the Bhagavati Purana of Bhagavati, Narada, Markandeya, and Agni are the authors of the Puranas that go after their names. The same is the case with the others. The goal of all these treatises is, however, the same Advaitism as that of the Upanishads. For instance, we are told in the Vishnu Purana: "All that is here, is one. It is Achyuta (Vishnu). Nothing else but He is. That am I. That art thou. That is all this. Do thou relinquish this illusion of duality?"

"All this world of 'I' and 'mine' is due to the action of Nescience. In truth the inner self of all alone exists." The Vishnu is the oldest and best of all the Puranas. It is not so very encyclopedic in character as some of the others which attempt, though very imperfectly, to deal not only with religion and philosophy, but also with medicine, astronomy, etc., are. Some of these Puranas like the Bhagawata appear to have been written after the advent of the Muslim rule. But most of them reproduce traditions that had long been current in India, though in a much altered form. The five principal gods of the Puranas – Siva, Surya, Vishnu, Sakti, and Ganesha are represented by the followers of each as paramount deities and all others as subordinate to them. But the opinion of standard writers, like Nilakantha, the commentator of the Mahabharata, is that each of these Puranas deals with one aspect of Brahman and that their object is not to lower one deity at the expense of another, but to prepare one of a lower stage of religious or philosophic development for the Advaita, the goal of all.

This explanation is very fair, and is supported by the Puranas themselves. It is impossible to give any idea of the contents of these enormous treatises which occupy no less than 400,000 verses, the Padma alone containing 55,000. They are the work of men who recast ancient mythologies and incorporated in them modern cults. There is much in them which is very crude and fantastical, but their doctrines are not always so absurd as is generally supposed. Discrimination in reading these treatises and separating the truth from dogma is, however, always necessary. The most popular are the Vishnu and the Bhagavata Puranas. The latter is the giver of bread to many a Pandit of these times. It consists of 18,000 verses containing good poetry and is a work of great literary merit, but has no value as a history. The others are not generally read.

Source: Nath, Rai Bahadur. Hinduism, Ancient and Modern.

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