The Vishnu Purana

A system of hindu mythology and tradition, translated from the original sanscrit, and illustrated by notes derived chiefly from other puráńas, by Horace Hayman Wilson.

Preface

Introduction

THE literature of the Hindus has now been cultivated for many years with singular diligence, and in many of its branches with eminent success. There are some departments, however, which are yet but partially and imperfectly investigated; and we are far from being in possession of that knowledge which the authentic writings of the Hindus alone can give us of their religion, mythology, and historical traditions.

From the materials to which we have hitherto had access, it seems probable that there have been three principal forms in which the religion of the Hindus has existed, at as many different periods. The duration of those periods, the circumstances of their succession, and the precise state of the national faith at each season, it is not possible to trace with any approach to accuracy. The premises have been too imperfectly determined to authorize other than conclusions of a general and somewhat vague description, and those remain to be hereafter confirmed or corrected by more extensive and satisfactory research.

The earliest form under which the Hindu religion appears is that taught in the Vedas. The style of the language, and the purport of the composition of those works, as far as we are acquainted with them, indicate a date long anterior to that of any other class of Sanscrit writings. It is yet, however, scarcely safe to advance an opinion of the precise belief or philosophy which they inculcate. To enable us to judge of their tendency, we have only a general sketch of their arrangement and contents, with a few extracts, by Mr. Colebrooke, in the Asiatic Researches¹; a few incidental observations by Mr. Ellis, in the same miscellany²; and a translation of the first book of the Sanhitá, or collection of the prayers of the Rig-veda, by Dr. Rosen³; and some of the Upanishads, or speculative treatises, attached to, rather than part of, the Vedas, by Rammohun Roy⁴. Of the religion taught in the Vedas, Mr. Colebrooke's opinion will probably be received as that which is best entitled to deference, as certainly no Sanscrit scholar has been equally conversant with the original works. "The real doctrine of the Indian scripture is the unity of the Deity, in whom the universe is comprehended; and the seeming polytheism which it exhibits, offers the elements and the stars and planets as gods. The three principal manifestations of the divinity, with other personified attributes and energies, and most of the other gods of Hindu mythology, are indeed mentioned, or at least indicated, in the Veda. But the worship of deified heroes is no part of the system; nor are the incarnations of deities suggested in any portion of the text which I have yet seen, though such are sometimes hinted at by the commentators⁵." Some of these statements may perhaps require modification; for without a careful examination of all the prayers of the Vedas, it would be hazardous to assert that they contain no indication whatever of hero-worship; and certainly they do appear to allude occasionally to the Avatáras, or incarnations, of Vishńu. Still, however, it is true that the prevailing character of the ritual of the Vedas is the worship of the personified elements; of Agni, or fire; Indra, the firmament; Váyu, the air; Varuńa, the water; of Aditya, the sun; Soma, the moon; and other elementary and planetary personages. It is also true that the worship of the Vedas is for the most part domestic worship, consisting of prayers and oblations offered--in their own houses, not in temples--by individuals for individual good, and addressed to unreal presences, not to visible types. In a word, the religion of the Vedas was not idolatry.

It is not possible to conjecture when this more simple and primitive form of adoration was succeeded by the worship of images and types, representing Brahmá, Vishńu, Śiva, and other imaginary beings, constituting a mythological pantheon of most ample extent; or when Ráma and Krishńa, who appear to have been originally real and historical characters, were elevated to the dignity of divinities. Image-worship is alluded to by Manu in several passages⁶, but with an intimation that those Brahmans who subsist by ministering in temples are an inferior and degraded class. The story of the Rámáyańa and Mahábhárata turns wholly upon the doctrine of incarnations, all the chief dramatis personæ of the poems being impersonations of gods and demigods and celestial spirits. The ritual appears to be that of the Vedas, and it may be doubted if any allusion to image-worship occurs; but the doctrine of propitiation by penance and praise prevails throughout, and Vishńu and Śiva are the especial objects of panegyric and invocation. In these two works, then, we trace unequivocal indications of a departure from the elemental worship of the Vedas, and the origin or elaboration of legends, which form the great body of the mythological religion of the Hindus. How far they only improved upon the cosmogony and chronology of their predecessors, or in what degree the traditions of families and dynasties may originate with them, are questions that can only be determined when the Vedas and the two works in question shall have been more thoroughly examined.

The different works known by the name of Puráńas are evidently derived from the same religious system as the Rámáyańa and Mahábhárata, or from the mytho-heroic stage of Hindu belief. They present, however, peculiarities which designate their belonging to a later period, and to an important modification in the progress of opinion. They repeat the theoretical cosmogony of the two great poems; they expand and systematize the chronological computations; and they give a more definite and connected representation of the mythological fictions, and the historical traditions. But besides these and other particulars, which may be derivable from an old, if not from a primitive era, they offer characteristic peculiarities of a more modern description, in the paramount importance which they assign to individual divinities, in the variety and purport of the rites and observances addressed to them, and in the invention of new legends illustrative of the power and graciousness of those deities, and of the efficacy of implicit devotion to them. Śiva and Vishńu, under one or other form, are almost the sole objects that claim the homage of the Hindus in the Puráńas; departing from the domestic and elemental ritual of the Vedas, and exhibiting a sectarial fervour and exclusiveness not traceable in the Rámáyańa, and only to a qualified extent in the Mahábhárata. They are no longer authorities for Hindu belief as a whole: they are special guides for separate and sometimes conflicting branches of it, compiled for the evident purpose of promoting the preferential, or in some cases the sole, worship of Vishńu or of Śiva⁷.

That the Puráńas always bore the character here given of them, may admit of reasonable doubt; that it correctly applies to them as they now are met with, the following pages will irrefragably substantiate. It is possible, however, that there may have been an earlier class of Puráńas, of which those we now have are but the partial and adulterated representatives. The identity of the legends in many of them, and still more the identity of the words--for in several of them long passages are literally the same--is a sufficient proof that in all such cases they must be copied either from some other similar work, or from a common and prior original. It is not unusual also for a fact to be stated upon the authority of an 'old stanza,' which is cited accordingly; shewing the existence of an earlier source of information: and in very many instances legends are alluded to, not told; evincing acquaintance with their prior narration somewhere else. The name itself, Puráńa, which implies 'old,' indicates the object of the compilation to be the preservation of ancient traditions, a purpose in the present condition of the Puráńas very imperfectly fulfilled. Whatever weight may be attached to these considerations, there is no disputing evidence to the like effect afforded by other and unquestionable authority. The description given by Mr. Colebrooke⁸ of the contents of a Puráńa is taken from Sanscrit writers. The Lexicon of Amara Sinha gives as a synonyme of Puráńa, Pancha-lakshanam, 'that which has five characteristic topics:' and there is no difference of opinion amongst the scholiasts as to what these are. They are, as Mr. Colebrooke mentions, 1. Primary creation, or cosmogony; 2. Secondary creation, or the destruction and renovation of worlds, including chronology; 3. Genealogy of gods and patriarchs; 4. Reigns of the Manus, or periods called Manwantaras; and 5. History, or such particulars as have been preserved of the princes of the solar and lunar races, and of their descendants to modern times⁹. Such, at any rate, were the constituent and characteristic portions of a Puráńa in the days of Amara Sinha, fifty-six years before the Christian era; and if the Puráńas had undergone no change since his time, such we should expect to find them still. Do they conform to this description? Not exactly in any one instance: to some of them it is utterly inapplicable; to others it only partially applies. There is not one to which it belongs so entirely as to the Vishńu Puráńa, and it is one of the circumstances which gives to this work a more authentic character than most of its fellows can pretend to. Yet even in this instance we have a book upon the institutes of society and obsequial rites interposed between the Manwantaras and the genealogies of princes, and a life of Krishńa separating the latter from an account of the end of the world, besides the insertion of various legends of a manifestly popular and sectarial character. No doubt many of the Puráńas, as they now are, correspond with the view which Col. Vans Kennedy takes of their purport. "I cannot discover in them," he remarks, "any other object than that of religious instruction." The description of the earth and of the planetary system, and the lists of royal races which occur in them, he asserts to be "evidently extraneous, and not essential circumstances, as they are entirely omitted in some Puráńas, and very concisely illustrated in others; while, on the contrary, in all the Puráńas some or other of the leading principles, rites, and observances of the Hindu religion are fully dwelt upon, and illustrated either by suitable legends or by prescribing the ceremonies to be practised, and the prayers and invocations to be employed, in the worship of different deities¹⁰," Now, however accurate this description may be of the Puráńas as they are, it is clear that it does not apply to what they were when they were synonymously designated as Pancha-lakshańas, or 'treatises on five topics;' not one of which five is ever specified by text or comment to be "religious instruction." In the knowledge of Amara Sinha the lists of princes were not extraneous and unessential, and their being now so considered by a writer so well acquainted with the contents of the Puráńas as Col. Vans Kennedy is a decisive proof that since the days of the lexicographer they have undergone some material alteration, and that we have not at present the same works in all respects that were current under the denomination of Puráńas in the century prior to Christianity.

The inference deduced from the discrepancy between the actual form and the older definition of a Puráńa, unfavourable to the antiquity of the extant works generally, is converted into certainty when we come to examine them in detail; for although they have no dates attached to them, yet circumstances are sometimes mentioned or alluded to, or references to authorities are made, or legends are narrated, or places are particularized, of which the comparatively recent date is indisputable, and which enforce a corresponding reduction of the antiquity of the work in which they are discovered. At the same time they may be acquitted of subservience to any but sectarial imposture. They were pious frauds for temporary purposes: they never emanated from any impossible combination of the Brahmans to fabricate for the antiquity of the entire Hindu system any claims which it cannot fully support. A very great portion of the contents of many, some portion of the contents of all, is genuine and old. The sectarial interpolation or embellishment is always sufficiently palpable to be set aside, without injury to the more authentic and primitive material; and the Puráńas, although they belong especially to that stage of the Hindu religion in which faith in some one divinity was the prevailing principle, are also a valuable record of the form of Hindu belief which came next in order to that of the Vedas; which grafted hero-worship upon the simpler ritual of the latter; and which had been adopted, and was extensively, perhaps universally established in India at the time of the Greek invasion. The Hercules of the Greek writers was indubitably the Balaráma of the Hindus; and their notices of Mathurá on the Jumna, and of the kingdom of the Suraseni and the Pandæan country, evidence the prior currency of the traditions which constitute the argument of the Mahábhárata, and which are constantly repeated in the Puráńas, relating to the Pańd́ava and Yádava races, to Krishńa and his contemporary heroes, and to the dynasties of the solar and lunar kings.

The theogony and cosmogony of the Puráńas may probably be traced to the Vedas. They are not, as far as is yet known, described in detail in those works, but they are frequently alluded to in a strain more or less mystical and obscure, which indicates acquaintance with their existence, and which seems to have supplied the Puráńas with the groundwork of their systems. The scheme of primary or elementary creation they borrow from the Sánkhya philosophy, which is probably one of the oldest forms of speculation on man and nature amongst the Hindus. Agreeably, however, to that part of the Pauráńik character which there is reason to suspect of later origin, their inculcation of the worship of a favourite deity, they combine the interposition of a creator with the independent evolution of matter in a somewhat contradictory and unintelligible style. It is evident too that their accounts of secondary creation, or the developement of the existing forms of things, and the disposition of the universe, are derived from several and different sources; and it appears very likely that they are to be accused of some of the incongruities and absurdities by which the narrative is disfigured, in consequence of having attempted to assign reality and significancy to what was merely metaphor or mysticism. There is, however, amidst the unnecessary complexity of the description, a general agreement amongst them as to the origin of things, and their final distribution; and in many of the circumstances there is a striking concurrence with the ideas which seem to have pervaded the whole of the ancient world, and which we may therefore believe to be faithfully represented in the Puráńas.

The Pantheism of the Puráńas is one of their invariable characteristics, although the particular divinity, who is all things, from whom all things proceed, and to whom all things return, be diversified according to their individual sectarial bias. They seem to have derived the notion from the Vedas: but in them the one universal Being is of a higher order than a personification of attributes or elements, and, however imperfectly conceived, or unworthily described, is God. In the Puráńas the one only Supreme Being is supposed to be manifest in the person of Śiva or Vishńu, either in the way of illusion or in sport; and one or other of these divinities is therefore also the cause of all that is, is himself all that exists. The identity of God and nature is not a new notion; it was very general in the speculations of antiquity, but it assumed a new vigour in the early ages of Christianity, and was carried to an equal pitch of extravagance by the Platonic Christians as by the Śaiva or Vaishńava Hindus. It seems not impossible that there was some communication between them. We know that there was an active communication between India and the Red sea in the early ages of the Christian era, and that doctrines, as well as articles of merchandise, were brought to Alexandria from the former. Epiphanius¹¹ and Eusebius¹² accuse Scythianus of having imported from India, in the second century, books on magic, and heretical notions leading to Manichæism; and it was at the same period that Ammonius instituted the sect of the new Platonists at Alexandria. The basis of his heresy was, that true philosophy derived its origin from the eastern nations: his doctrine of the identity of God and the universe is that of the Vedas and Puráńas; and the practices he enjoined, as well as their object, were precisely those described in several of the Puráńas under the name of Yoga. His disciples were taught "to extenuate by mortification and contemplation the bodily restraints upon the immortal spirit, so that in this life they might enjoy communion with the Supreme Being, and ascend after death to the universal Parent¹³." That these are Hindu tenets the following pages¹⁴ will testify; and by the admission of their Alexandrian teacher, they originated in India. The importation was perhaps not wholly unrequited; the loan may not have been left unpaid. It is not impossible that the Hindu doctrines received fresh animation from their adoption by the successors of Ammonius, and especially by the mystics, who may have prompted, as well as employed, the expressions of the Puráńas. Anquetil du Perron has given¹⁵, in the introduction to his translation of the 'Oupnekhat,' several hymns by Synesius, a bishop of the beginning of the fifth century, which may serve as parallels to many of the hymns and prayers addressed to Vishńu in the Vishńu Puráńa.

But the ascription to individual and personal deities of the attributes of the one universal and spiritual Supreme Being, is an indication of a later date than the Vedas certainly, and apparently also than the Rámáyańa, where Ráma, although an incarnation of Vishńu, commonly appears in his human character alone. There is something of the kind in the Mahábhárata in respect to Krishńa, especially in the philosophical episode known as the Bhagavad Gítá. In other places the divine nature of Krishńa is less decidedly affirmed; in some it is disputed or denied; and in most of the situations in which he is exhibited in action, it is as a prince and warrior, not as a divinity. He exercises no superhuman faculties in the defence of himself or his friends, or in the defeat and destruction of his foes. The Mahábhárata, however, is evidently a work of various periods, and requires to be read throughout carefully and critically before its weight as an authority can be accurately appreciated. As it is now in type¹⁶--thanks to the public spirit of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and their secretary Mr. J. Prinsep--it will not be long before the Sanscrit scholars of the continent will accurately appreciate its value.

Date of the Puráńas

The Puráńas are also works of evidently different ages, and have been compiled under different circumstances, the precise nature of which we can but imperfectly conjecture from internal evidence, and from what we know of the history of religious opinion in India. It is highly probable, that of the present popular forms of the Hindu religion, none assumed their actual state earlier than the time of Śankara Áchárya, the great Śaiva reformer, who flourished, in all likelihood, in the eighth or ninth century. Of the Vaishńava teachers, Rámánuja dates in the twelfth century, Madhwáchárya in the thirteenth, and Vallabha in the sixteenth¹⁷; and the Puráńas seem to have accompanied or followed their innovations, being obviously intended to advocate the doctrines they taught. This is to assign to some of them a very modern date, it is true; but I cannot think that a higher can with justice be ascribed to them. This, however, applies to some only out of the number, as I shall presently proceed to specify.

Another evidence of a comparatively modern date must be admitted in those chapters of the Puráńas which, assuming a prophetic tone, foretell what dynasties of kings will reign in the Kálí age. These chapters, it is true, are found but in four of the Puráńas, but they are conclusive in bringing down the date of those four to a period considerably subsequent to Christianity. It is also to be remarked, that the Váyu, Vishńu, Bhágavata, and Matsya Puráńas, in which these particulars are foretold, have in all other respects the character of as great antiquity as any works of their class¹⁸.

Form of the Puráńas

The invariable form of the Puráńas is that of a dialogue, in which some person relates its contents in reply to the inquiries of another. This dialogue is interwoven with others, which are repeated as having been held on other occasions between different individuals, in consequence of similar questions having been asked. The immediate narrator is commonly, though not constantly, Lomaharshańa or Romaharshańa, the disciple of Vyása, who is supposed to communicate what was imparted to him by his preceptor, as he had heard it from some other sage. Vyása, as will be seen in the body of the work¹⁹, is a generic title, meaning an 'arranger' or 'compiler.' It is in this age applied to Krishńa Dwaipáyana, the son of Paráśara, who is said to have taught the Vedas and Puráńas to various disciples, but who appears to have been the head of a college or school, under whom various learned men gave to the sacred literature of the Hindus the form in which it now presents itself. In this task the disciples, as they are termed, of Vyása were rather his colleagues and coadjutors, for they were already conversant with what he is fabled to have taught them²⁰; and amongst them, Lomaharshańa represents the class of persons who were especially charged with the record of political and temporal events. He is called Súta, as if it was a proper name; but it is more correctly a title; and Lomaharshańa was 'a Súta,' that is, a bard or panegyrist, who was created, according to our text²¹, to celebrate the exploits of princes; and who, according to the Váyu and Padma Puráńas, has a right by birth and profession to narrate the Puráńas, in preference even to the Brahmans²². It is not unlikely therefore that we are to understand, by his being represented as the disciple of Vyása, the institution of some attempt, made under the direction of the latter, to collect from the heralds and annalists of his day the scattered traditions which they had imperfectly preserved; and hence the consequent appropriation of the Puráńas, in a great measure, to the genealogies of regal dynasties, and descriptions of the universe. However this may be, the machinery has been but loosely adhered to, and many of the Patinas, like the Vishńu, are referred to a different narrator.

