The Puranas

The Puranas

Introduction: Puranas are 18 in number.  The great Sage Veda Vyasa composed them.  The word Purana means “ancient tales”.  There are references to Epics and Puranas in the vedic texts and also in the Sutra texts of Aapasthamba, Gauthama and others.  Even Mahabharatha refers to the old Purana works.  These reference show that there were Puranas even in the vedic period describing ancient legends and stories such as the lives of kings, sage and heroes.  Many of the previous puranas are extinct now and which are available now are composed by Veda Vyasa.

Principles of Puranas:  According to the tradition the purpose of Purana is the expansion of the teachings of the Vedas.  The following five are important in the content of Puranas. 1) The creation of the Universe 2) its destruction and fresh creation 3) the genealogies of gods, sages and kings 4) ages of different Manus 5) the history of the dynasties that organised from the Sun and the Moon.

18 Puranas:  There are 18 puranas and 18 upa-puranas.  The 18 puranas are :

            Ma  2 :  Matsya and Maarkandeya

            Bha 2:  Bhavishya and Bhagavat

            Bra  3:  Brahma, Brahmaanda and Brahma-Vaivartha

            Va   4:   Vishnu, Varaaha, Vaamana & Vayu (?)

            A-Naa-Pa-Lin-Ga-Ku-S (7): Agni, Naarada, Padma, Linga, Garuda, Kurma and Skanda.

            (?) Some include Siva Purnam instead of Vayu.

Date of Puranas:  It is not possible to find the date of Puranas. In Puranas Lord Vishnu, Siva and Goddess Durga were given importance in worship.  Some of these Puranas refer Gupta and Maurya kings.  So researchers say that these Puranas must have composed between 3^rd BC to 5^th AD.

Greatness of Puranas: The above Purnas are divided into Satvika, Rajasika and Tamasika.

Vishnu, Narada, Padma, Garuda, Varaha and Bhagavata are Satvika Puranas. Brahma, Brahmavaivartha, Brahmaanda, Markandeya, Bhavishya and Vaamana are Rajasika Puranas   and

Siva, Linga, Skanda, Agni, Matsya and Kurma are Tamasika Puranas.

            Satvika Puranas glorify Lord Vishnu, Rajasika glorify Lord Brahma and Tamsika glorify Lord Siva. 

            The greatness of charity, compassion, sacrifice and other virtuous deeds, literature, music, dance, architecture etc. are described in these puranas.  These Puranams are very much informative to the students of Indian culture, philosophy, ethics and religion. A currect understanding of the everyday life in ancient India can be had by a study of the Puranas.

1)      Vishnu Purana:  This is the oldest and was narrated by Parasara, father of Veda Vyasa to his disciple Maitreya.  This was very popular and Sri Sankaracharaya and Ramanujacharya took quotes from this.  Maurya dynasty was mentioned in this work.

2)      Narada Puranam: The great 4 sages Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanathana and Sanath sujatha explained the doctrines of Vishnu Bhakti to Narada through simple stories.  It also contains descriptions of feasts and ceremonies observed by the devotees of Vishnu.

3)      Padma Puranam: This is a huge Puranam.  It describes the creation, geneology of kings, many sacred places of pilgrimage etc.  In this too many ceremonies to be observed by the devotees are described.  It also contains the stories of Ramayana, Story of Sakuntala, Ekadasi Mahatmyam etc.

4)      Garuda Puranam: Lord Vishnu himself to his vehicle Garuda narrated this.  Methods to worship, feasts and ceremonies are described.  It is also described about the soul after death, funeral rites etc.

5)      Varaha Puranam: This was narrated by Lord Vishnu in the form of Varaha (boar) to the Mother earth (Bhumadevi).   It is describing the daily life of a devotee of Lord Vishnu.

6)      Bhavata Puranam: The most popular Puranam.  It has been translated almost in all the major Indian languages.  There are twelve books in it and the 10^th book describes the birth of Lord Sri Krishna. 24 incarnations of Lord Vishnu is described and large number of devotional poems with high philosophical content.

7)      Brahma Puranam: This is known as the first Puranam.  This was narrated by the creator Brahma to Daksha Prajapathi.  It contains greatness of holy places.

8)      Brahma-vaivartha Puranam: It is described that the whole universe is the illusory trasformation of Supreme Being.  In the fourth section of this Puranam it is beautifully described about Krishna and Radha.  Krishna is the Supremem God and Radha is Maya (illusionary power of God), who is inseparable from him but always controlled by Him.  Goloka (world of cows) is their abode which is far beyond Vaikunta (Mokshalokam) and the great devotees who have attained sameness of form with Lord Krishna stay here.  This is the source of Jayadeva’s Gita-Govindam. 

9)      Brahmaanda Puranam: The popular Adhyatma Ramayanam is part of it.  This is in the form dialogue between Siva and Parvathi.

10)  Markandeya Puranam: Elaborate descriptions of creation and deluge, stories of Vedic Gods like The Sun, Fire God etc., are available in this.  This is close to Vedic Philosophy.  The Devi Mahatmyam or Durga Saptasati is a part of it.

11)  Bhavishya Puranam: Talking about future particularly Kaliyuga.  Duties of four castes and methods to worship the Sun, Agni and Nagas.

12)  Vamana Puranam: Starting with the description of Vamana Avatar and proceeds to the worship of Sivalinga and pilgrimage to Siva temples.

13)  Siva Puranam: This forms part of Vayu Puranam and hence many lists include Vayupuranam in the place of this Puranam.  Banabhatta refers this (Vayu) purnam as it was recited everyday in his village.  The Gupta kings are mentioned in this.  This glorifies the worship of Lord Shiva and is narrated by Vayu, the wind God.

14)  Linga Puranam: Describes the 28 incarnations of Lord Siva.

15)  Skanda Puranam: This is a big puranam consisting of 81,000 slokas.  Birth Skanda the war God is described in this.  Based on this Kalidasa composed Kumarasambhava.

16)  Agni Puranam: Agni, the fire God to sage Vasishta, narrated this.  It is describing Siva and Durga cult.  This Purana contains many modern topics.  It is almost an encyclopaedia in its contents dealing with subjects like Ayurveda (Indian Medicine), Silpa Sastra (Architecture), Jyothish (Astrology and Astronomy), Poetics etc.

17)  Matsya Puranam: Lord Vishnu narrated this in the form Fish to Manu, the first King after the deluge (pralaya).  Holy places, festivals, omens and rites to be observed by Saivaites and Vaishnavaites are described.  References of South India and South Indian Architecture are available.

18)  Kurma Puranam: This is the last in series narrated by Vishnu in his incarnation as a tortoise about Siva worship and his incarnations. 

19)  Devi Bhavatam: Some Scholars include Devi Bhagavatam among the Puranas and treat Srimad Bhagavatam as 19^th one.  The reason given as follow – Vyasa had no peace of mind even after composing the 18 Puranas and the great Epic Mahabharatham.  So he asked by Narada to write a work dealing with the incarnations of Lord Vishnu and extoiling Vishnu Bhakti (Devotion on Lord Vishnu).  This way Vyasa composed Srimad Bhagavatam.

Conclusion:  On the whole Puranas are the backbone of our Culture, tradition, Custom, Philosophies, without which we cannot establish our ideology.   The language used in these Puranams is very simple and easy understanding.  (Sunday, 30 November 2003).

            Next:  The great Five Maha Kavyas and other Ka