The modern age of this latter literature, in the form in which it is known to us, is borne out by the change which the religious and philosophical ideas, taught in the epic poems and the philosophical Sfttras, have undergone in it; by the legendary detail into which older legends and myths have expanded; by the numerous religious rites—not countenanced by the Vedic or epic works—which are taught, and, in some Puran'as at least, V the historical or quasi-scientific instruction which is imparted, in it. To divest that which. in these Purfin'as, is ancient, in idea or fact, ,from that which is of parasiti cal growth, is a task which philology has yet to fulfill; but even a superficial comparison of the contents of the present Puran'a with the ancient lore of Hindu religion, philosophy, and science, must convince every one that the picture of religion and life unfolded by them is a caricature of that afforded by the Vedic works, and that it was drawn by priestcraft, interested in submitting to its sway the popular mind, and miscru pulous in the use of the means which had to serve it sends. The plea on which the com position of the PurAn'as was justified even by great Hindu authorities—probably because they did not feel equal to the task of destroying a system already deeply rooted in the national mind, or because they apprehended that the nation at large would remain with out any. religion at all, if, without possessing the Vedic creed, it likewise became deprived of that based on the Puran'as—this plea is best illustrated by a quotation from Sayan'a, the celebrated commentator on the three principal Vedas. .He says (Rigv., ed. Milner, vol. i p. 33): " Women and S'ildras, though they, too, are in want of knowledge. have no right to the Veda, for they are deprived of (the advantage of) reading it in con sequence of their not being,invested with the sacred cord; but the knowledge of law (or duty) and that of the supreme spirit arises to them by means of the Puran'as and other books (of this kind)." Yet to enlighten the Hindu nation as to whether or not these hooks—which sometimes are even called a fifth Veda—teach that religion which is con tained in the Vedas and Upanishads, there would be no better method than to initiate such a system of popular education as would reopen to the native mind those ancient works, now virtually closed to it.
Though the reason given by Sayan'a, as clearly results from a comparison of the PurAn'as with the oldest works of Sanskrit literature, is but a poor justification. of the origin of the former, and though it is likewise indubitable, that even at his time (the middle of the 15th c. A.D.) they were, as they still are, not merely an authoritative source of religion for "women and S'ftdras," but for the great majority of the males of other castes also, it nevertheless explains the great variety of matter. of which the present Puran'as are composed, so great and so multifarious indeed, that, in the case of•some of them. it imparts to them a kind of cyclopfedical character. They became. as it seems, the source of all popular knowledge; a substitute to the misses of the nation, not only for the theological literature, but for scientific works, the study of which was gradually restricted to the leisure of the learned few. Thus, while the principal subjects taught by nearly all the Purana are cosmogony, religion, including law, and the legendary mat ter which, to a Hindu, assumes the value of history, in sonic of them we meet with a description of places, which gives to them something of the character of while one, the Agni-Purana, also pretends to teach archery, medicine, rhetoric, prosody, and grammar; though it is needless to add that that teaching has no real worth.
One purpose, however, and that a paramount one, is not included in the argument by which Sayan'a endeavored to account for the composition of the Puran'as—it is the purpose of establishing a sectarian creed. At the third phase of Hindu religion (q.v.),
two gods of the Hindu pantheon especially engrossed the religious faith of the masses, (q.v.) and S'iva (q.v.), each being looked upon by his worshipers as the supreme deity, to whom the other as well as the remaining gods were subordinate. .3Ioreover, when the power or energy of these gods had been raised to the rank of a separate deity, it was the female Sakti, or energy, of S'ivtt, who, as Durga, or the consort of this god, was held in peculiar awe by a numerous host of believers. Now, apart from the general reasons mentioned before, a principal object, and probably the principal one of the Puran'as, was to establish, as the case might be, the supremacy of Vishnu or Siva, and it may be likewise assumed of the female energy of Siva, though the worship of the latter belongs more exclusively to the class of works known as Tantrass. There are, accordingly, Vaislin'ava-Puran'as, or those composed for the glory of Vislin'u, S'aiva Purana, or those which extol the worship of S'iva ; and one or two Furan'as, perhaps, but merely so far as a portion of them is concerned, will De more consistently assigned to the SUM worship, or that of Durga, than to that of Vislin'it or Siva, "The invariable form of the Puran'as," says prof. Wilson, in his Preface to the Vishn'u-Purein'a, "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 con sequence of similar questions having been asked. The immediate narrator is commonly, though not constantly, Lomaharshan'a, or Romaliarshan'a, the disciple of Vyfiso. who is supposed to communicate what was imparted to him by his preceptor, as lie had heard it from some other sage. . . . . Lomaharshan'a is called Sfita, as if it was a proper name: but it is, more correctly, a title; and Lomaharshan'a was "a sfita," that is, a bard, or pane gyrist, who was created, according to the Vidin'n-Purdn'a, to celebrate the exploits of princes, and who, according to the Vayu and Padma Pnrein'as, has a right, by birth and profession, to narrate the Puran'as, in preference even to the Brahmans." The number of the actual Puran'as is stated to be 18, and their names, in the order given, are the following: 1. Brahma-; 2. Padma-, 3. Viehn'u-; 4. Siza-; 5. Bhdgarata-; 6. Ndradiya-; 7. 3farkan'd'eya-; 8. Agni-i 9. Bkariehya-; 10. Brahma-zairartta-; 11. .I.,inga-; 12. Yariiha-; 13. Skanda-; 14. Vamana-; 15. Kiirma-; 16. Matsya; 17. Gant d'a-; and 18. Brahzndn'da-Purfn'a. In other lists the Agni-Puran'a is omitted, and the Vayv-Puran'a inserted instead of it; or the Garud'a and Brahmdreda are omitted, and replaced by the Vdyu and .Nr'isinha Purdn'as. Of these Puran'as, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 17, are probably 1, are Puran'as of the Vaishn'ava sect; 4, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16, of the Siva sect; 7 is. in one portion of it, called Devimalifttmya, the text-book of the worshipers of Durga; otherwise, it has little of a sectarian spirit, and would therefore neither belong to the Vaishn'tiva nor to the S'aiva class; 14, as prof. Wilson observes, " divides its homage between Siva and Vishn'u with tolerable impartiality; it is not connected, therefore, with any sectorial principles, and may have preceded their introduction." The Bharishya-Purdn'a (9), as described by the Matsya-Purdn'a, would be a book of prophecies; but the Bhavishya-Purdn'a known to prof. Wilson consists of five books, four of which are dedicated to the gods Brahma, Siva, and Twaslitei; and the same scholar doubts whether this work could have any claim to the name of a Puran'a, as its first portion is merely a transcript of the words of the first chapter of Mann, and the rest is entirely a manual of religious rites and ceremonies. There are similar grounds for doubt regarding other works of the list.