An account is given in the following work²³ of a series of Pauráńik compilations, of which in their present form no vestige appears. Lomaharshańa is said to have had six disciples, three of whom composed as many fundamental Sanhitás, whilst he himself compiled a fourth. By a Sanhitá is generally understood a 'collection' or 'compilation.' The Sanhitás of the Vedas are collections of hymns and prayers belonging to them, arranged according to the judgment of some individual sage, who is therefore looked upon as the originator and teacher of each. The Sanhitás of the Puráńas, then, should be analogous compilations, attributed respectively to Mitrayu, Śánśapáyana, Akritavrańa, and Romaharshańa: no such Pauráńik Sanhitás are now known, The substance of the four is said to be collected in the Vishńu Puráńa, which is also, in another place²⁴, itself called a Sanhitá: but such compilations have not, as far as inquiry has yet proceeded, been discovered. The specification may be accepted as an indication of the Puráńas having existed in some other form, in which they are no longer met with; although it does not appear that the arrangement was incompatible with their existence as separate works, for the Vishńu Puráńa, which is our authority for the four Sanhitás, gives us also the usual enumeration of the several Puráńas.

Classification of the Puráńas

There is another classification of the Puráńas alluded to in the Matsya Puráńa, and specified by the Padma Puráńa, but more fully. It is not undeserving of notice, as it expresses the opinion which native writers entertain of the scope of the Puráńas, and of their recognising the subservience of these works to the dissemination of sectarian principles.. Thus it is said in the Uttara Khańd́a of the Padma, that the Puráńas, as well as other works, are divided into three classes, according to the qualities which prevail in them. Thus the Vishńu, Náradíya, Bhágavata, Gárud́a, Padma, and Váráha Puráńas, are Sátwika, or pure, from the predominance in them of the Satwa quality, or that of goodness and purity. They are, in fact, Vaishńava Puráńas. The Matsya, Kúrma, Linga, Śiva, Skanda, and Agni Puráńas, are Támasa, or Puráńas of darkness, from the prevalence of the quality of Tamas, 'ignorance,' 'gloom.' They are indisputably Śaiva Puráńas. The third series, comprising the Brahmáńd́a, Brahma-vaivartta, Márkańd́eya, Bhavishya, Vámana, and Brahmá Puráńas, are designated as Rájasa, 'passionate,' from Rajas, the property of passion, which they are supposed to represent.. The Matsya does not specify which are the Puráńas that come under these designations, but remarks that those in which the Máhátmya of Hari or Vishńu prevails are Sátwika; those in which the legends of Agni or Śiva predominate are Támasa; and those which dwell most on the stories of Brahmá are Rájasa. I have elsewhere stated²⁵, that I considered the Rájasa Puráńas to lean to the Sákta division of the Hindus, the worshippers of Śakti, or the female principle; founding this opinion on the character of the legends which some of them contain, such as the Durgá Máhátmya, or celebrated legend on which the worship of Durgá or Kálí is especially founded, which is a principal episode of the Márkańd́eya. The Brahma-vaivartta also devotes the greatest portion of its chapters to the celebration of Rádhá, the mistress of Krishńa, and other female divinities. Col. Vans Kennedy, however, objects to the application of the term Sákta to this last division of the Puráńas, the worship of Śakti being the especial object of a different class of works, the Tantras, and no such form of worship being particularly inculcated in the Bráhma Puráńa²⁶. This last argument is of weight in regard to the particular instance specified, and the designation of Śakti may not be correctly applicable to the whole class, although it is to some of the series; for there is no incompatibility in the advocacy of a Tántrika modification of the Hindu religion by any Puráńa, and it has unquestionably been practised in works known as Upa-puráńas. The proper appropriation of the third class of the Puráńas, according to the Padma Puráńa, appears to be to the worship of Krishńa, not in the character in which he is represented in the Vishńu and Bhágavata Puráńas, in which the incidents of his boyhood are only a portion of his biography, and in which the human character largely participates, at least in his riper years, but as the infant Krishńa, Govinda, Bála Gopála, the sojourner in Vrindávan, the companion of the cowherds and milkmaids, the lover of Rádhá, or as the juvenile master of the universe, Jagannátha. The term Rájasa, implying the animation of passion, and enjoyment of sensual delights, is applicable, not only to the character of the youthful divinity, but to those with whom his adoration in these forms seems to have originated, the Gosains of Gokul and Bengal, the followers and descendants of Vallabha and Chaitanya, the priests and proprietors of Jagannáth and Śrínáth-dwár, who lead a life of affluence and indulgence, and vindicate, both by precept and practice, the reasonableness of the Rájasa property, and the congruity of temporal enjoyment with the duties of religion²⁷.

The Puráńas are uniformly stated to be eighteen in number. It is said that there are also eighteen Upa-puráńas, or minor Puráńas; but the names of only a few of these are specified in the least exceptionable authorities, and the greater number of the works is not procurable. With regard to the eighteen Puráńas, there is a peculiarity in their specification, which is proof of an interference with the integrity of the text, in some of them at least; for each of them specifies the names of the whole eighteen. Now the list could not have been complete whilst the work that gives it was unfinished, and in one only therefore, the last of the series, have we a right to look for it. As however there are more last words than one, it is evident that the names must have been inserted in all except one after the whole were completed: which of the eighteen is the exception, and truly the last, there is no clue to discover, and the specification is probably an interpolation in most, if not in all.

The names that are specified are commonly the same, and are as follows: 1. Bráhma, 2. Pádma, 3. Vaishńava, 4. Śaiva, 5. Bhágavata, 6. Nárada, 7. Márkańd́a, 8. Ágneya, 9. Bhavishya, 10. Brahma-vaivartta, 11. Lainga, 12. Váráha, 13. Skánda, 14. Vámana, 15. Kaurma, 16. Mátsya, 17. Gárud́a, 18. Brahmáńd́a²⁸. This is from the twelfth book of the Bhágavata, and is the same as occurs in the Vishńu²⁹. In other authorities there are a few variations. The list of the K.úrma P. omits the Agni Puráńa, and substitutes the Váyu. The Agni leaves out the Śaiva, and inserts the Váyu. The Varáha omits the Gárud́a and Brahmáńd́a, and inserts the Váyu and Narasinha: in this last it is singular. The Márkańd́eya agrees with the Vishńu and Bhágavata in omitting the Váyu. The Matsya, like the Agni, leaves out the Śaiva.

Some of the Puráńas, as the Agni, Matsya, Bhágavata, and Padma, also particularize the number of stanzas which each of the eighteen contains. In one or two instances they disagree, but in general they concur. The aggregate is stated at 400,000 slokas, or 1,600,000 lines. These are fabled to be but an abridgment, the whole amount being a krore, or ten millions of stanzas, or even a thousand millions. If all the fragmentary portions claiming in various parts of India to belong to the Puráńas were admitted, their extent would much exceed the lesser, though it would not reach the larger enumeration. The former is, however, as I have elsewhere stated³⁰, a quantity that an individual European scholar could scarcely expect to peruse with due care and attention, unless his whole time were devoted exclusively for many years to the task. Yet without some such labour being achieved, it was clear, from the crudity and inexactness of all that had been hitherto published on the subject, with one exception³¹, that sound views on the subject of Hindu mythology and tradition were not to be expected. Circumstances, which I have already explained in the paper in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society referred to above, enabled me to avail myself of competent assistance, by which I made a minute abstract of most of the Puráńas. In course of time I hope to place a tolerably copious and connected analysis of the whole eighteen before Oriental scholars, and in the mean while offer a brief notice of their several contents.

In general the enumeration of the Puráńas is a simple nomenclature, with the addition in some cases of the number of verses; but to these the Matsya Puráńa joins the mention of one or two circumstances peculiar to each, which, although scanty, are of value, as offering means of identifying the copies of the Puráńas now found with those to which the Matsya refers, or of discovering a difference between the present and the past. I shall therefore prefix the passage descriptive of each Puráńa from the Matsya. It is necessary to remark, however, that in the comparison instituted between that description and the Puráńa as it exists, I necessarily refer to the copy or copies which I employed for the purpose of examination and analysis, and which were procured with some trouble and cost in Benares and Calcutta. In some instances my manuscripts have been collated with others from different parts of India, and the result has shewn, that, with regard at least to the Brahmá, Vishńu, Váyu, Matsya, Padma, Bhágavata, and Kúrma Puráńas, the same works, in all essential respects, are generally current under the same appellations. Whether this is invariably the case may be doubted, and farther inquiry may possibly shew that I have been obliged to content myself with mutilated or unauthentic works³². It is with this reservation, therefore, that I must be understood to speak of the concurrence or disagreement of any Puráńa with the notice of it which the Matsya P. has preserved.

1. The Brahmá Puráńa

1. Brahmá Puráńa. "That, the whole of which was formerly repeated by Brahmá to Maríchi, is called the Bráhma Puráńa, and contains ten thousand stanzas³³." In all the lists of the Puráńas, the Bráhma is placed at the head of the series, and is thence sometimes also entitled the Ádi or 'first' Puráńa. It is also designated as the Saura, as it is in great part appropriated to the worship of Súrya, 'the sun.' There are, however, works bearing these names which belong to the class of Upa-puráńas, and which are not to be confounded with the Bráhma. It is usually said, as above, to contain ten thousand slokas; but the number actually occurring is between seven and eight thousand. There is a supplementary or concluding section called the Brahmottara Puráńa, and which is different from a portion of the Skánda called the Brahmottara Khańd́a, which contains about three thousand stanzas more; but there is every reason to conclude that this is a distinct and unconnected work.

The immediate narrator of the Brahmá Puráńa is Lomaharshańa, who communicates it to the Rishis or sages assembled at Naimishárańya, as it was originally revealed by Brahmá, not to Maríchi, as the Matsya affirms, but to Daksha, another of the patriarchs: hence its denomination of the Brahmá Puráńa.

The early chapters of this work give a description of the creation, an account of the Manwantaras, and the history of the solar and lunar dynasties to the time of Krishńa, in a summary manner, and in words which are common to it and several other Puráńas: a brief description of the universe succeeds; and then come a number of chapters relating to the holiness of Orissa, with its temples and sacred groves dedicated to the sun, to Śiva, and Jagannáth, the latter especially. These chapters are characteristic of this Puráńa, and shew its main object to be the promotion of the worship of Krishńa as Jagannáth³⁴. To these particulars succeeds a life of Krishńa, which is word for word the same as that of the Vishńu Puráńa; and the compilation terminates with a particular detail of the mode in which Yoga, or contemplative devotion, the object of which is still Vishńu, is to be performed. There is little in this which corresponds with the definition of a Pancha-lakshańa Puráńa; and the mention of the temples of Orissa, the date of the original construction of which is recorded³⁵, shews that it could not have been compiled earlier than the thirteenth or fourteenth century.

The Uttara Khańd́a of the Bráhma P. bears still more entirely the character of a Máhátmya, or local legend, being intended to celebrate the sanctity of the Balajá river, conjectured to be the same as the Banás in Marwar. There is no clue to its date, but it is clearly modern, grafting personages and fictions of its own invention on a few hints from older authorities³⁶.

2. The Padma Puráńa

2. Padma Puráńa. "That which contains an account of the period when the world was a golden lotus (padma), and of all the occurrences of that time, is therefore called the Pádma by the wise: it contains fifty-five thousand stanzas³⁷." The second Puráńa in the usual lists is always the Pádma, a very voluminous work, containing, according to its own statement, as well as that of other authorities, fifty-five thousand slokas; an amount not far from the truth. These are divided amongst five books, or Khańd́as; 1. the Srisht́i Khańd́a, or section on creation; 2. the Bhúmi Khańd́a, description of the earth; 3. the Swarga Khańd́a, chapter on heaven; 4. Pátála Khańd́a, chapter on the regions below the earth; and 5. the Uttara Khańd́a, last or supplementary chapter. There is also current a sixth division, the Kriyá Yoga Sára, a treatise on the practice of devotion.

The denominations of these divisions of the Padma P. convey but an imperfect and partial notion of their contents. In the first, or section which treats of creation, the narrator is Ugraśravas the Súta, the son of Lomaharshańa, who is sent by his father to the Rishis at Naimisháráńya to communicate to them the Puráńa, which, from its containing an account of the lotus (padma), in which Brahmá appeared at creation, is termed the Pádma or Padma Puráńa. The Súta repeats what was originally communicated by Brahmá to Pulastya, and by him to Bhíshma. The early chapters narrate the cosmogony, and the genealogy of the patriarchal families, much in the same style, and often in the same words, as the Vishńu; and short accounts of the Manwantaras and regal dynasties: but these, which are legitimate Pauráńik matters, soon make way for new and unauthentic inventions, illustrative of the virtues of the lake of Pushkara, or Pokher in Ajmir, as a place of pilgrimage.

The Bhúmi Khańd́a, or section of the earth, defers any description of the earth until near its close, filling up one hundred and twenty-seven chapters with legends of a very mixed description, some ancient and common to other Puráńas, but the greater part peculiar to itself, illustrative of Tírthas either figuratively so termed--as a wife, a parent, or a Guru, considered as a sacred object--or places to which actual pilgrimage should be performed.

The Swarga Khańd́a describes in the first chapters the relative positions of the Lokas or spheres above the earth, placing above all Vaikuńtha, the sphere of Vishńu; an addition which is not warranted by what appears to be the oldest cosmology³⁸. Miscellaneous notices of some of the most celebrated princes then succeed, conformably to the usual narratives; and these are followed by rules of conduct for the several castes, and at different stages of life. The rest of the book is occupied by legends of a diversified description, introduced without much method or contrivance; a few of which, as Daksha's sacrifice, are of ancient date, but of which the most are original and modern.

The Pátála Khańd́a devotes a brief introduction to the description of Pátála, the regions of the snake-gods; but the name of Ráma having been mentioned, Śesha, who has succeeded Pulastya as spokesman, proceeds to narrate the history of Ráma, his descent and his posterity; in which the compiler seems to have taken the poem of Kálidaśa, the Raghu Vanśa, for his chief authority. An originality of addition may be suspected, however, in the adventures of the horse destined by Ráma for an Aśwamedha, which form the subject of a great many chapters. When about to be sacrificed, the horse turns out to be a Brahman, condemned by an imprecation of Durvásas, a sage, to assume the equine nature, and who, by having been sanctified by connexion with Ráma, is released from his metamorphosis, and dispatched as a spirit of light to heaven. This piece of Vaishńava fiction is followed by praises of the Śrí Bhágavata, an account of Krishńa's juvenilities, and the merits of worshipping Vishńu. These accounts are communicated through a machinery borrowed from the Tantras: they are told by Sadáśiva to Párvati, the ordinary interlocutors of Tántrika compositions.

The Uttara Khańd́a is a most voluminous aggregation of very heterogeneous matters, but it is consistent in adopting a decidedly Vaishńava tone, and admitting no compromise with any other form of faith. The chief subjects are first discussed in a dialogue between king Dilípa and the Muni Vaśisht́ha; such as the merits of bathing in the month of Mágha, and the potency of the Mantra or prayer addressed to Lakshmí Náráyańa. But the nature of Bhakti, faith in Vishńu--the use of Vaishńava marks on the body--the legends of Vishńu's Avatáras, and especially of Ráma--and the construction of images of Vishńu--are too important to be left to mortal discretion: they are explained by Śiva to Párvati, and wound up by the adoration of Vishńu by those divinities. The dialogue then reverts to the king and the sage; and the latter states why Vishńu is the only one of the triad entitled to respect; Śiva being licentious, Brahmá arrogant, and Vishńu alone pure. Vaśisht́ha then repeats, after Śiva, the Máhátmya of the Bhagavad Gítá; the merit of each book of which is illustrated by legends of the good consequences to individuals from perusing or hearing it. Other Vaishńava Máhátmyas occupy considerable portions of this Khańd́a, especially the Kártíka Máhátmya, or holiness of the month Kartika, illustrated as usual by stories, a few of which are of an early origin, but the greater part modern, and peculiar to this Puráńa³⁹.

The Kriyá Yoga Sára is repeated by Súta to the Rishis, after Vyása's communication of it to Jaimini, in answer to an inquiry how religious merit might be secured in the Kálí age, in which men have become incapable of the penances and abstraction by which final liberation was formerly to be attained. The answer is, of course, that which is intimated in the last hook of the Vishńu Puráńa--personal devotion to Vishńu: thinking of him, repeating his names, wearing his marks, worshipping in his temples, are a full substitute for all other acts of moral or devotional or contemplative merit.

The different portions of the Padma Puráńa are in all probability as many different works, neither of which approaches to the original definition of a Puráńa. There may be some connexion between the three first portions, at least as to time; but there is no reason to consider them as of high antiquity. They specify the Jains both by name and practices.; they talk of Mlechchhas, 'barbarians,' flourishing in India; they commend the use of the frontal and other Vaishńava marks; and they notice other subjects which, like these, are of no remote origin. The Pátála Khańd́a dwells copiously upon the Bhágavata, and is consequently posterior to it. The Uttara Khańd́a is intolerantly Vaishńava, and is therefore unquestionably modern. It enjoins the veneration of the Sálágram stone and Tulasí plant, the use of the Tapta-mudra, or stamping with a hot iron the name of Vishńu on the skin, and a variety of practices and observances undoubtedly no part of the original system. It speaks of the shrines of Śrí-rangam and Venkatádri in the Dekhin, temples that have no pretension to remote antiquity; and it names Haripur on the Tungabhadra, which is in all likelihood the city of Vijayanagar, founded in the middle of the fourteenth century. The Kriyá Yoga Sára is equally a modern, and apparently a Bengali composition. No portion of the Padma Puráńa is probably older than the twelfth century, and the last parts may be as recent as the fifteenth or sixteenth⁴⁰.

3. The Vishńu Puráńa

3. Vishńu Puráńa. "That in which Paráśara, beginning with the events of the Varáha Kalpa, expounds all duties, is called the Vaishńava; and the learned know its extent to be twenty-three thousand stanzas⁴¹." The third Puráńa of the lists is that which has been selected for translation, the Vishńu. It is unnecessary therefore to offer any general summary of its contents, and it will be convenient to reserve any remarks upon its character and probable antiquity for a subsequent page. It may here be observed, however, that the actual number of verses contained in it falls far short of the enumeration of the Matsya, with which the Bhágavata concurs. Its actual contents are not seven thousand stanzas. All the copies, and in this instance they are not fewer than seven in number, procured both in the east and in the west of India, agree; and there is no appearance of any part being wanting. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end, in both text and comment; and the work as it stands is incontestably entire. How is the discrepancy to be explained?

