Puranas

This article is about the Hindu texts. For other uses, see Purana (disambiguation).

Purana manuscripts from 15th to 19th century
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Puranas (/pʊˈrɑːnə/; Sanskrit: पुराण, romanized: purāṇa, lit. 'ancient, old',[1] IPA: [pʊˈrɑːɳə]) are a vast genre of Hindu literature about a wide range of topics, particularly about legends and other traditional lore.[2] The Puranas are known for the intricate layers of symbolism depicted within their stories. Composed originally in Sanskrit[3] and in other Indian languages,[4][5] several of these texts are named after major Hindu gods such as Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma, and Mahadevi.[6][7] The Puranic genre of literature is found in both Hinduism and Jainism.[5]

The Puranic literature is encyclopedic,[1] and it includes diverse topics such as cosmogony, cosmology, genealogies of gods, goddesses, kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, folk tales, pilgrimages, temples, medicine, astronomy, grammar, mineralogy, humor, love stories, as well as theology and philosophy.[2][4][6] Within Hindu tradition, the knowledge contained within the Maha Puranas are believed to have originated from divine revelation, spoken by the four mouths of Brahma, passed on and eventually edited and compiled by "Ved Vyasa";[8] historical authorship of surviving manuscripts of the Hindu Puranas remains unknown. In contrast, most Jaina Puranas can be dated and their authors assigned.[5]

There are 18 Mukhya Puranas (Major Puranas) and 18 Upa Puranas (Minor Puranas),[9] with over 400,000 verses.[2] The first versions of various Purana manuscripts were likely to have been written between 3rd and 10th century CE.[10] The Puranas are not strictly a divinely revealed scripture (Sruti) in Hinduism,[9] but are considered to be Smritis,[11]. Even so, they have arguably shaped Hinduism more than the Vedas, providing a "culture synthesis" in weaving and integrating the diverse beliefs of a great number of local traditions into the Vedic-Brahmanic fold.[12] While all Puranas praise many gods and goddesses and "their sectarianism is far less clear cut" than assumed,[13] the religious practices included in them are considered Vaidika (congruent with Vedic literature).[14] The Puranic literature wove with the Bhakti movement in India, and both Dvaita and Advaita scholars have commented on the underlying Vedantic themes in the Maha Puranas.[15]

Often, different Puranas present varying versions of the same stories, which led early Western observers, such as Christian missionary Abbé Dubois, to criticize them as inconsistent. Modern scholars, including Friedhelm Hardy, theorize that these variations reflect the nature of the Puranas as adaptive texts that evolved to meet the needs of the audience within changing historical contexts.[5] Velcheru Narayana Rao describes the Puranas as "functionally open" texts, with variations often arising from their roots in oral tradition.[8] In keeping with the oral tradition, the Puranas are indeed framed as a story within a story embedded into dialogue between listener(s) and a narrator.[8] The Puranas are transparent about their secondary nature, with narrators often prefacing that the accounts they present are retellings of earlier narrations by sages. Rao cites an aphorism from the Mahabharata that captures this narrative fluidity:

The revealed texts conflict with each other as the remembered texts do, and there is no seer whose words are the authority. The essence of dharma lies hidden from view. So, follow the path of great men.[8]

Thus, as with the Puranas, the itihas and smritis of Hinduism are known to contain variations and sometimes conflicting accounts, in which case, they shift authority from the texts unto "the great men" — the commentators and interpreters who understand their deeper meaning.[8]

  1. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature (1995 Edition), Article on Puranas, ISBN 0-877790426, page 915
  2. ^ a b c Bailey 2001, pp. 437–439.
  3. ^ Verma, Rajeev (2009). Faith & Philosophy of Hinduism. Gyan Publishing House. ISBN 978-81-7835-718-8. Archived from the original on 2 October 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  4. ^ a b Bailey 2003, p. 139.
  5. ^ a b c d John Cort (1993), Purana Perennis: Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts (Editor: Wendy Doniger), State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791413821, pages 185-204
  6. ^ a b Rocher 1986, pp. 16, 12–21.
  7. ^ Nair, Shantha N. (2008). Echoes of Ancient Indian Wisdom: The Universal Hindu Vision and Its Edifice. Hindology Books. p. 266. ISBN 978-81-223-1020-7. Archived from the original on 13 May 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  8. ^ a b c d e Narayana Rao, Velcheru. "Purana as Brahminic Ideology," 94. Cite error: The named reference "rao" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b Dimmitt & van Buitenen 2012, pp. xii, 4.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference collins36 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Bailey 2001, p. 503.
  12. ^ Bailey 2003, pp. 162–167.
  13. ^ Rocher 1986, pp. 21–24, 104–113, 115–126.
  14. ^ Dominic Goodall (1996), Hindu Scriptures, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0520207783, page xxxix
  15. ^ BN Krishnamurti Sharma (2008), A History of the Dvaita School of Vedānta and Its Literature, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120815759, pages 128-131