4. The Váyavíya Puráńa

4. "The Puráńa in which Váyu has declared the laws of duty, in connexion with the Sweta Kalpa, and which comprises the Máhátmya of Rudra, is the Váyavíya Puráńa: it contains twenty-four thousand verses⁴²." The Śiva or Śaiva Puráńa is, as above remarked, omitted in some of the lists; and in general, when that is the case, it is replaced by the Váyu or Váyavíya. When the Śiva is specified, as in the Bhágavata, then the Váyu is omitted; intimating the possible identity of these two works. This indeed is confirmed by the Matsya, which describes the Váyavíya Puráńa as characterised by its account of the greatness of Rudra or Siva⁴³; and Balambhat́t́a mentions that the Váyavíya is also called the Śaiva, though, according to some, the latter is the name of an Upa-puráńa. Col. Vans Kennedy observes, that in the west of India the Śaiva is commonly considered to be an Upa or 'minor' Puráńa⁴⁴.

Another proof that the same work is intended by the authorities here followed, the Bhágavata and Matsya, under different appellations, is their concurrence in the extent of the work, each specifying its verses to be twenty-four thousand. A copy of the Śiva Puráńa, of which an index and analysis have been prepared, does not contain more than about seven thousand: it cannot therefore be the Śiva Puráńa of the Bhágavata; and we may safely consider that to be the same as the Váyavíya of the Matsya⁴⁵.

The Váyu Puráńa is narrated by Súta to the Rishis at Naimishárańya, as it was formerly told at the same place to similar persons by Váyu; a repetition of circumstances not uncharacteristic of the inartificial style of this Puráńa. It is divided into four Pádas, termed severally Prakriyá, Upodgháta, Anushanga, and Upasanhára; a classification peculiar to this work. These are preceded by an index, or heads of chapters, in the manner of the Mahábhárata and Rámáyańa; another peculiarity.

The Prakriyá portion contains but a few chapters, and treats chiefly of elemental creation, and the first evolutions of beings, to the same purport as the Vishńu, but in a more obscure and unmethodical style. The Upodgháta then continues the subject of creation, and describes the various Kalpas or periods during which the world has existed; a greater number of which is specified by the Śaiva than by the Vaishńava Puráńas. Thirty-three are here described, the last of which is the Sweta or 'white' Kalpa, from Śiva's being born in it of a white complexion. The genealogies of the patriarchs, the description of the universe, and the incidents of the first six Manwantaras, are all treated of in this part of the work; but they are intermixed with legends and praises of Śiva, as the sacrifice of Daksha, the Maheśwara Máhátmya, the Nilakántha Stotra, and others. The genealogies, although in the main the same as those in the Vaishńava Puráńas, present some variations. A long account of the Pitris or progenitors is also peculiar to this Puráńa; as are stories of some of the most celebrated Rishis, who were engaged in the distribution of the Vedas.

The third division commences with an account of the seven Rishis and their descendants, and describes the origin of the different classes of creatures from the daughters of Daksha, with a profuse copiousness of nomenclature, not found in any other Puráńa. With exception of the greater minuteness of detail, the particulars agree with those of the Vishńu P. A chapter then occurs on the worship of the Pitris; another on Tírthas, or places sacred to them; and several on the performance of Sráddhas, constituting the Sráddha Kalpa. After this, comes a full account of the solar and lunar dynasties, forming a parallel to that in the following pages, with this difference, that it is throughout in verse, whilst that of our text, as noticed in its place, is chiefly in prose. It is extended also by the insertion of detailed accounts of various incidents, briefly noticed in the Vishńu, though derived apparently from a common original. The section terminates with similar accounts of future kings, and the same chronological calculations, that are found in the Vishńu.

The last portion, the Upasanhára, describes briefly the future Manwantaras, the measures of space and time, the end of the world, the efficacy of Yoga, and the glories of Śiva-pura, or the dwelling of Śiva, with whom the Yogi is to be united. The manuscript concludes with a different history of the successive teachers of the Váyu Puráńa, tracing them from Brahmá to Váyu, from Váyu to Vrihaspati, and from him, through various deities and sages, to Dwaipáyańa and Śúta.

The account given of this Puráńa in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal was limited to something less than half the work, as I had not then been able to procure a larger portion. I have now a more complete one of my own, and there are several copies in the East India Company's library of the like extent. One, presented by His Highness the Guicowar, is dated Samvat 1540, or A. D. 1483, and is evidently as old as it professes to be. The examination I have made of the work confirms the view I formerly took of it; and from the internal evidence it affords, it may perhaps be regarded as one of the oldest and most authentic specimens extant of a primitive Puráńa.

It appears, however, that we have not yet a copy of the entire Váyu Puráńa. The extent of it, as mentioned above, should be twenty-four thousand verses. The Guicowar MS. has but twelve thousand, and is denominated the Púrvárddha, or first portion. My copy is of the like extent. The index also spews that several subjects remain untold; as, subsequently to the description of the sphere of Śiva, and the periodical dissolution of the world, the work is said to contain an account of a succeeding creation, and of various events that occurred in it, as the birth of several celebrated Rishis, including that of Vyása, and a description of his distribution of the Vedas; an account of the enmity between Vaśisht́ha and Viswámitra; and a Naimishárańya Máhátmya. These topics are, however, of minor importance, and can scarcely carry the Puráńa to the whole extent of the verses which it is said to contain. If the number is accurate, the index must still omit a considerable portion of the subsequent contents.

5. The Bhágavata Puráńa

5. Śrí Bhágavata. "That in which ample details of duty are described, and which opens with (an extract from) the Gáyatri; that in which the death of the Asura Vritra is told, and in which the mortals and immortals of the Sáraswata Kalpa, with the events that then happened to them in the world, are related; that, is celebrated as the Bhágavata, and consists of eighteen thousand verses⁴⁶." The Bhágavata is a work of great celebrity in India, and exercises a more direct and powerful influence upon the opinions and feelings of the people than perhaps any other of the Puráńas. It is placed the fifth in all the lists; but the Padma Puráńa ranks it as the eighteenth, as the extracted substance of all the rest. According to the usual specification, it consists of eighteen thousand ślokas, distributed amongst three hundred and thirty-two chapters, divided into twelve Skandhas or books. It is named Bhágavata from its being dedicated to the glorification of Bhagavat or Vishńu.

The Bhágavata is communicated to the Rishis at Naimishárańya by Súta, as usual; but he only repeats what was narrated by Śuka, the son of Vyása, to Paríkshit, the king of Hastinápura, the grandson of Arjuna. Having incurred the imprecation of a hermit, by which he was sentenced to die of the bite of a venomous snake, at the expiration of seven days; the king, in preparation for . this event, repairs to the banks of the Ganges; whither also come the gods and sages, to witness his death. Amongst the latter is Śuka; and it is in reply to Paríkshit's question, what a man should do who is about to die, that he narrates the Bhágavata, as he had heard it from Vyása; for nothing secures final happiness so certainly, as to die whilst the thoughts are wholly engrossed by Vishńu.

The course of the narration opens with a cosmogony, which, although in most respects similar to that of other Puráńas, is more largely intermixed with allegory and mysticism, and derives its tone more from the Vedanta than the Sánkhya philosophy. The doctrine of active creation by the Supreme, as one with Vásudeva, is more distinctly asserted, with a more decided enunciation of the effects being resolvable into Máyá, or illusion. There are also doctrinal peculiarities, highly characteristic of this Puráńa; amongst which is the assertion that it was originally communicated by Brahmá to Nárada, that all men whatsoever, Hindus of every caste, and even Mlechchhas, outcastes or barbarians, might learn to have faith in Vásudeva.

In the third book the interlocutors are changed to Maitreya and Vidura; the former of whom is the disciple in the Vishńu Puráńa, the latter was the half-brother of the Kuru princes. Maitreya, again, gives an account of the Srisht́i-lílá, or sport of creation, in a strain partly common to the Puráńas, partly peculiar; although he declares he learned it from his teacher Paráśara, at the desire of Pulastya⁴⁷; referring thus to the fabulous origin of the Vishńu Puráńa, and furnishing evidence of its priority. Again, however, the authority is changed, and the narrative is said to have been that which was communicated by Śesha to the Nágas. The creation of Brahmá is then described, and the divisions of time are explained. A very long and peculiar account is given of the Varáha incarnation of Vishńu, which is followed by the creation of the Prajápatis and Swáyambhuva, whose daughter Devahutí is married to Karddama Rishi; an incident peculiar to this work, as is that which follows of the Avatára of Vishńu as Kapila the son of Karddama and Devahutí, the author of the Sánkhya philosophy, which he expounds, after a Vaishńava fashion, to his mother, in the last nine chapters of this section.

The Manwantara of Swáyambhuva, and the multiplication of the patriarchal families, are next described with some peculiarities of nomenclature, which are pointed out in the notes to the parallel passages of the Vishńu Puráńa. The traditions of Dhruva, Veńa, Prithu, and other princes of this period, are the other subjects of the fourth Skandha, and are continued in the fifth to that of the Bharata who obtained emancipation. The details generally conform to those of the Vishńu Puráńa, and the same words are often employed, so that it would he difficult to determine which work had the best right to them, had not the Bhágavata itself indicated its obligations to the Vishńu. The remainder of the fifth book is occupied with the description of the universe, and the same conformity with the Vishńu continues.

This is only partially the case with the sixth book, which contains a variety of legends of a miscellaneous description, intended to illustrate the merit of worshipping Vishńu: some of them belong to the early stock, but some are apparently novel. The seventh book is mostly occupied with the legend of Prahláda. In the eighth we have an account of the remaining Manwantaras; in which, as happening in the course of them, a variety of ancient legends are repeated, as the battle between the king of the elephants and an alligator, the churning of the ocean, and the dwarf and fish Avatáras. The ninth book narrates the dynasties of the Vaivaswata Manwantara, or the princes of the solar and lunar races to the time of Krishńa⁴⁸. The particulars conform generally with those recorded in the Vishńu.

The tenth book is the characteristic part of this Puráńa, and the portion upon which its popularity is founded. It is appropriated entirely to the history of Krishńa, which it narrates much in the same manner as the Vishńu, but in more detail; holding a middle place, however, between it and the extravagant prolixity with which the Hari Vanśa repeats the story. It is not necessary to particularize it farther. It has been translated into perhaps all the languages of India, and is a favourite work with all descriptions of people.

The eleventh book describes the destruction of the Yádavas, and death of Krishńa. Previous to the latter event, Krishńa instructs Uddhava in the performance of the Yoga; a subject consigned by the Vishńu to the concluding passages. The narrative is much the same, but something more summary than that of the Vishńu. The twelfth book continues the lines of the kings of the Kálí age prophetically to a similar period as the Vishńu, and gives a like account of the deterioration of all things, and their final dissolution. Consistently with the subject of the Puráńa, the serpent Takshaka bites Paríkshit, and he expires, and the work should terminate; or the close might be extended to the subsequent sacrifice of Janamejaya for the destruction of the whole serpent race. There is a rather awkwardly introduced description, however, of the arrangement of the Vedas and Puráńas by Vyása, and the legend of Márkańd́eya's interview with the infant Krishńa, during a period of worldly dissolution. We then come to the end of the Bhágavata, in a series of encomiastic commendations of its own sanctity, and efficacy to salvation.

Mr. Colebrooke observes of the Bhágavata Puráńa, "I am inclined to adopt an opinion supported by many learned Hindus, who consider the celebrated Śrí Bhágavata as the work of a grammarian (Vopadeva), supposed to have lived six hundred years ago⁴⁹." Col. Vans Kennedy considers this an incautious admission, because "it is unquestionable that the number of the Puráńas has been always held to be eighteen; but in most of the Puráńas the names of the eighteen are enumerated, amongst which the Bhágavata is invariably included; and consequently if it were composed only six hundred years ago, the others must be of an equally modern date⁵⁰." Some of them are no doubt more recent; but, as already remarked, no weight can be attached to the specification of the eighteen names, for they are always complete; each Puráńa enumerates all. Which is the last? which had the opportunity of naming its seventeen predecessors, and adding itself? The argument proves too much. There can be little doubt that the list has been inserted upon the authority of tradition, either by some improving transcriber, or by the compiler of a work more recent than the eighteen genuine Puráńas. The objection is also rebutted by the assertion, that there was another Puráńa to which the name applies, and which is still to be met with, the Deví Bhágavata.

For, the authenticity of the Bhágavata is one of the few questions affecting their sacred literature which Hindu writers have ventured to discuss. The occasion is furnished by the text itself. In the fourth chapter of the first book it is said that Vyása arranged the Vedas, and divided them into four; and that he then compiled the Itihása and Puráńas, as a fifth Veda. The Vedas he gave to Paila and the rest; the Itihása and Puráńas to Lomaharshańa, the father of Súta⁵¹. Then reflecting that these works may not be accessible to women, Śúdras, and mixed castes, he composed the Bhárata, for the purpose of placing religious knowledge within their reach. Still he felt dissatisfied, and wandered in much perplexity along the banks of the Saraswatí, where his hermitage was situated, when Nárada paid him a visit. Having confided to him his secret and seemingly causeless dissatisfaction, Nárada suggested that it arose from his not having sufficiently dwelt, in the works he had finished, upon the merit of worshipping Vásudeva. Vyása at once admitted its truth, and found a remedy for his uneasiness in the composition of the Bhágavata, which he taught to Śuka his son⁵². Here therefore is the most positive assertion that the Bhágavata was composed subsequently to the Puráńas, and given to a different pupil, and was not therefore one of the eighteen of which Romaharshańa the Seta was, according to all concurrent testimonies, the depositary. Still the Bhágavata is named amongst the eighteen Puráńas by the inspired authorities; and how can these incongruities be reconciled?

The principal point in dispute seems to have been started by an expression of Śrídhara Swámin, a commentator on the Bhágavata, who somewhat incautiously made the remark that there was no reason to suspect that by the term Bhágavata any other work than the subject of his labours was intended. This was therefore an admission that some suspicions had been entertained of the correctness of the nomenclature, and that an opinion had been expressed that the term belonged, not to the Śrí Bhágavata, but to the Deví Bhágavata; to a Śaiva, not a Vaishńava, composition. With whom doubts prevailed prior to Śrídhara Swámin, or by whom they were urged, does not appear; for, as far as we are aware, no works, anterior to his date, in which they are advanced have been met with. Subsequently, various tracts have been written on the subject. There are three in the library of the East India Company; the Durjana Mukha Chapet́iká, 'A slap of the face for the vile,' by Rámáśrama; the Durjana Mukha Mahá Chapet́iká, 'A great slap of the face for the wicked,' by Káśináth Bhat́t́a; and the Durjana Mukha Padma Pad́uká, 'A slipper' for the same part of the same persons, by a nameless disputant. The first maintains the authenticity of the Bhágavata; the second asserts that the Deví Bhágavata is the genuine Puráńa; and the third replies to the arguments of the first. There is also a work by Purushottama, entitled 'Thirteen arguments for dispelling all doubts of the character of the Bhágavata' (Bhágavata swarúpa vihsaya śanká nirása trayodasa); whilst Bálambhat́t́a, a commentator on the Mitákshara, indulging in a dissertation on the meaning of the word Puráńa, adduces reasons for questioning the inspired origin of this Puráńa.

The chief arguments in favour of the authenticity of this Puráńa are the absence of any reason why Vopadeva, to whom it is attributed, should not have put his own name to it; its being included in all lists of the Puráńas, sometimes with circumstances that belong to no other Puráńa; and its being admitted to be a Puráńa, and cited as authority, or made the subject of comment, by writers of established reputation, of whom Śankara Áchárya is one, and he lived long before Vopadeva. The reply to the first argument is rather feeble, the controversialists being unwilling perhaps to admit the real object, the promotion of new doctrines. It is therefore said that Vyása was an incarnation of Náráyańa, and the purpose was to propitiate his favour. The insertion of a Bhágavata amongst the eighteen Puráńas is acknowledged; but this, it is said, can be the Deví Bhágavata alone, for the circumstances apply more correctly to it than to the Vaishńava Bhágavata. Thus a text is quoted by Káśináth from a Puráńa--he does not state which--that says of the Bhágavata that it contains eighteen thousand verses, twelve books, and three hundred and thirty-two chapters. Káśináth asserts that the chapters of the Śrí Bhágavata are three hundred and thirty-five, and that the numbers apply throughout only to the Deví Bhágavata. It is also said that the Bhágavata contains an account of the acquirement of holy knowledge by Hayagríva; the particulars of the Sáraswata Kalpa; a dialogue between Ambarísha and Śuka; and that it commences with the Gayatrí, or at least a citation of it. These all apply to the Deví Bhágavata alone, except the last; but it also is more true of the Śaiva than of the Vaishńava work, for the latter has only one word of the Gayatrí, dhímahi, 'we meditate;' whilst the former to dhímahi adds, Yá nah prachodayát, 'who may enlighten us.' To the third argument it is in the first place objected, that the citation of the Bhágavata by modern writers is no test of its authenticity; and with regard to the more ancient commentary of Śankara Áchárya, it is asked, "Where is it?" Those who advocate the sanctity of the Bhágavata reply, "It was written in a difficult style, and became obsolete, and is lost." "A very unsatisfactory plea," retort their opponents, "for we still have the works of Śankara, several of which are quite as difficult as any in the Sanscrit language." The existence of this comment, too, rests upon the authority of Mádhwa or Mádhava, who in a commentary of his own asserts that he has consulted eight others. Now amongst these is one by the monkey Hanumán; and although a Hindu disputant may believe in the reality of such a composition, yet we may receive its citation as a proof that Mádhwa was not very scrupulous in the verification of his authorities.

There are other topics urged in this controversy on both sides, some of which are simple enough, some are ingenious: but the statement of the text is of itself sufficient to shew that according to the received opinion of all the authorities of the priority of the eighteen Puráńas to the Bhárata, it is impossible that the Śrí Bhágavata, which is subsequent to the Bhárata, should be of the number; and the evidence of style, the superiority of which to that of the Puráńas in general is admitted by the disputants, is also proof that it is the work of a different hand. Whether the Deví Bhágavata have a better title to be considered as an original composition of Vyása, is equally questionable; but it cannot be doubted that the Śrí Bhágavata is the product of uninspired erudition. There does not seem to be any other ground than tradition for ascribing it to Vopadeva the grammarian; but there is no reason to call the tradition in question. Vopadeva flourished at the court of Hemádri, Rájá of Devagiri, Deogur or Dowlutabad, and must consequently have lived prior to the conquest of that principality by the Mohammedans in the fourteenth century. The date of the twelfth century, commonly assigned to him, is probably correct, and is that of the Bhágavata Puráńa.

6. The Naradíya Puráńa

6. Nárada or Naradíya Puráńa. "Where Nárada has described the duties which were observed in the Vrihat Kalpa, that, is called the Náradíya, having twenty-five thousand stanzas ⁵³." If the number of verses be here correctly stated, the Puráńa has not fallen into my hands. The copy I have analysed contains not many more than three thousand ślokas. There is another work, which might be expected to be of greater extent, the Vrihat Náradíya, or great Nárada Puráńa; but this, according to the concurrence of three copies in my possession, and of five others in the Company's library, contains but about three thousand five hundred verses. It may be doubted, therefore, if the Nárada Puráńa of the Matsya exists⁵⁴.

According to the Matsya, the Nárada Puráńa is related by Nárada, and gives an account of the Vrihat Kalpa. The Náradíya Puráńa is communicated by Nárada to the Rishis at Naimishárańya, on the Gomati river. The Vrihannáradíya is related to the same persons, at the same place, by Súta, as it was told by Nárada to Sanatkumára. Possibly the term Vrihat may have been suggested by the specification which is given in the Matsya; but there is no description in it of any particular Kalpa, or day of Brahmá.

From a cursory examination of these Puráńas, it is very evident that they have no conformity to the definition of a Puráńa, and that both are sectarial and modern compilations, intended to support the doctrine of Bhakti, or faith in Vishńu. With this view they have collected a variety of prayers addressed to one or other form of that divinity; a number of observances and holidays connected with his adoration; and different legends, some perhaps of an early, others of a more recent date, illustrative of the efficacy of devotion to Hari. Thus in the Nárada we have the stories of Dhruva and Prahláda; the latter told in the words of the Vishńu: whilst the second portion of it is occupied with a legend of Mohiní, the will-born daughter of a king called Rukmángada: beguiled by whom, the king offers to perform for her whatever she may desire. She calls upon him either to violate the rule of fasting on the eleventh day of the fortnight, a day sacred to Vishńu, or to put his son to death; and he kills his son, as the lesser sin of the two. This shews the spirit of the work. Its date may also be inferred from its tenor, as such monstrous extravagancies in praise of Bhakti are certainly of modern origin. One limit it furnishes itself, for it refers to Śuka and Paríkshit, the interlocutors of the Bhágavata, and it is consequently subsequent to the date of that Puráńa: it is probably considerably later, for it affords evidence that it was written after India was in the hands of the Mohammedans. In the concluding passage it is said, "Let not this Puráńa be repeated in the presence of the 'killers of cows' and contemners of the gods." It is possibly a compilation of the sixteenth or seventeenth century.

The Vrihannáradíya is a work of the same tenor and time. It contains little else than panegyrical prayers addressed to Vishńu, and injunctions to observe various rites, and keep holy certain seasons, in honour of him. The earlier legends introduced are the birth of Márkańd́eya, the destruction of Sagara's sons, and the dwarf Avatára; but they are subservient to the design of the whole, and are rendered occasions for praising Náráyańa: others, illustrating the efficacy of certain Vaishńava observances, are puerile inventions, wholly foreign to the more ancient system of Pauráńik fiction. There is no attempt at cosmogony, or patriarchal or regal genealogy. It is possible that these topics may be treated of in the missing stanzas; but it seems more likely that the Nárada Puráńa of the lists has little in common with the works to which its name is applied in Bengal and Hindustan.

7. The Márkańd́eya Puráńa

7. Márkańd́a or Márkańd́eya Puráńa. "That Puráńa in which, commencing with the story of the birds that were acquainted with right and wrong, every thing is narrated fully by Márkańd́eya, as it was explained by holy sages in reply to the question of the Muni, is called the Márkańd́eya, containing nine thousand verses⁵⁵." This is so called from its being in the first instance narrated by Márkańd́eya Muni, and in the second place by certain fabulous birds; thus far agreeing with the account given of it in the Matsya. That, as well as other authorities, specify its containing nine thousand stanzas; but my copy closes with a verse affirming that the number of verses recited by the Muni was six thousand nine hundred; and a copy in the East India Company's library has a similar specification. The termination is, however, somewhat abrupt, and there is no reason why the subject with which it ends should not have been carried on farther. One copy in the Company's library, indeed, belonging to the Guicowar's collection, states at the close that it is the end of the first Khańd́a, or section. If the Puráńa was ever completed, the remaining portion of it appears to be lost.

Jaimini, the pupil of Vyása, applies to Márkańd́eya to be made acquainted with the nature of Vásudeva, and for an explanation of some of the incidents described in the Mahábhárata; with the ambrosia of which divine poem, Vyása he declares has watered the whole world: a reference which establishes the priority of the Bhárata to the Márkańd́eya Puráńa, however incompatible this may be with the tradition, that having finished the Puráńas, Vyása wrote the poem.

Márkańd́eya excuses himself, saying he has a religious rite to perform; and he refers Jaimini to some very sapient birds, who reside in the Vindhya mountains; birds of a celestial origin, found, when just born, by the Muni Śamíka, on the field of Kurukshetra, and brought up by him along with his scholars: in consequence of which, and by virtue of their heavenly descent, they became profoundly versed in the Vedas, and a knowledge of spiritual truth. This machinery is borrowed from the Mahábhárata, with some embellishment. Jaimini accordingly has recourse to the birds, Pingáksha and his brethren, and puts to them the questions he had asked of the Muni. "Why was Vásudeva born as a mortal? How was it that Draupadí was the wife of the five Páńd́us? Why did Baladeva do penance for Brahmanicide? and why were the children of Draupadí destroyed, when they had Krishńa and Arjuna to defend them?" The answers to these inquiries occupy a number of chapters, and form a sort of supplement to the Mahábhárata; supplying, partly by invention, perhaps, and partly by reference to equally ancient authorities, the blanks left in some of its narrations.

Legends of Vritrásura's death, Baladeva's penance, Hariśchandra's elevation to heaven, and the quarrel between Vaśisht́ha and Viswámitra, are followed by a discussion respecting birth, death, and sin; which leads to a more extended description of the different hells than is found in other Puráńas. The account of creation which is contained in this work is repeated by the birds after Márkańd́eya's account of it to Krosht́uki, and is confined to the origin of the Vedas and patriarchal families, amongst whom are new characters, as Duhsaha and his wife Mársht́i, and their descendants; allegorical personages, representing intolerable iniquity and its consequences. There is then a description of the world, with, as usual to this Puráńa, several singularities, some of which are noticed in the following pages. This being the state of the world in the Swáyambhuva Manwantara, an account of the other Manwantaras succeeds, in which the births of the Manus, and a number of other particulars, are peculiar to this work. The present or Vaivaswata Manwantara is very briefly passed over; but the next, the first of the future Manwantaras, contains the long episodical narrative of the actions of the goddess Durgá, which is the especial boast of this Puráńa, and is the text-book of the worshippers of Káli, Chańd́í, or Durgá, in Bengal. It is the Chańd́í Pátha, or Durgá Máhátmya, in which the victories of the goddess over different evil beings, or Asuras, are detailed with considerable power and spirit. It is read daily in the temples of Durgá, and furnishes the pomp and circumstance of the great festival of Bengal, the Durgá pujá, or public worship of that goddess⁵⁶.

After the account of the Manwantaras is completed, there follows a series of legends, some new, some old, relating to the sun and his posterity; continued to Vaivaswata Manu and his sons, and their immediate descendants; terminating with Dama, the son of Narishyanta⁵⁷. Of most of the persons noticed, the work narrates particulars not found elsewhere.

This Puráńa has a character different from that of all the others. It has nothing of a sectarial spirit, little of a religious tone, rarely inserting prayers and invocations to any deity, and such as are inserted are brief and moderate. It deals little in precepts, ceremonial or moral. Its leading feature is narrative, and it presents an uninterrupted succession of legends, most of which, when ancient, are embellished with new circumstances; and when new, partake so far of the spirit of the old, that they are disinterested creations of the imagination, having no particular motive; being designed to recommend no special doctrine or observance. Whether they are derived from any other source, or whether they are original inventions, it is not possible to ascertain. They are most probably, for the greater part at least, original; and the whole has been narrated in the compiler's own manner, a manner superior to that of the Puráńas in general, with exception of the Bhágavata.

It is not easy to conjecture a date for this Puráńa: it is subsequent to the Mahábhárata, but how long subsequent is doubtful. It is unquestionably more ancient than such works as the Brahmá, Padma, and Náradíya Puráńas; and its freedom from sectarial bias is a reason for supposing it anterior to the Bhágavata. At the same time, its partial conformity to the definition of a Puráńa, and the tenor of the additions which it has made to received legends and traditions, indicate a not very remote age; and, in the absence of any guide to a more positive conclusion, it may conjecturally be placed in the ninth or tenth century.

8. The Agni Puráńa

8. Agni Puráńa. "That Puráńa which describes the occurrences of the Íśána Kalpa, and was related by Agni to Vaśisht́ha, is called the Ágneya: it consists of sixteen thousand stanzas⁵⁸." The Agni or Agneya Puráńa derives its name from its having being communicated originally by Agni, the deity of fire, to the Muni Vaśisht́ha, for the purpose of instructing him in the twofold knowledge of Brahma⁵⁹. By him it was taught to Vyása, who imparted it to Súta; and the latter is represented as repeating it to the Rising at Naimishárańya. Its contents are variously specified as sixteen thousand, fifteen thousand, or fourteen thousand stanzas. The two copies which were employed by me contain about fifteen thousand ślokas. There are two in the Company's library, which do not extend beyond twelve thousand verses; but they are in many other respects different from mine: one of them was written at Agra, in the reign of Akbar, in A. D. 1589.

The Agni Puráńa, in the form in which it has been obtained in Bengal and at Benares, presents a striking contrast to the Márkańd́eya. It may be doubted if a single line of it is original. A very great proportion of it may be traced to other sources; and a more careful collation --if the task was worth the time it would require--would probably discover the remainder.

The early chapters of this Puráńa⁶⁰ describe the Avatáras; and in those of Ráma and Krishńa avowedly follow the Rámáyańa and Mahábhárata. A considerable portion is then appropriated to instructions for the performance of religious ceremonies; many of winch belong to the Tántrika ritual, and are apparently transcribed from the principal authorities of that system. Some belong to mystical forms of Śaiva worship, little known in Hindustan, though perhaps still practised in the south. One of these is the Díkshá, or initiation of a novice; by which, with numerous ceremonies and invocations, in which the mysterious monosyllables of the Tantras are constantly repeated, the disciple is transformed into a living personation of Śiva, and receives in that capacity the homage of his Guru. Interspersed with these, are chapters descriptive of the earth and of the universe, which are the same as those of the Vishńu Puráńa; and Máhátmyas or legends of holy places, particularly of Gaya. Chapters on the duties of kings, and on the art of war, then occur, which have the appearance of being extracted from some older work, as is undoubtedly the chapter on judicature, which follows them, and which is the same as the text of the Mitákshara. Subsequent to these, we have an account of the distribution and arrangement of the Vedas and Puráńas, which is little else than an abridgment of the Vishńu: and in a chapter on gifts we have a description of the Puráńas, which is precisely the same, and in the same situation, as the similar subject in the Matsya Puráńa. The genealogical chapters are meagre lists, differing in a few respects from those commonly received, as hereafter noticed, but unaccompanied by any particulars, such as those recorded or invented in the Márkańd́eya. The next subject is medicine, compiled avowedly, but injudiciously, from the Sauśruta. A series of chapters on the mystic worship of Śiva and Deví follows; and the work winds up with treatises on rhetoric, prosody, and grammar, according to the Sutras of Pingala and Pánini.

The cyclopædical character of the Agni Puráńa, as it is now described, excludes it from any legitimate claims to be regarded as a Puráńa, and proves that its origin cannot be very remote. It is subsequent to the Itihásas; to the chief works on grammar, rhetoric, and medicine; and to the introduction of the Tántrika worship of Deví. When this latter took place is yet far from determined, but there is every probability that it dates long after the beginning of our era. The materials of the Agni, Puráńa are, however, no doubt of some antiquity. The medicine of Suśruta is considerably older than the ninth century; and the grammar of Pánini probably precedes Christianity. The chapters on archery and arms, and on regal administration, are also distinguished by an entirely Hindu character, and must have been written long anterior to the Mohammedan invasion. So far the Agni Puráńa is valuable, as embodying and preserving relics of antiquity, although compiled at a more' recent date.

Col. Wilford⁶¹ has made great use of a list of kings derived from an appendix to the Agni Puráńa, which professes to be the sixty-third or last section. As he observes, it is seldom found annexed to the Puráńa. I have never met with it, and doubt its ever having formed any part of the original compilation. It would appear from Col. Wilford's remarks, that this list notices Mohammed as the institutor of an era; but his account of this is not very distinct. He mentions explicitly, however, that the list speaks of Sáliváhana and Vikramáditya; and this is quite sufficient to establish its character. The compilers of the Puráńas were not such bunglers as to bring within their chronology so well known a personage as Vikramáditya. There are in all parts of India various compilations ascribed to the Puráńas, which never formed any portion of their contents, and which, although offering sometimes useful local information, and valuable as preserving popular traditions, are not in justice to be confounded with the Puráńas, so as to cause them to be charged with even more serious errors and anachronisms than those of which they are guilty.

The two copies of this work in the library of the East India Company appropriate the first half to a description of the ordinary and occasional observances of the Hindus, interspersed with a few legends: the latter half treats exclusively of the history of Mina.

9. The Bhavishya Puráńa

9. Bhavishya Puráńa. "The Puráńa in which Brahmá, having described the greatness of the sun, explained to Manu the existence of the world, and the characters of all created things, in the course of the Aghora Kalpa; that, is called the Bhavishya, the stories being for the most part the events of a future period. It contains fourteen thousand five hundred stanzas⁶²." This Puráńa, as the name implies, should be a book of prophecies, foretelling what will be (bhavishyati), as the Matsya Puráńa intimates. Whether such a work exists is doubtful. The copies, which appear to be entire, and of which there are three in the library of the East India Company, agreeing in their contents with two in my possession, contain about seven thousand stanzas. There is another work, entitled the Bhavishyottara, as if it was a continuation or supplement of the former, containing also about seven thousand verses; but the subjects of .both these works are but to a very imperfect degree analogous to those to which the Matsya alludes⁶³.

The Bhavishya Puráńa, as I have it, is a work in a hundred and twenty-six short chapters, repeated by Sumantu to Śatáníka, a king of the Pańd́u family. He notices, however, its having originated with Swayambhu or Brahmá; and describes it as consisting of five parts; four dedicated, it should seem, to as many deities, as they are termed, Brahmá, Vaishńava, Śaiva, and Twásht́ra; whilst the fifth is the Pratisarga, or repeated creation. Possibly the first part only may have come into my hands, although it does not so appear by the manuscript.

Whatever it may be, the work in question is not a Puráńa. The first portion, indeed, treats of creation; but it is little else than a transcript of the words of the first chapter of Manu. The rest is entirely a manual of religious rites and ceremonies. It explains the ten Sanskáras, or initiatory rites; the performance of the Sandhya; the reverence to be shewn to a Guru; the duties of the different Ásramas and castes; and enjoins a number of Vratas, or observances of fasting and the like, appropriate to different lunar days. A few legends enliven the series of precepts. That of the sage Chyavana is told at considerable length, taken chiefly from the Mahábhárata. The Nága Panchami, or fifth lunation, sacred to the serpent-gods, gives rise to a description of different sorts of snakes. After these, which occupy about one-third of the chapters, the remainder of them conform in subject to one of the topics referred to by the Matsya. They chiefly represent conversations between Krishńa, his son Śámba, who had become a leper by the curse of Durvásas, Vaśisht́ha, Nárada, and Vyása, upon the power and glory of the sun, and the manner in which he is to be worshipped. There is some curious matter in the last chapters, relating to the Magas, silent worshippers of the sun, from Sákadwípa, as if the compiler had adopted the Persian term Magh, and connected the fire-worshippers of Iran with those of India. This is a subject, however, that requires farther investigation.

The Bhavishyottara is, equally with the preceding, a sort of manual of religious offices, the greater portion being appropriated to Vratas, and the remainder to the forms and circumstances with which gifts are to be presented. Many of the ceremonies are obsolete, or are observed in a different manner, as the Rath-yátrá, or car festival; and the Madanotsava, or festival of spring. The descriptions of these throw some light upon the public condition of the Hindu religion at a period probably prior to the Mohammedan conquest. The different ceremonies are illustrated by legends, which are sometimes ancient, as, for instance, the destruction of the god of love by Śiva, and his thence becoming Ananga, the disembodied lord of hearts. The work is supposed to be communicated by Krishńa to Yudhisht́hira, at a great assemblage of holy persons at the coronation of the latter, after the conclusion of the great war.

10. The Brahma-vaivartta Puráńa

10. Brahma-vaivartta Puráńa. "That Puráńa which is related by Sávarńi to Nárada, and contains the account of the greatness of Krishńa, with the occurrences of the Rathantara Kalpa, where also the story of Brahma-varáha is repeatedly told, is called the Brahma-vaivartta, and contains eighteen thousand stanzas ⁶⁴." The account here given of the Brahma-vaivartta Puráńa agrees with its present state as to its extent. The copies rather exceed than fall short of eighteen thousand stanzas. It also correctly represents its comprising a Máhátmya or legend of Krishńa; but it is very doubtful, nevertheless, if the same work is intended.

The Brahma-vaivartta, as it now exists, is narrated, not by Sávarńi, but the Rishi Náráyańa to Nárada, by whom it is communicated to Vyása: he teaches it to Súta, and the latter repeats it to the Rishis at Naimishárańya. It is divided into four Khańd́as, or books; the Bráhma, Prakriti, Ganeśa, and Krishńa Janma Khańd́as; dedicated severally to describe the acts of Brahmá, Deví, Ganeśa, and Krishńa; the latter, however, throughout absorbing the interest and importance of the work. In none of these is there any account of the Varáha Avatára of Vishńu, which seems to be intended by the Matsya; nor any reference to a Rathantara Kalpa. It may also be observed, that, in describing the merit of presenting a copy of this Puráńa, the Matsya adds, "Whoever makes such gift, is honoured in the Brahma-loka;" a sphere which is of very inferior dignity to that to which a worshipper of Krishńa is taught to aspire by this Puráńa. The character of the work is in truth so decidedly sectarial, and the sect to which it belongs so distinctly marked, that of the worshippers of the juvenile Krishńa and Rádhá, a form of belief of known modern origin, that it can scarcely have found a notice in a work to which, like the Matsya, a much more remote date seems to belong. Although therefore the Matsya may be received in proof of there having been a Brahma-vaivartta Puráńa at the date of its compilation, dedicated especially to the honour of Krishńa, yet we cannot credit the possibility of its being the same we now possess.

Although some of the legends believed to be ancient are scattered through the different portions of this Puráńa, yet the great mass of it is taken up with tiresome descriptions of Vrindavan and Goloka, the dwellings of Krishńa on earth and in heaven; with endless repetitions of prayers and invocations addressed to him; and with insipid descriptions of his person and sports, and the love of the Gopís and of Rádhá towards him. There are some particulars of the origin of the artificer castes, which is of value because it is cited as authority in matters affecting them, contained in the Bráhma Khańd́a; and in the Prákrita and Ganeśa Khańd́as are legends of those divinities, not wholly, perhaps, modern inventions, but of which the source has not been traced. In the life of Krishńa the incidents recorded are the same as those narrated in the Vishńu and the Bhágavata; but the stories, absurd as they are, are much compressed to make room for original matter, still more puerile and tiresome. The Brahma-vaivartta has not the slightest title to be regarded as a Puráńa⁶⁵.

11. The Linga Puráńa

11. Linga Puráńa. "Where Maheśwara, present in the Agni Linga, explained (the objects of life) virtue, wealth, pleasure, and final liberation at the end of the Agni Kalpa, that Puráńa, consisting of eleven thousand stanzas, was called the Lainga by Brahmá himself⁶⁶."

The Linga Puráńa conforms accurately enough to this description. The Kalpa is said to be the Íśána, but this is the only difference. It consists of eleven thousand stanzas. It is said to have been originally composed by Brahmá; and the primitive Linga is a pillar of radiance, in which Maheśwara is present. The work is therefore the same as that referred to by the Matsya.

A short account is given, in the beginning, of elemental and secondary creation, and of the patriarchal families; in which, however, Śiva takes the place of Vishńu, as the indescribable cause of all things. Brief accounts of Śiva's incarnations and proceedings in different Kalpas next occur, offering no interest except as characteristic of sectarial notions. The appearance of the great fiery Linga takes place, in the interval of a creation, to separate Vishńu and Brahmá, who not only dispute the palm of supremacy, but fight for it; when the Linga suddenly springs up, and puts them both to shame; as, after travelling upwards and downwards for a thousand years in each direction, neither can approach to its termination. Upon the Linga the sacred monosyllable Om is visible, and the Vedas proceed from it, by which Brahms and Vishńu become enlightened, and acknowledge and eulogize the superior might and glory of Śiva.

A notice of the creation in the Padma Kalpa then follows, and this leads to praises of Śiva by Vishńu and Brahmá. Śiva repeats the story of his incarnations, twenty-eight in number; intended as a counterpart, no doubt, to the twenty-four Avatáras of Vishńu, as described in the Bhágavata; and both being amplifications of the original ten Avatáras, and of much less merit as fictions. Another instance of rivalry occurs in the legend of Dadhíchi, a Muni and worshipper of Śiva. In the Bhágavata there is a story of Ambarísha being defended against Durvásas by the discus of Vishńu, against which that Śaiva sage is helpless: here Vishńu hurls his discus at Dadhíchi, but it falls blunted to the ground, and a conflict ensues, in which Vishńu and his partisans are all overthrown by the Muni.

A description of the universe, and of the regal dynasties of the Vaivaswata Manwantara to the time of Krishńa, runs through a number of chapters, in substance, and very commonly in words, the same as in other Puráńas. After which, the work resumes its proper character, narrating legends, and enjoining rites, and reciting prayers, intending to do honour to Śiva under various forms. Although, however, the Linga holds a prominent place amongst them, the spirit of the worship is as little influenced by the character of the type as can well be imagined. There is nothing like the phallic orgies of antiquity: it is all mystical and spiritual. The Linga is twofold, external and internal. The ignorant, who need a visible sign, worship Śiva through a 'mark' or 'type'--which is the proper meaning of the word 'Linga'--of wood or stone; but the wise look upon this outward emblem as nothing, and contemplate in their minds the invisible, inscrutable type, which is Śiva himself. Whatever may have been the origin of this form of worship in India, the notions upon which it was founded, according to the impure fancies of European writers, are not to be traced in even the Śaiva Puráńas.

Data for conjecturing the era of this work are defective, but it is more of a ritual than a Puráńa, and the Pauráńik chapters which it has inserted, in order to keep up something of its character, have been evidently borrowed for the purpose. The incarnations of Śiva, and their 'pupils,' as specified in one place, and the importance attached to the practice of the Yoga, render it possible that under the former are intended those teachers of the Śaiva religion who belong to the Yoga school⁶⁷, which seems to have flourished about the eighth or ninth centuries. It is not likely that the work is earlier, it may be considerably later. It has preserved apparently some Śaiva legends of an early date, but the greater part is ritual and mysticism of comparatively recent introduction.

12. The Varáha Puráńa

12. Varáha Puráńa. "That in which the glory of the great Varáha is predominant, as it was revealed to Earth by Vishńu, in connexion, wise Munis, with the Mánava Kalpa, and which contains twenty-four thousand verses, is called the Váráha Puráńa⁶⁸."

It may be doubted if the Varáha Puráńa of the present day is here intended. It is narrated by Vishńu as Varáha, or in the boar incarnation, to the personified Earth. Its extent, however, is not half that specified, little exceeding ten thousand stanzas. It furnishes also itself evidence of the prior currency of some other work, similarly denominated; as, in the description of Mathurá contained in it, Sumantu, a Muni, is made to observe, "The divine Varáha in former times expounded a Puráńa, for the purpose of solving the perplexity of Earth."

Nor can the Varáha Puráńa be regarded as a Puráńa agreeably to the common definition, as it contains but a few scattered and brief allusions to the creation of the world, and the reign of kings: it has no detailed genealogies either of the patriarchal or regal families, and no account of the reigns of the Manus. Like the Linga Puráńa, it is a religious manual, almost wholly occupied with forms of prayer, and rules for devotional observances, addressed to Vishńu; interspersed with legendary illustrations, most of which are peculiar to itself, though some are taken from the common and ancient stock: many of them, rather incompatibly with the general scope of the compilation, relate to the history of Śiva and Durgá⁶⁹. A considerable portion of the work is devoted to descriptions of various Tírthas, places of Vaishńava pilgrimage; and one of Mathurá enters into a variety of particulars relating to the shrines of that city, constituting the Mathurá Máhátmyam.

In the sectarianism of the Varáha Puráńa there is no leaning to the particular adoration of Krishńa, nor are the Rath-yátrá and Janmásht́amí included amongst the observances enjoined. There are other indications of its belonging to an earlier stage of Vaishńava worship, and it may perhaps be referred to the age of Rámánuja, the early part of the twelfth century.

13. The Skanda Puráńa

13. Skanda Puráńa. "The Skánda Puráńa is that in which the six-faced deity (Skanda) has related the events of the Tatpurusha Kalpa, enlarged with many tales, and subservient to the duties taught by Maheśwara. It is said to contain eighty-one thousand one hundred stanzas: so it is asserted amongst mankind⁷⁰."

It is uniformly agreed that the Skanda Puráńa in a collective form has no existence; and the fragments in the shape of Sanhitás, Khańd́as, and Máhátmyas, which are affirmed in various parts of India to be portions of the Puráńa, present a much more formidable mass of stanzas than even the immense number of which it is said to consist. The most celebrated of these portions in Hindustan is the Káśí Khańd́a, a very minute description of the temples of Śiva in or adjacent to Benares, mixed with directions for worshipping Maheśwara, and a great variety of legends explanatory of its merits, and of the holiness of Káśí: many of them are puerile and uninteresting, but some are of a higher character. The story of Agastya records probably, in a legendary style, the propagation of Hinduism in the south of India: and in the history of Divodása, king of Káśí, we have an embellished tradition of the temporary depression of the worship of Śiva, even in its metropolis, before the ascendancy of the followers of Buddha⁷¹, There is every reason to believe the greater part of the contents of the Káśí Khańd́a anterior to the first attack upon Benares by Mahmud of Ghizni. The Káśí Khańd́a alone contains fifteen thousand stanzas.

Another considerable work ascribed in upper India to the Skanda Puráńa is the Utkala Khańd́a, giving an account of the holiness of Urissa, and the Kshetra of Purushottama or Jagannátha. The same vicinage is the site of temples, once of great magnificence and extent, dedicated to Śiva, as Bhuvaneśwara, which forms an excuse for attaching an account of a Vaishńava Tírtha to an eminently Śaiva Puráńa. There can be little doubt, however, that the Utkala Khańd́a is unwarrantably included amongst the progeny of the parent work. Besides these, there is a Brahmottara Khańd́a, a Revá Khańd́a, a Śiva Rahasya Khańd́a, a Himavat Khańd́a, and others. Of the Sanhitás, the chief are the Súta Sanhitá, Sanatkumára Sanhitá, Saura Sanhitá, and Kapila Sanhitá: there are several other works denominated Sanhitás. The Máhátmyas are more numerous still⁷². According to the Súta Sanhitá, as quoted by Col. Vans Kennedy⁷³, the Skanda Puráńa contains six Sanhitás, five hundred Khańd́as, and five hundred thousand stanzas; more than is even attributed to all the Puráńas. He thinks, judging from internal evidence, that all the Khańd́as and Sanhitás may be admitted to be genuine, though the Máhátmyas have rather a questionable appearance. Now one kind of internal evidence is the quantity; and as no more than eighty-one thousand one hundred stanzas have ever been claimed for it, all in excess above that amount must be questionable. But many of the Khańd́as, the Káśí Khańd́a for instance, are quite as local as the Máhátmyas, being legendary stories relating to the erection and sanctity of certain temples or groups of temples, and to certain Lingas; the interested origin of which renders them very reasonably objects of suspicion. In the present state of our acquaintance with the reputed portions of the Skanda Puráńa, my own views of their authenticity are so opposed to those entertained by Col. Vans Kennedy, that instead of admitting all the Sanhitás and Khańd́as to be genuine, I doubt if any one of them was ever a part of the Skanda Puráńa.

14. The Vámana Puráńa

14. Vámana Puráńa. "That in which the four-faced Brahmá taught the three objects of existence, as subservient to the account of the greatness of Trivikrama, which treats also of the Śiva Kalpa, and which consists of ten thousand stanzas, is called the Vámana Puráńa⁷⁴."

The Vámana Puráńa contains an account of the dwarf incarnation of Vishńu; but it is related by Pulastya to Nárada, and extends to but about seven thousand stanzas. Its contents can scarcely establish its claim to the character of a Puráńa ⁷⁵.

There is little or no order in the subjects which this work recapitulates, and which arise out of replies made by Pulastya to questions put abruptly and unconnectedly by Nárada. The greater part of them relate to the worship of the Linga; a rather strange topic for a Vaishńava Puráńa, but engrossing the principal part of the compilation. They are however subservient to the object of illustrating the sanctity of certain holy places; so that the Vámana Puráńa is little else than a succession of Máhátmyas. Thus in the opening almost of the work occurs the story of Daksha's sacrifice, the object of which is to send Śiva to Pápamochana tírtha at Benares, where he is released from the sin of Brahmanicide. Next conies the story of the burning of Kámadeva, for the purpose of illustrating the holiness of a Śiva-linga at Kedareśwara in the Himalaya, and of Badarikáśrama. The larger part of the work consists of the Saro-máhátmya, or legendary exemplifications of the holiness of Stháńu tírtha; that is, of the sanctity of various Lingas and certain pools at Thanesar and Kurukhet, the country north-west from Delhi. There are some stories also relating to the holiness of the Gódavarí river; but the general site of the legends is in Hindustan. In the course of these accounts we have a long narrative of the marriage of Śiva with Umá, and the birth of Kártikeya. There are a few brief allusions to creation and the Manwantaras, but they are merely incidental; and all the five characteristics of a Puráńa are deficient. In noticing the Swárochisha Manwantara, towards the end of the book, the elevation of Bali as monarch of the Daityas, and his subjugation of the universe, the gods included, are described; and this leads to the narration that gives its title to the Puráńa, the birth of Krishńa as a dwarf, for the purpose of humiliating Bali by fraud, as he was invincible by force. The story is told as usual, but the scene is laid at Kurukshetra.

A more minute examination of this work than that which has been given to it might perhaps discover some hint from which to conjecture its date. It is of a more tolerant character than the Puráńas, and divides its homage between Śiva and Vishńu with tolerable impartiality. It is not connected, therefore, with any sectarial principles, and may have preceded their introduction. It has not, however, the air of any antiquity, and its compilation may have amused the leisure of some Brahman of Benares three or four centuries ago.

15. The Kúrma Puráńa

15. Kúrma Puráńa. "That in which Janárddana, in the form of a tortoise, in the regions under the earth, explained the objects of life--duty, wealth, pleasure, and liberation--in communication with Indradyumna and the Rishis in the proximity of Śakra, which refers to the Lakshmí Kalpa, and contains seventeen thousand stanzas, is the Kúrma Puráńa⁷⁶."

In the first chapter of the Kúrma Puráńa it gives an account of itself, which does not exactly agree with this description. Súta, who is repeating the narration, is made to say to the Rishis, "This most excellent Kaurma Puráńa is the fifteenth. Sanhitás are fourfold, from the variety of the collections. The Bráhmí, Bhágavatí, Saurí, and Vaishńaví, are well known as the four Sanhitás which confer virtue, wealth, pleasure, and liberation. This is the Bráhmí Sanhitá, conformable to the four Vedas; in which there are six thousand ślokas, and by it the importance of the four objects of life, O great sages, holy knowledge and Parameśwara is known." There is an irreconcilable difference in this specification of the number of stanzas and that given above. It is not very clear what is meant by a Sanhitá as here used. A Sanhitá, as observed above (p. xi), is something different from a Puráńa. It may be an assemblage of prayers and legends, extracted professedly from a Puráńa, but is not usually applicable to the original. The four Sanhitás here specified refer rather to their religious character than to their connexion with any specific work, and in fact the same terms are applied to what are called Sanhitás of the Skánda. In this sense a Puráńa might be also a Sanhitá; that is, it might be an assemblage of formulæ and legends belonging to a division of the Hindu system; and the work in question, like the Vishńu Puráńa, does adopt both titles. It says, "This is the excellent Kaurma Puráńa, the fifteenth (of the series):" and again, "This is the Bráhmí Sanhitá." At any rate, no other work has been met with pretending to be the Kúrma Puráńa.

With regard to the other particulars specified by the Matsya, traces of them are to be found. Although in two accounts of the traditional communication of the Puráńa no mention is made of Vishńu as one of the teachers, yet Súta repeats at the outset a dialogue between Vishńu, as the Kúrma, and Indradyumna, at the time of the churning of the ocean; and much of the subsequent narrative is put into the mouth of the former.

The name, being that of an Avatára of Vishńu, might lead us to expect a Vaishńava work; but it is always and correctly classed with the Śaiva. Puráńas, the greater portion of it inculcating the worship of Śiva and Durgá. It is divided into two parts, of nearly equal length. In the first part, accounts of the creation, of the Avatáras of Vishńu, of the solar and lunar dynasties of the kings to the time of Krishńa, of the universe, and of the Manwantaras, are given, in general in a summary manner, but not unfrequently in the words employed in the Vishńu Puráńa. With these are blended hymns addressed to Maheśwara by Brahmá and others; the defeat of Andhakásura by Bhairava; the origin of four Śaktis, Maheśwarí, Śivá, Śatí, and Haimavatí, from Śiva; and other Śaiva legends. One chapter gives a more distinct and connected account of the incarnations of Śiva in the present age than the Linga; and it wears still more the appearance of an attempt to identify the teachers of the Yoga school with personations of their preferential deity. Several chapters form a Káśí Máhátmya, a legend of Benares. In the second part there are no legends. It is divided into two parts, the Íśwara Gíta⁷⁷ and Vyása Gita. In the former the knowledge of god, that is, of Śiva, through contemplative devotion, is taught. In the latter the same object is enjoined through works, or observance of the ceremonies and precepts of the Vedas.

The date of the Kúrma Puráńa cannot be very remote, for it is avowedly posterior to the establishment of the Tántrika, the Sákta, and the Jain sects. In the twelfth chapter it is said, "The Bhairava, Váma, Árhata, and Yámala Śástras are intended for delusion." There is no reason to believe that the Bhairava and Yámala Tantras are very ancient works, or that the practices of the left-hand Śáktas, or the doctrines of Arhat or Jina were known in the early centuries of our era.

16. The Matsya Puráńa

16. Matsya Puráńa. "That in which, for the sake of promulgating the Vedas, Vishńu, in the beginning of a Kalpa, related to Manu the story of Narasinha and the events of seven Kalpas, that, O sages, know to be the Mátsya Puráńa, containing twenty thousand stanzas⁷⁸."

We might, it is to be supposed, admit the description which the Matsya gives of itself to be correct, and yet as regards the number of verses there seems to be a mistatement. Three very good copies, one in my possession, one in the Company's library, and one in the Radcliffe library, concur in all respects, and in containing no more than between fourteen and fifteen thousand stanzas: in this case the Bhágavata is nearer the truth, when it assigns to it fourteen thousand. We may conclude, therefore, that the reading of the passage is in this respect erroneous. It is correctly said that the subjects of the Puráńa were communicated by Vishńu, in the form of a fish, to Manu.

The Puráńa, after the usual prologue of Súta and the Rishis, opens with the account of the Matsya or 'fish' Avatára of Vishńu, in which he preserves a king named Manu, with the seeds of all things, in an ark, from the waters of that inundation which in the season of a Pralaya overspreads the world. This story is told in the Mahábhárata, with reference to the Matsya as its authority; from which it might be inferred that the Puráńa was prior to the poem. This of course is consistent with the tradition that the Puráńas were first composed by Vyása; but there can be no doubt that the greater part of the Mahábhárata is much older than any extant Puráńa. The present instance is itself a proof; for the primitive simplicity with which the story of the fish Avatára is told in the Mahábhárata is of a much more antique complexion than the mysticism and extravagance of the actual Matsya Puráńa. In the former, Manu collects the seeds of existing things in the ark, it is not said how: in the latter, he brings them all together by the power of Yoga. In the latter, the great serpents come to the king, to serve as cords wherewith to fasten the ark to the horn of the fish: in the former, a cable made of ropes is more intelligibly employed for the purpose.

Whilst the ark floats, fastened to the fish, Manu enters into conversation with him; and his questions, and the replies of Vishńu, form the main substance of the compilation. The first subject is the creation, which is that of Brahmá and the patriarchs. Some of the details are the usual ones; others are peculiar, especially those relating to the Pitris, or progenitors. The regal dynasties are next described; and then follow chapters on the duties of the different orders. It is in relating those of the householder, in which the duty of making gifts to Brahmans is comprehended, that we have the specification of the extent and subjects of the Puráńas. It is meritorious to have copies made of them, and to give these away on particular occasions. Thus it is said of the Matsya; "Whoever gives it away at either equinox, along with a golden fish and a milch cow, gives away the whole earth;" that is, he reaps a like reward in his next migration. Special duties of the householder--Vratas, or occasional acts of piety--are then described at considerable length, with legendary illustrations. The account of the universe is given in the usual strain. Śaiva legends ensue; as, the destruction of Tripurásura; the war of the gods with Táraka and the Daityas, and the consequent birth of Kártikeya, with the various circumstances of Umá's birth and marriage, the burning of Kámadeva, and other events involved in that narrative; the destruction of the Asuras Maya and Andhaka; the origin of the Mátris, and the like; interspersed with the Vaishńava legends of the Avatáras. Some Máhátmyas are also introduced; one of which, the Narmada Máhátmya, contains some interesting particulars. There are various chapters on law and morals; and one which furnishes directions for building houses, and making images. We then have an account of the kings of future periods; and the Puráńa concludes with a chapter on gifts.

The Matsya Puráńa, it will be seen even from this brief sketch of its contents, is a miscellaneous compilation, but including in its contents the elements of a genuine Puráńa. At the same time it is of too mixed a character to be considered as a genuine work of the Pauráńik class; and upon examining it carefully, it may be suspected that it is indebted to various works, not only for its matter, but for its words. The genealogical and historical chapters are much the same as those of the Vishńu; and many chapters, as those on the Pitris and Sráddhas, are precisely the same as those of the Srisht́i Khańd́a of the Padma Puráńa. It has drawn largely also from the Mahábhárata: amongst other instances, it is sufficient to quote the story of Sávitrí, the devoted wife of Satyavat, which is given in the Matsya in the same manner, but considerably abridged.

Although a Śaiva work, it is not exclusively so, and it has no such sectarial absurdities as the Kúrma and Linga. It is a composition of considerable interest; but if it has extracted its materials from the Padma, which it also quotes on one occasion, the specification of the Upa-puráńas, it is subsequent to that work, and therefore not very ancient.

17. The Gárud́a Puráńa

17. Gárud́a Puráńa. "That which Vishńu recited in the Gárud́a Kalpa, relating chiefly to the birth of Gárud́a from Vinatá, is here called the Gárud́a Puráńa; and in it there are read nineteen thousand verses ⁷⁹."

The Gárud́a Puráńa which has been the subject of my examination corresponds in no respect with this description, and is probably a different work, though entitled the Gárud́a Puráńa. It is identical, however, with two copies in the Company's library. It consists of no more than about seven thousand stanzas; it is repeated by Brahmá to Indra; and it contains no account of the birth of Garuda. There is a brief notice of the creation; but the greater part is occupied with the description of Vratas, or religious observances, of holidays, of sacred places dedicated to the sun, and with prayers from the Tántrika ritual, addressed to the sun, to Śiva, and to Vishńu. It contains also treatises on astrology, palmistry, and precious stones; and one, still more extensive, on medicine. The latter portion, called the Preta Kalpa, is taken up with directions for the performance of obsequial rites. There is nothing in all this to justify the application of the name. Whether a genuine Gárud́a Puráńa exists is doubtful. The description given in the Matsya is less particular than even the brief notices of the other Puráńas, and might have easily been written without any knowledge of the book itself, being, with exception of the number of stanzas, confined to circumstances that the title alone indicates.

18. The Brahmáńd́a Puráńa

18. Brahmáńd́a Puráńa. "That which has declared, in twelve thousand two hundred verses, the magnificence of the egg of Brahmá, and in which an account of the future Kalpas is contained, is called the Brahmáńd́a Puráńa, and was revealed by Brahmá⁸⁰."

The Brahmáńd́a Puráńa is usually considered to be in much the same predicament as the Skanda, no longer procurable in a collective body, but represented by a variety of Khańd́as and Máhátmyas, professing to be derived from it. The facility with which any tract may be thus attached to the non-existent original, and the advantage that has been taken of its absence to compile a variety of unauthentic fragments, have given to the Brahmáńd́a, Skanda, and Padma, according to Col. Wilford, the character of being the Puráńas of thieves or impostors⁸¹. This is not applicable to the Padma, which, as above shewn, occurs entire and the same in various parts of India. The imposition of which the other two are made the vehicles can deceive no one, as the purpose of the particular legend is always too obvious to leave any doubt of its origin.

Copies of what profess to be the entire Brahmáńd́a Puráńa are sometimes, though rarely, procurable. I met with one in two portions, the former containing, one hundred and twenty-four chapters, the latter seventy-eight; and the whole containing about the number of stanzas assigned to the Puráńa. The first and largest portion, however, proved to be the same as the Váyu Puráńa, with a passage occasionally slightly varied, and at the end of each chapter the common phrase 'Iti Brahmáńd́a Puráńe' substituted for 'Iti Váyu Puráńe.' I do not think there was any intended fraud in the substitution. The last section of the first part of the Váyu Puráńa is termed the Brahmáńd́a section, giving an account of the dissolution of the universe; and a careless or ignorant transcriber might have taken this for the title of the whole. The checks to the identity of the work have been honestly preserved, both in the index and the frequent specification of Váyu as the teacher or narrator of it.

The second portion of this Brahmáńd́a is not any part of the Váyu; it is probably current in the Dakhin as a Sanhitá or Khańd́a. Agastya is represented as going to the city Kánchí (Conjeveram), where Vishńu, as Hayagríva, appears to him, and, in answer to his inquiries, imparts to him the means of salvation, the worship of Paraśaktí. In illustration of the efficacy of this form of adoration, the main subject of the work is an account of the exploits of Lalitá Deví, a form of Durgá, and her destruction of the demon Bháńd́ásura. Rules for her worship are also given, which are decidedly of a Śákta or Tántrika description; and this work cannot be admitted, therefore, to be part of a genuine Puráńa.

The Upa-puráńas

The Upa-puráńas, in the few instances which are known, differ little in extent or subject from some of those to which the title of Puráńa is ascribed. The Matsya enumerates but four; but the Deví Bhágavata has a more complete list, and specifies eighteen. They are, 1. The Sanatkumára, 2. Nárasinha, 3. Náradíya, 4. Śiva, 5. Durvásasa, g. Kápila, 7. Mánava, 8. Auśanaśa, 9. Varuńa, 10. Káliká, 11. Śámba, 12. Nandi, 13. Saura, 14. Páráśara, 15. Áditya, 16. Máheśwara, 17. Bhágavata, 18. Vaśisht́ha. The Matsya observes of the second, that it is named in the Padma Puráńa, and contains eighteen thousand verses. The Nandi it calls Nandá, and says that Kártikeya tells in it the story of Nandá. A rather different list is given in the Revá Khańd́a; or, 1. Sanatkumára, 2. Nárasinha, 3. Nandá, 4. Śivadharma, 5. Durvásasa, 6. Bhavishya, related by Nárada or Náradíya, 7. Kápila, 8. Mánava, 9. Auśanaśa, 10. Brahmáńd́a, 11. Váruńa, 12. Káliká, 13. Máheśwara, 14. Śámba, 15. Saura, 16. Páráśara, 17. Bhágavata, 18. Kaurma. These authorities, however, are of questionable weight, having in view, no doubt, the pretensions of the Deví Bhágavata to be considered as the authentic Bhágavata.

Of these Upa-puráńas few are to be procured. Those in my possession are the Śiva, considered as distinct from the Váyu; the Káliká, and perhaps one of the Náradíyas, as noticed above. I have also three of the Skandhas of the Deví Bhágavata, which most undoubtedly is not the real Bhágavata, supposing that any Puráńa so named preceded the work of Vopadeva. There can be no doubt that in any authentic list the name of Bhágavata does not occur amongst the Upa-puráńas: it has been put there to prove that there are two works so entitled, of which the Puráńa is the Deví Bhágavata, the Upa-puráńa the Śrí Bhágavata. The true reading should be Bhárgava, the Puráńa of Bhrigu; and the Deví Bhágavata is not even an Upa-puráńa. It is very questionable if the entire work, which as far as it extends is eminently a Sákta composition, ever had existence.

The Śiva Upa-puráńa contains about six thousand stanzas, distributed into two parts. It is related by Sanatkumára to Vyása and the Rishis at Naimishárańya, and its character may be judged of from the questions to which it is a reply. "Teach us," said the Rishis, "the rules of worshipping the Linga, and of the god of gods adored under that type; describe to us his various forms, the places sanctified by him, and the prayers with which he is to be addressed." In answer, Sanatkumára repeats the Śiva Puráńa, containing the birth of Vishńu and Brahmá; the creation and divisions of the universe; the origin of all things from the Linga; the rules of worshipping it and Śiva; the sanctity of times, places, and things, dedicated to him; the delusion of Brahmá and Vishńu by the Linga; the rewards of offering flowers and the like to a Linga; rules for various observances in honour of Mahádeva; the mode of practising the Yoga; the glory of Benares and other Śaiva Tírthas; and the perfection of the objects of life by union with Maheśwara. These subjects are illustrated in the first part with very few legends; but the second is made up almost wholly of Śaiva stories, as the defeat of Tripurásura; the sacrifice of Daksha; the births of Kártikeya and Ganeśa the sons of Śiva, and Nandi and Bhringaríti his attendants and others; together with descriptions of Benares and other places of pilgrimage, and rules for observing such festivals as the Śivaratri. This work is a Śaiva manual, not a Puráńa.

The Káliká Puráńa contains about nine thousand stanzas in ninety-eight chapters, and is the only work of the series dedicated to recommend the worship of the bride of Śiva, in one or other of her manifold forms, as Girijá, Deví, Bhadrakálí, Kálí, Mahámáyá. It belongs therefore to the Sákta modification of Hindu belief, or the worship of the female powers of the deities. The influence of this worship spews itself in the very first pages of the work, which relate the incestuous passion of Brahmá for his daughter Sandhyá, in a strain that has nothing analogous to it in the Váyu, Linga, or Śiva Puráńas.

The marriage of Śiva and Párvati is a subject early described, with the sacrifice of Daksha, and the death of Sati: and this work is authority for Śiva's carrying the dead body about the world, and the origin of the Píthasthánas, or places where the different members of it were scattered, and where Lingas were consequently erected. A legend follows of the births of Bhairava and Vetála, whose devotion to different forms of Deví furnishes occasion to describe in great detail the rites and formulæ of which her worship consists, including the chapters on sanguinary sacrifices, translated in the Asiatic Researches. Another peculiarity in this work is afforded by very prolix descriptions of a number of rivers and mountains at Kámarúpa-tírtha in Asam, and rendered holy ground by the celebrated temple of Durgá in that country, as Kámákśhí or Kámákhyá. It is a singular, and yet uninvestigated circumstance, that Asam, or at least the north-east of Bengal, seems to have been in a great degree the source from which the Tántrika and Śákta corruptions of the religion of the Vedas and Puráńas proceeded.

The specification of the Upa-puráńas, whilst it names several of which the existence is problematical, omits other works, bearing the same designation, which are sometimes met with. Thus in the collection of Col. Mackenzie⁸² we have a portion of the Bhárgava, and a Mudgala Puráńa, which is probably the same with the Ganeśa Upa-puráńa, cited by Col. Vans Kennedy⁸³. I have also a copy of the Ganeśa Puráńa, which seems to agree with that of which he speaks; the second portion being entitled the Kríd́á Khańd́a, in which the pastimes of Ganeśa, including a variety of legendary matters, are described. The main subject of the work is the greatness of Ganeśa, and prayers and formulæ appropriate to him are abundantly detailed. It appears to be a work originating with the Gánapatya sect, or worshippers of Ganeśa. There is also a minor Puráńa called Ádi, or 'first,' not included in the list. This is a work, however, of no great extent or importance, and is confined to a detail of the sports of the juvenile Krishńa.

Synopsis of the Vishńu Puráńa

From the sketch thus offered of the subjects of the Puráńas, and which, although admitting of correction, is believed to be in the main a candid and accurate summary, it will be evident that in their present condition they must be received with caution as authorities for the mythological religion of the Hindus at any remote period. They preserve, no doubt, many ancient notions and traditions; but these have been so much mixed up with foreign matter, intended to favour the popularity of particular forms of worship or articles of faith, that they cannot be unreservedly recognised as genuine representations of what we have reason to believe the Puráńas originally were.

The safest sources for the ancient legends of the Hindus, after the Vedas, are no doubt the two great poems, the Rámáyańa and Mahábhárata. The first offers only a few, but they are of a primitive character. The Mahábhárata is more fertile in fiction, but it is more miscellaneous, and much that it contains is of equivocal authenticity, and uncertain date. Still it affords many materials that are genuine, and it is evidently the great fountain from which most, if not all, of the Puráńas have drawn; as it intimates itself, when it declares that there is no legend current in the world which has not its origin in the Mahábhárata⁸⁴.

A work of some extent professing to be part of the Mahábhárata may more accurately be ranked with the Pauráńik compilations of least authenticity, and latest origin. The Hari Vanśa is chiefly occupied with the adventures of Krishńa, but, as introductory to his era, it records particulars of the creation of the world, and of the patriarchal and regal dynasties. This is done with much carelessness and inaccuracy of compilation, as I have had occasion frequently to notice in the following pages. The work has been very industriously translated by M. Langlois.

A comparison of the subjects of the following pages with those of the other Puráńas will sufficiently shew that of the whole series the Vishńu most closely conforms to the definition of a Pancha-lakshańa Puráńa, or one which treats of five specified topics. It comprehends them all; and although it has infused a portion of extraneous and sectarial matter, it has done so with sobriety and with judgment, and has not suffered the fervour of its religious zeal to transport it into very wide deviations from the prescribed path. The legendary tales which it has inserted are few, and are conveniently arranged, so that they do not distract the attention of the compiler from objects of more permanent interest and importance.

Book One

The first book of the six, into which the work is divided, is occupied chiefly with the details of creation, primary (Sarga) and secondary (Pratisarga); the first explaining how the universe proceeds from Prakriti, or eternal crude matter; the second, in what manner the forms of things are developed from the elementary substances previously evolved, or how they reappear after their temporary destruction. Both these creations are periodical, but the termination of the first occurs only at the end of the life of Brahmá, when not only all the gods and all other forms are annihilated, but the elements are again merged into primary substance, besides which one only spiritual being exists: the latter takes place at the end of every Kalpa, or day of Brahmá, and affects only the forms of inferior creatures, and lower worlds, leaving the substance of the universe entire, and sages and gods unharmed. The explanation of these events involves a description of the periods of time upon which they depend. and which are accordingly detailed. Their character has been a source of very unnecessary perplexity to European writers, as they belong to a scheme of chronology wholly mythological, having no reference to any real or supposed history of the Hindus, but applicable, according to their system, to the infinite and eternal revolutions of the universe. In these notions, and in that of the coeternity of spirit and matter, the theogony and cosmogony of the Puráńas, as they appear in the Vishńu Puráńa, belong to and illustrate systems of high antiquity, of which we have only fragmentary traces in the records of other nations.

The course of the elemental creation is in the Vishńu, as in other Puráńas, taken from the Sánkhya philosophy; but the agency that operates upon passive matter is confusedly exhibited, in consequence of a partial adoption of the illusory theory of the Vedánta philosophy, and the prevalence of the Pauráńik doctrine of Pantheism. However incompatible with the independent existence of Pradhána or crude matter, and however incongruous with the separate condition of pure spirit or Purusha, it is declared repeatedly that Vishńu, as one with the supreme being, is not only spirit, but crude matter; and not only the latter, but all visible substance, and Time. He is Purusha, 'spirit;' Pradhána, crude matter; 'Vyakta, 'visible form;' and Kula, 'time.' This cannot but be regarded as a departure from the primitive dogmas of the Hindus, in which the distinctness of the Deity and his works was enunciated; in which upon his willing the world to be, it was; and in which his interposition in creation, held to be inconsistent with the quiescence of perfection, was explained away by the personification of attributes in action, which afterwards came to be considered as real divinities, Brahmá, Vishńu, and Śiva, charged severally for a given season with the creation, preservation, and temporary annihilation of material forms. These divinities are in the following pages, consistently with the tendency of a Vaishńava work, declared to be no other than Vishńu. In Śaiva Puráńas they are in like manner identified with Śiva. The Puráńas thus displaying and explaining the seeming incompatibility, of which there are traces in other ancient mythologies, between three distinct hypostases of one superior deity, and the identification of one or other of those hypostases with their common and separate original.

After the world has been fitted for the reception of living creatures, it is peopled by the will-engendered sons of Brahmá, the Prajápatis or patriarchs, and their posterity. It would seem as if a primitive tradition of the descent of mankind from seven holy personages had at first prevailed, but that in the course of time it had been expanded into complicated, and not always consistent, amplification, How could these Rishis or patriarchs have posterity? it was necessary to provide them with wives. In order to account for their existence, the Manu Swáyambhuva and his wife Satarupá were added to the scheme, or Brahmá becomes twofold, male and female, and daughters are then begotten, who are married to the Prajápatis. Upon this basis various legends of Brahma's double nature, some no doubt as old as the Vedas, have been constructed: but although they may have been derived in some degree from the authentic tradition of the origin of mankind from a single pair, yet the circumstances intended to give more interest and precision to the story are evidently of an allegorical or mystical description, and conduced, in apparently later times, to a coarseness of realization which was neither the letter nor spirit of the original legend. Swáyambhuva, the son of the self-born or untreated, and his wife Satarupá, the hundred-formed or multiform, are themselves allegories; and their female descendants, who become the wives of the Rishis, are Faith, Devotion, Content, Intelligence, Tradition, and the like; whilst amongst their posterity we have the different phases of the moon, and the sacrificial fires. In another creation the chief source of creatures is the patriarch Daksha (ability), whose daughters, Virtues or Passions or Astronomical Phenomena, are the mothers of all existing things. These legends, perplexed as they appear to be, seem to admit of allowable solution, in the conjecture that the Prajápatis and Rishis were real personages, the authors of the Hindu system of social, moral, and religious obligations, and the first observers of the heavens, and teachers of astronomical science.

The regal personages of the Swáyambhuva Manwantara are but few, but they are described in the outset as governing the earth in the dawn of society, and as introducing agriculture and civilisation. How much of their story rests upon a traditional remembrance of their actions, it would be useless to conjecture, although there is no extravagance in supposing that the legends relate to a period prior to the full establishment in India of the Brahmanical institutions. The legends of Dhruva and Prahláda, which are intermingled with these particulars, are in all probability ancient, but they are amplified, in a strain conformable to the Vaishńava purport of this Puráńa, by doctrines and prayers asserting the identity of Vishńu with the supreme. It is clear that the stories do not originate with this Puráńa. In that of Prahláda particularly, as hereafter pointed out, circumstances essential to the completeness of the story are only alluded to, not recounted; shewing indisputably the writer's having availed himself of some prior authority for his narration.

Book Two

The second book opens with a continuation of the kings of the first Manwantara; amongst whom, Bharata is said to have given a name to India, called after him Bhárata-varsha. This leads to a detail of the geographical system of the Puráńas, with mount Meru, the seven circular continents, and their surrounding oceans, to the limits of the world; all of which are mythological fictions, in which there is little reason to imagine that any topographical truths are concealed. With regard to Bhárata, or India, the case is different: the mountains and rivers which are named are readily verifiable, and the cities and nations that are particularized may also in many instances be proved to have had a real existence. The list is not a very long one in the Vishńu Puráńa, and is probably abridged from some more ample detail like that which the Mahábhárata affords, and which, in the hope of supplying information' with respect to a subject yet imperfectly investigated, the ancient political condition of India, I have inserted and elucidated.

The description which this book also contains of the planetary and other spheres is equally mythological, although occasionally presenting practical details and notions in which there is an approach to accuracy. The concluding legend of Bharata--in his former life the king so named, but now a Brahman, who acquires true wisdom, and thereby attains liberation--is palpably an invention of the compiler, and is peculiar to this Puráńa.

The Third Book

The arrangement of the Vedas and other writings considered sacred by the Hindus, being in fact the authorities of their religious rites and belief, which is described in the beginning of the third book, is of much importance to the history of Hindu literature, and of the Hindu religion. The sage Vyása is here represented, not as the author, but the arranger or compiler of the Vedas, the Itihásas, and Puráńas. His name denotes his character, meaning the 'arranger' or 'distributor;' and the recurrence of many Vyásas, many individuals who new modelled the Hindu scriptures, has nothing in it that is improbable, except the fabulous intervals by which their labours are separated. The rearranging, the refashioning, of old materials, is nothing more than the progress of time would be likely to render necessary. The last recognised compilation is that of Krishńa Dwaipáyańa, assisted by Brahmans, who were already conversant with the subjects respectively assigned to them. They were the members of a college or school, supposed by the Hindus to have flourished in a period more remote, no doubt, than the truth, but not at all unlikely to have been instituted at some time prior to the accounts of India which we owe to Greek writers, and in which we see enough of the system to justify our inferring that it was then entire. That there have been other Vyásas and other schools since that date, that Brahmans unknown to fame have remodelled some of the Hindu scriptures, and especially the Puráńas, cannot reasonably be contested, after dispassionately weighing the strong internal evidence which all of them afford of the intermixture of unauthorized and comparatively modern ingredients. But the same internal testimony furnishes proof equally decisive of the anterior existence of ancient materials; and it is therefore as idle as it is irrational to dispute the antiquity or authenticity of the greater portion of the contents of the Puráńas, in the face of abundant positive and circumstantial evidence of the prevalence of the doctrines which they teach, the currency of the legends which they narrate, and the integrity of the institutions which they describe, at least three centuries before the Christian era. But the origin and developement of their doctrines, traditions, and institutions, were not the work of a day; and the testimony that establishes their existence three centuries before Christianity, carries it back to a much more remote antiquity, to an antiquity that is probably not surpassed by any of the prevailing fictions, institutions, or belief, of the ancient world.

The remainder of the third book describes the leading institutions of the Hindus, the duties of castes, the obligations of different stages of life, and the celebration of obsequial rites, in a short but primitive strain, and in harmony with the laws of Manu. It is a distinguishing feature of the Vishńu Puráńa, and it is characteristic of its being the work of an earlier period than most of the Puráńas, that it enjoins no sectarial or other acts of supererogation; no Vratas, occasional self-imposed observances; no holidays, no birthdays of Krishńa, no nights dedicated to Lakshmí; no sacrifices nor modes of worship other than those conformable to the ritual of the Vedas. It contains no Máhátmyas, or golden legends, even of the temples in which Vishńu is adored.

The Fourth Book

The fourth book contains all that the Hindus have of their ancient history. It is a tolerably comprehensive list of dynasties and individuals; it is a barren record of events. It can scarcely be doubted, however, that much of it is a genuine chronicle of persons, if not of occurrences. That it is discredited by palpable absurdities in regard to the longevity of the princes of the earlier dynasties must be granted, and the particulars preserved of some of them are trivial and fabulous: still there is an inartificial simplicity and consistency in the succession of persons, and a possibility and probability in some of the transactions which give to these traditions the semblance of authenticity, and render it likely that they are not altogether without foundation. At any rate, in the absence of all other sources of information, the record, such as it is, deserves not to be altogether set aside. It is not essential to its credibility or its usefulness that any exact chronological adjustment of the different reigns should be attempted. Their distribution amongst the several Yugas, undertaken by Sir Wm. Jones or his Pandits, finds no countenance from the original texts, farther than an incidental notice of the age in which a particular monarch ruled, or the general fact that the dynasties prior to Krishńa precede the time of the great war, and the beginning of the Kálí age; both which events we are not obliged, with the Hindus, to place five thousand years ago. To that age the solar dynasty of princes offers ninety-three descents, the lunar but forty-five, though they both commence at the same time. Some names may have been added to the former list, some omitted in the latter; and it seems most likely, that, notwithstanding their synchronous beginning, the princes of the lunar race were subsequent to those of the solar dynasty. They avowedly branched off from the solar line; and the legend of Sudyumna⁸⁵, that explains the connexion, has every appearance of having been contrived for the purpose of referring it to a period more remote than the truth. Deducting however from the larger number of princes a considerable proportion, there is nothing to shock probability in supposing that the Hindu dynasties and their ramifications were spread through an interval of about twelve centuries anterior to the war of the Mahábhárata, and, conjecturing that event to have happened about fourteen centuries before Christianity, thus carrying the commencement of the regal dynasties of India to about two thousand six hundred years before that date. This may or may not be too remote⁸⁶; but it is sufficient, in a subject where precision is impossible, to be satisfied with the general impression, that in the dynasties of kings detailed in the Puráńas we have a record which, although it cannot fail to have suffered detriment from age, and may have been injured by careless or injudicious compilation, preserves an account, not wholly undeserving of confidence, of the establishment and succession of regular monarchies amongst the Hindus, from as early an era, and for as continuous a duration, as any in the credible annals of mankind.

The circumstances that are told of the first princes have evident relation to the colonization of India, and the gradual extension of the authority of new races over an uninhabited or uncivilized region. It is commonly admitted that the Brahmanical religion and civilization were brought into India from without⁸⁷. Certainly, there are tribes on the borders, and in the heart of the country, who are still not Hindus; and passages in the Rámáyańa and Mahábhárata and Manu, and the uniform traditions of the people themselves, point to a period when Bengal, Orissa, and the whole of the Dekhin, were inhabited by degraded or outcaste, that is, by barbarous, tribes. The traditions of the Puráńas confirm these views, but they lend no assistance to the determination of the question whence the Hindus came; whether from a central Asiatic nation, as Sir Wm. Jones supposed, or from the Caucasian mountains, the plains of Babylonia, or the borders of the Caspian, as conjectured by Klaproth, Vans Kennedy, and Schlegel. The affinities of the Sanscrit language prove a common origin of the now widely scattered nations amongst whose dialects they are traceable, and render it unquestionable that they must all have spread abroad from some centrical spot in that part of the globe first inhabited by mankind, according to the inspired record. Whether any indication of such an event be discoverable in the Vedas, remains to be determined; but it would have been obviously incompatible with the Pauráńik system to have referred the origin of Indian princes and principalities to other than native sources. We need not therefore expect from them any information as to the foreign derivation of the Hindus.

We have, then, wholly insufficient means for arriving at any information concerning the ante-Indian period of Hindu history, beyond the general conclusion derivable from the actual presence of barbarous and apparently aboriginal tribes--from the admitted progressive extension of Hinduism into parts of India where it did not prevail when the code of Manu was compiled--from the general use of dialects in India, more or less copious, which are different from Sanscrit--and from the affinities of that language with forms of speech current in the western world--that a people who spoke Sanscrit, and followed the religion of the Vedas, came into India, in some very distant age, from lands west of the Indus. Whether the date and circumstances of their immigration will ever be ascertained is extremely doubtful, but it is not difficult to form a plausible outline of their early site and progressive colonization.

The earliest seat of the Hindus within the confines of Hindusthán was undoubtedly the eastern confines of the Panjab. The holy land of Manu and the Puráńas lies between the Drishadwatí and Saraswatí rivers, the Caggar and Sursooty of our barbarous maps. Various adventures of the first princes and most famous sages occur in this vicinity; and the Ásramas, or religious domiciles, of several of the latter are placed on the banks of the Saraswatí. According to some authorities, it was the abode of Vyása, the compiler of the Vedas and Puráńas; and agreeably to another, when on one occasion the Vedas had fallen into disuse, and been forgotten, the Brahmans were again instructed in them by Sáraswata, the son of Saraswatí⁸⁸. One of the most distinguished of the tribes of the Brahmans is known as the Sáraswata⁸⁹; and the same word is employed by Mr. Colebrooke to denote that modification of Sanscrit which is termed generally Prakrit, and which in this case he supposes to have been the language of "the Sáraswata nation, which occupied the banks of the river Saraswatí⁹⁰." The river itself receives its appellation from Saraswatí, the goddess of learning, under whose auspices the sacred literature of the Hindus assumed shape and authority. These indications render it certain, that whatever seeds were imported from without, it was in the country adjacent to the Saraswatí river that they were first planted, and cultivated and reared in Hindusthán.

The tract of land thus assigned for the first establishment of Hinduism in India is of very circumscribed extent, and could not have been the site of any numerous tribe or nation. The traditions that evidence the early settlement of the Hindus in this quarter, ascribe to the settlers more of a philosophical and religious, than of a secular character, and combine with the very narrow bounds of the holy land to render it possible that the earliest emigrants were the members, not of a political, so much as of a religious community; that they were a colony of priests, not in the restricted sense in which we use the term, but in that in which it still applies in India, to an Agrahára, a village or hamlet of Brahmans, who, although married, and having families, and engaging in tillage, in domestic duties, and in the conduct of secular interests affecting the community, are still supposed to devote their principal attention to sacred study and religious offices. A society of this description, with its artificers and servants, and perhaps with a body of martial followers, might have found a home in the Brahmá-vartta of Manu, the land which thence was entitled 'the holy,' or more literally 'the Brahman, region;' and may have communicated to the rude, uncivilized, unlettered aborigines the rudiments of social organization, literature, and religion; partly, in all probability, brought along with them, and partly devised and fashioned by degrees for the growing necessities of new conditions of society. Those with whom this civilization commenced would have had ample inducements to prosecute their successful work, and in the course of time the improvement which germinated on the banks of the Saraswatí was extended beyond the borders of the Jumna and the Ganges.

We have no satisfactory intimation of the stages by which the political organization of the people of Upper India traversed the space between the Saraswatí and the more easterly region, where it seems to have taken a concentrated form, and whence it diverged in various directions, throughout Hindustan. The Manu of the present period, Vaivaswata, the son of the sun, is regarded as the founder of Ayodhyá; and that city continued to be the capital of the most celebrated branch of his descendants, the posterity of Ikshwáku. The Vishńu Puráńa evidently intends to describe the radiation of conquest or colonization from this spot, in the accounts it gives of the dispersion of Vaivaswata's posterity: and although it is difficult to understand what could have led early settlers in India to such a site, it is not inconveniently situated as a commanding position, whence emigrations might proceed to the east, the west, and the south. This seems to have happened: a branch from the house of Ikshwáku spread into Tirhut, constituting the Maithilá kings; and the posterity of another of Vaivaswata's sons reigned at Vaisáli in southern Tirhut or Saran.

The most adventurous emigrations, however, took place through the lunar dynasty, which, as observed above, originates from the solar, making in fact but one race and source for the whole. Leaving out of consideration the legend of Sudyumna's double transformation, the first prince of Pratisht́hána, a city south from Ayodhyá, was one of Vaivaswata's children, equally with Ikshváku. The sons of Pururavas, the second of this branch, extended, by themselves or their posterity, in every direction: to the east to Káśí, Magadhá, Benares, and Behar; southwards to the Vindhya hills, and across them to Vidarbha or Berar; westwards along the Narmadá to Kuśasthali or Dwáraká in Guzerat; and in a north-westerly direction to Mathurá and Hastinápura. These movements are very distinctly discoverable amidst the circumstances narrated in the fourth book of the Vishńu Puráńa, and are precisely such as might be expected from a radiation of colonies from Ayodhyá. Intimations also occur of settlements in Banga, Kalinga, and the Dakhin; but they are brief and indistinct, and have the appearance of additions subsequent to the comprehension of those countries within the pale of Hinduism.

Besides these traces of migration and settlement, several curious circumstances, not likely to be unauthorized inventions, are hinted in these historical traditions. The distinction of castes was not fully developed prior to the colonization. Of the sons of Vaivaswata, some, as kings, were Kshatriyas; but one, founded a tribe of Brahmans, another became a Vaiśya, and a fourth a Śúdra. It is also said of other princes, that they established the four castes amongst their subjects⁹¹. There are also various notices of Brahmanical Gotras, or families, proceding from Kshatriya races⁹²: and there are several indications of severe struggles between the two ruling castes, not for temporal, but for spiritual dominion, the right to teach the Vedas. This seems to be the especial purport of the inveterate hostility that prevailed between the Brahman Vaśisht́ha and the Kshatriya Viswámitra, who, as the Rámáyańa relates, compelled the gods to make him a Brahman also, and whose posterity became very celebrated as the Kauśika Brahmans. Other legends, again, such as Daksha's sacrifice, denote sectarial strife; and the legend of Paraśuráma reveals a conflict even for temporal authority between the two ruling castes. More or less weight will be attached to these conjectures, according to the temperament of different inquirers; but, even whilst fully aware of the facility with which plausible deductions may cheat the fancy, and little disposed to relax all curb upon the imagination, I find it difficult to regard these legends as wholly unsubstantial fictions, or devoid of all resemblance to the realities of the past.

After the date of the great war, the Vishńu Puráńa, in common with those Puráńas which contain similar lists, specifies kings and dynasties with greater precision, and offers political and chronological particulars, to which on the score of probability there is nothing to object. In truth their general accuracy has been incontrovertibly established. Inscriptions on columns of stone, on rocks, on coins, decyphered only of late years, through the extraordinary ingenuity and perseverance of Mr. James Prinsep, have verified the names of races, and titles of princes--the Gupta and Andhra Rájás, mentioned in the Puráńas--and have placed beyond dispute the identity of Chandragupta and Sandrocoptus: thus giving us a fixed point from which to compute the date of other persons and events. Thus the Vishńu Puráńa specifies the interval between Chandragupta and the great war to be eleven hundred years; and the occurrence of the latter little more than fourteen centuries B. C., as shewn in my observations on the passage⁹³, remarkably concurs with inferences of the like date from different premises. The historical notices that then follow are considerably confused, but they probably afford an accurate picture of the political distractions of India at the time when they were written; and much of the perplexity arises from the corrupt state of the manuscripts, the obscure brevity of the record, and our total want of the means of collateral illustration.

The Fifth Book

The fifth book of the Vishńu Puráńa is exclusively occupied with the life of Krishńa. This is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Puráńa, and is one argument against its antiquity. It is possible, though not yet proved, that Krishńa as an Avatára of Vishńu, is mentioned in an indisputably genuine text of the Vedas. He is conspicuously prominent in the Mahábhárata, but very contradictorily described there. The part that he usually performs is that of a mere mortal, although the passages are numerous that attach divinity to his person. There are, however, no descriptions in the Mahábhárata of his juvenile frolics, of his sports in Vrindávan, his pastimes with the cow-boys, or even his destruction of the Asuras sent to kill him. These stories have all a modern complexion: they do not harmonize with the tone of the ancient legends, which is generally grave, and sometimes majestic: they are the creations of a puerile taste, and grovelling imagination. These Chapters of the Vishńu Puráńa offer some difficulties as to their originality: they are the same as those on the same subject in the Brahmá Puráńa: they are not very dissimilar to those of the Bhágavata. The latter has some incidents which the Vishńu has not, and may therefore be thought to have improved upon the prior narrative of the latter. On the other hand, abridgment is equally a proof of posteriority as amplification. The simpler style of the Vishńu Puráńa is however in favour of its priority; and the miscellaneous composition of the Brahmá Puráńa renders it likely to have borrowed these chapters from the Vishńu. The life of Krishńa in the Hari-vanśa and the Brahma-vaivartta are indisputably of later date.

The Sixth Book

The last book contains an account of the dissolution of the world, in both its major and minor cataclysms; and in the particulars of the end of all things by fire and water, as well as in the principle of their perpetual renovation, presents a faithful exhibition of opinions that were general in the ancient world⁹⁴. The metaphysical annihilation of the universe, by the release of the spirit from bodily existence, offers, as already remarked, other analogies to doctrines and practices taught by Pythagoras and Plato, and by the Platonic Christians of later days.

Date of the Vishńu Puráńa

The Vishńu Puráńa has kept very clear of particulars from which an approximation to its date may be conjectured. No place is described of which the sacredness has any known limit, nor any work cited of probable recent composition. The Vedas, the Puráńas, other works forming the body of Sanscrit literature, are named; and so is the Mahábhárata, to which therefore it is subsequent. Both Bauddhas and Jains are adverted to. It was therefore written before the former had disappeared; but they existed in some parts of India as late as the twelfth century at least; and it is probable that the Puráńa was compiled before that period. The Gupta kings reigned in the seventh century; the historical record of the Puráńa which mentions them was therefore later: and there seems little doubt that the same alludes to the first incursions of the Mohammedans, which took place in the eighth century; which brings it still lower. In describing the latter dynasties, some, if not all, of which were no doubt contemporary, they are described as reigning altogether one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six years. Why this duration should have been chosen does not appear, unless, in conjunction with the number of years which are said to have elapsed between the great war and the last of the Andhra dynasty, which preceded these different races, and which amounted to two thousand three hundred and fifty, the compiler was influenced by the actual date at which he wrote. The aggregate of the two periods would be the Kálí year 4146, equivalent to A. D. 1045. There are some variety and indistinctness in the enumeration of the periods which compose this total, but the date which results from it is not unlikely to be an approximation to that of the Vishńu Puráńa.

It is the boast of inductive philosophy, that it draws its conclusions from the careful observation and accumulation of facts; and it is equally the business of all philosophical research to determine its facts before it ventures upon speculation. This procedure has not been observed in the investigation of the mythology and traditions of the Hindus. Impatience to generalize has availed itself greedily of whatever promised to afford materials for generalization; and the most erroneous views have been confidently advocated, because the guides to which their authors trusted were ignorant or insufficient. The information gleaned by Sir Wm. Jones was gathered in an early season of Sanscrit study, before the field was cultivated. The same may be said of the writings of Paulinus a St. Barolomæo⁹⁵, with the further disadvantage of his having been imperfectly acquainted with the Sanscrit language and literature, and his veiling his deficiencies under loftiness of pretension and a prodigal display of misapplied erudition. The documents to which Wilford⁹⁶ trusted proved to be in great part fabrications, and where genuine, were mixed up with so much loose and unauthenticated matter, and so overwhelmed with extravagance of speculation, that his citations need to be carefully and skilfully sifted, before they can be serviceably employed. The descriptions of Ward⁹⁷ are too deeply tinctured by his prejudices to be implicitly confided in; and they are also derived in a great measure from the oral or written communications of Bengali pandits, who are not in general very deeply read in the authorities of their mythology. The accounts of Polier⁹⁸ were in like manner collected from questionable sources, and his Mythologie des Hindous presents a heterogeneous mixture of popular and Pauráńik tales, of ancient traditions, and legends apparently invented for the occasion, which renders the publication worse than useless, except in the hands of those who can distinguish the pure metal from the alloy. Such are the authorities to which Maurice, Faber, and Creuzer have exclusively trusted in their description of the Hindu mythology, and it is no marvel that there should have been an utter confounding of good and bad in their selection of materials, and an inextricable mixture of truth and error in their conclusions. Their labours accordingly are far from entitled to that confidence which their learning and industry would else have secured; and a sound and comprehensive survey of the Hindu system is still wanting to the comparative analysis of the religious opinions of the ancient world, and to a satisfactory elucidation of an important chapter in the history of the human race. It is with the hope of supplying some of the necessary means for the accomplishment of these objects, that the following pages have been translated.

Conclusion

The translation of the Vishńu Puráńa has been made from a collation of various manuscripts in my possession. I had three when I commenced the work, two in the Devanagari, and one in the Bengali character: a fourth, from the west of India, was given to me by Major Jervis, when some progress had been made: and in conducting the latter half of the translation through the press, I have compared it with three other copies in the library of the East India Company. All these copies closely agree; presenting no other differences than occasional varieties of reading, owing chiefly to the inattention or inaccuracy of the transcriber. Four of the copies were accompanied by a commentary, essentially the sane, although occasionally varying; and ascribed, in part at least, to two different scholiasts. The annotations on the first two books and the fifth are in two MSS. said to be the work of Śrídhara Yati, the disciple of Paránanda, and who is therefore the same as Śrídhara Swámí, the commentator on the Bhágavata. In the other three books these two MSS. concur with other two in naming the commentator Ratnagarbha Bhat́t́a, who in those two is the author of the notes on the entire work. The introductory verses of his comment specify him to be the disciple of Vidya-váchaspati, the son of Hirańyagarbha, and grandson of Mádhava, who composed his commentary by desire of Súryákara, son of Ratínath, Miśra, son of Chandrákara, hereditary ministers of some sovereign who is not particularized. In the illustrations which are attributed to these different writers there is so much conformity, that one or other is largely indebted to his predecessor. They both refer to earlier commentaries. Śrídhara cites the works of Chit-sukha-yoni and others, both more extensive and more concise; between which, his own, which he terms Átma- or Swa-prakása, 'self-illuminator,' holds an intermediate character. Ratnagarbha entitles his, Vaishńavákúta chandriká, 'the moonlight of devotion to Vishńu.' The dates of these commentators are not ascertainable, as far as I am aware, from any of the particulars which they have specified.

In the notes which I have added to the translation, I have been desirous chiefly of comparing the statements of the text with those of other Puráńas, and pointing out the circumstances in which they differ or agree; so as to render the present publication a sort of concordance to the whole, as it is not very probable that many of them will be published or translated. The Index that follows has been made sufficiently copious to answer the purposes of a mythological and historical dictionary, as far as the Puráńas, or the greater number of them, furnish, materials.

In rendering the text into English, I have adhered to it as literally as was compatible with some regard to the usages of English composition. In general the original presents few difficulties. The style of the Puráńas is very commonly humble and easy, and the narrative is plainly and unpretendingly told. In the addresses to the deities, in the expatiations upon the divine nature, in the descriptions of the universe, and in argumentative and metaphysical discussion, there occur passages in which the difficulty arising from the subject itself is enhanced by the brief and obscure manner in which it is treated. On such occasions I derived much aid from the commentary, but it is possible that I may have sometimes misapprehended and misrepresented the original; and it is also possible that I may have sometimes failed to express its purport with sufficient precision to have made it intelligible. I trust, however, that this will not often be the case, and that the translation of the Vishńu Puráńa will be of service and of interest to the few, who in these times of utilitarian selfishness, conflicting opinion, party virulence, and political agitation, can find a restingplace for their thoughts in the tranquil contemplation of those yet living pictures of the ancient world which are exhibited by the literature and mythology of the Hindus.

Footnotes

1. Vol. VIII. p. 369.

2. Vol. XIV. p. 37.

3. Published by the Oriental Translation Fund Committee.

4. A translation of the principal Upanishads was published under the title of Oupnekhat, or Theologia Indica, by Anquetil du Perron: but it was made through the medium of the Persian, and is very incorrect and obscure. A translation of a very different character has been some time in course of preparation by M. Poley.

5. As. Res. vol. VIII. p. 473.

6. B. III. 152, 164. B. IV. 214.

7. Besides the three periods marked by the Vedas, Heroic Poems, and Puráńas, a fourth may be dated from the influence exercised by the Tantras upon Hindu practice and belief; but we are yet too little acquainted with those works, or their origin, to speculate safely upon their consequences.

8. As. Res. vol. VII. p. 202.

9. The following definition of a Puráńa is constantly quoted: it is found in the Vishńu, Matsya, Váyu, and other Puráńas:
A variation of reading in the beginning of the second line is noticed by Rámáśrama, the scholiast on Amara,
'Destruction of the earth and the rest, or final dissolution:' in which case the genealogies of heroes and princes are comprised in those of the patriarchs.

10. Researches into the Nature and Affinity of Ancient and Hindu Mythology, p.153, and note.

11. Adv. Manichæos.

12. Hist. Evang.

13. Mosheim, vol. I. p.173.

14. See P. 649 et seq.

15. Theologia et Philosophia Indica, Dissert. p. xxvi.

16. Three volumes have been printed: the fourth and last is understood to be nearly completed.

17. As. Res. vols. XVI. and XVII. Account of Hindu Sects.

18. On the history of the composition of the Puráńas, as they now appear, I have hazarded some speculations in my Analysis of the Váyu Puráńa: Journ. Asiatic Society of Bengal, December 1832.

19. p. 272.

20. See P. 276.

21. P. 102.

22. Journ, Royal As. Soc. vol. V. p. 281.

23. P. 283.

24. P. 5.

25. As. Res. vol. XVI. p. 10.

26. Asiatic Journal, March 1837, p. 241.

27. As. Res. vol. XVI. p. 85.

28. The names are put attributively, the noun substantive, Puráńa, being understood. Thus Vaishńavam Puráńam means the Puráńa of Vishńu; Śaivam Puráńam, the P. of Śiva; Bráhmam Puráńam, the P. of Brahmá. It is equally correct, and more common, to use the two substantives in apposition, as Vishńu Puráńa, Śiva Puráńa, &c. In the original Sanscrit the nouns are compounded, as Vishńu-puráńam, &c.; but it has not been customary to combine them in their European shape.

29. P. 284.

30. Journ. Royal As. Soc. vol. V. p. 61.

31. I allude to the valuable work of Col. Vans Kennedy, on the Affinity between Ancient and Hindu Mythology. However much I may differ from that learned and industrious writer's conclusions, I must do him the justice to admit that he is the only author who has discussed the subject of the mythology of the Hindus on right principles, by drawing his materials from authentic sources.

32. Upon examining the translations of different passages from the Puráńas, given by Col. Vans Kennedy in the work mentioned in a former note, and comparing them with the text of the manuscripts I have consulted, I find such an agreement as to warrant the belief that there is no essential difference between the copies in his possession and in mine. The varieties which occur in the MSS. of the East India Company's Library will be noticed in the text.

33.

34. Col. Vans Kennedy objects to this character of the Bráhma P., and observes that it contains only two short descriptions of pagodas, the one of Konáditya, the other of Jagannáth. In that case, his copy must differ considerably from those I have met with; for in them the description of Purushottama Kshetra, the holy land of Orissa, runs through forty chapters, or one-third of the work. The description, it is true, is interspersed, in the usual rambling strain of the Puráńas, with a variety of legends, some ancient, some modern; but they are intended to illustrate some local circumstance, and are therefore not incompatible with the main design, the celebration of the glories of Purushottama Kshetra. The specification of the temple of Jagannáth, however, is of itself sufficient, in my opinion, to determine the character and era of the compilation.

35. See Account of Orissa proper, or Cuttack, by A. Stirling, Esq.: Asiatic Res. vol. XV. p. 305.

36. See Analysis of the Bráhma Puráńa: Journ. Royal As. Soc, vol. V. p. 65.

37.

38. See .

39. One of them, the story of Jalandhara is translated by Col. Vans Kennedy: Affinities of Ancient and Hindu Mythology, Appendix D.

40. The grounds of these conclusions are more particularly detailed in my Analysis of the Padma P.: J. R. As. Soc. vol. V. p. 280.

41.

42.

43. Commentary on the Mitákshará, Vyavahára Káńd́a.

44. As. Journ., March 1837, p. 242, note.

45. Analysis of the Váyu Puráńa: Journ. As. Soc. of Bengal, December 1832.

46.

47. See p. 5.

48. A translation of the ninth, by Capt. Fell, was published in Calcutta in different numbers of the Monthly and Quarterly Magazine, in 1823 and 1824. The second volume of Maurice's Ancient History of Hindustan contains a translation, by Mr. Halhed, of the tenth book, made through the medium of a Persian version.

49. As. Res. vol. VII. p.467.

50. Ancient and Hindu Mythology, p.155, note.

51. Book I. chap. iv. 20-22.

52. Book I. 7,8.

53.

54. The description of Vishńu, translated by Col. Vans Kennedy (Affinity of Ancient and Hindu Mythology, p. 200) from the Náradíya Puráńa, occurs in my copy of the Vrihat Náradíya. There is no Nárada Puráńa in the East India Company's library, though, as noticed in the text, several of the Vrihat Náradíya. There is a copy of the Rukmángada Charitra, said to be a part of the Śri Nárada Puráńa.

55.

56. A translation into English by a Madras Pandit, Kávali Venkata Rámaswámi, was published at Calcutta in 1823.

57. See Vishńu P., p. 253. n. 22.

58.

59. See .

60. Analysis of the Agni Puráńa: Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, March 1832. I have there stated incorrectly that the Agni is a Vaishńava Puráńa: it is one of the Támasa or Śaiva class, as mentioned above.

61. Essay on Vikramáditya and Sáliváhana: As. Res. vol. IX. p. 131.

62.

63. Col. Vans Kennedy states that he had not been able to procure the Bhavishya P., nor even ever to obtain any account of its contents: Anc. and Hindu Mythology, p.153, note.

64.

65. Analysis of the Brahma-vaivartta Puráńa: Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, June 1832.

66.

67. See Asiatic Researches, vol. XVII. p. 287.

68.

69. One of these is translated by Col. Vans Kennedy, the origin of the three Śaktis, or goddesses, Saraswatí, Lakshmí, and Párvati. Ancient and Hindu Mythology, p. 209. The Tri Śakti Máhátmya occurs, as he gives it, in my copy, and is so far an indication of the identity of the Varáha Puráńa in the different MSS.

70.

71. The legend is translated by Col. Vans Kennedy: Ancient and Hindu Mythology, Appendix B.

72. In a list of reputed portions of the Skanda Puráńa in the possession of my friend Mr. C. P. Brown, of the Civil service of Madras, the Sanhitás are seven, the Khańd́as twelve, besides parts denominated Gítá, Kalpa, Stotra, &c. In the collection of Col. Mackenzie, amongst the Máhátmyas thirty-six are said to belong to the Skanda P.: vol. I. p. 6i. In the library at the India House are two Sanhitás, the Súta and Sanatkumára, fourteen Khańd́as, and twelve Máhátmyas.

73. Ancient and Hindu Mythol., p. 554, note.

74.

75. From the extracts from the Vámana Pura translated by Col. Vans Kennedy, p. 293 et seq., it appears that his copy so far corresponds with mine, and the work is therefore probably the same: two copies in the Company's library also agree with mine.

76.

77. This is also translated by Col. Vans Kennedy (Anc. and Hindu Mythol., Appendix D. p. 444); and in this instance, as in other passages quoted by him from the Kúrma, his MS. and mine agree.

78.

79.

80.

81. As. Res. vol. VIII. p. 252.

82. Mackenzie Collection, 1. 50, 51.

83. Anc. and Hindu Mythology, p. 251.

84.
'Unconnected with this narrative, no story is known upon earth.' Vol. I. p. 11. l. 307.

85. P. 349.

86. However incompatible with the ordinary computation of the period that is supposed to have elapsed between the flood and the birth of Christ, this falls sufficiently within the larger limits which are now assigned, upon the best authorities, to that period. As observed by Mr. Mil-man, in his note on the annotation of Gibbon (II. 301.) which refers to this subject; "Most of the more learned modern English protestants, as Dr. Hales, Mr. Faber, Dr. Russell, as well as the continental writers, adopt the larger chronology." To these may be added the opinion of Dr. Mill, who, for reasons which he has fully detailed, identifies the commencement of the Kálí age of the Hindus, B. C. 3102, with the era of the deluge. Christa Sangita, Introd., supplementary note.

87. Sir Wm. Jones on the Hindus (As. Res. vol. III.); Klaproth. Asia Polyglotta; Vans Kennedy on the Origin of Languages; A von Schlegel Origines des Hindous (Trans. R. Soc. of Literature).

88. See p. 285. note.

89. As. Res. vol. V. p. 55.

90. As. Res. vol. VII. p. 219.

91. See p. 406-409. 444. &c.

92. P. 448. 459. 454. &c.

93. P. 484 n. 81.

94. Burnet has collected the opinions of the ancient world on this subject, tracing them, as he says, "to the earliest people, and the first appearances of wisdom, after the flood." The Hindu account explains what is imperfect or contradictory in ancient tradition, as handed down from other and less carefully perpetuated sources. Theory of the Earth, b. III. c. 3.

95. Systema Brahmanicum, &c.

96. Asiatic Researches.

97. Account of the Hindus.

98. Mythologie des Hindous, edited by Canoness Polier.

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