If the entire number of works, nominally, at least, corresponding with those of the native list, were taken as a whole, their contents might be so defined as to embrace the five topics specified by the commentators on the glossary of Amara-Sinha; philosophical speculations on the nature of matter and soul, individual as well as supreme; small codes of law; descriptions of placei of pilgrimage; a vast ritual relating to the modern wor ship of the gods; numerous legends; and exceptionally, as in the Agni-Puron'a, scien tific tracts. If taken, however, individually, the difference between most of them, both in style and contents, is so considerable that a general definition would become inaccu rate. A short description of each Puran'a has been given by the late prof. II. H. Wilson, in his preface to his translation of the Vishnu-Pardn'a; and to it, as well as to his detailed account of some Puran'as in separate essays (collected In his works), we must therefore refer the reader who would wish to obtain a fuller knowledge of these works.—The age of the Puran'a, though doubtless modern, is uncertain. The Bhcigarata, on account of its being ascribed to the authorship of the grammarian Vopadeva, would appear to yield a safer computation of its age than the rest; for Vopadeva lived in the 12th c., or, as some hold, 13th c., after Christ; but this authorship, though probable, is not proved to a cer tainty. As to the other Puran'as, their age is supposed by prof. Wilson to fall within the 12th and 17th centuries of the Christian era, with the exception, though, of the ..ilark add'uya-Parcia'a, which, in consideration of its unsectarian character, he would place in the 9th or 10th century. But it must be borne in mind that all these dates arc purely conjectural, and given as such by the scholar whose impressions they convey.
Besides these eighteen Puran'as or great Puran'as, there are minor or Upapariin'as, " differing little in extent or subject from some of those to which the title of Pitran'a is ascribed." Their number is given by one Puran'a as four; another, however, names the following 18: 1. Sanaticurndra-; 27. - IlTdrailiya-; 4. Sica-; 5. Dural.
Rasa.; 6. Kcipila-; 7. Iiiinava-; S. Ans'anasa-; 9. Tkiruda-; 10. Kdlikei-; 11. mbit-; 12. .Arandi-,. 13. Saura-; 14. Paras'ctra-; 15. Aditga-; 16. ltiiihes'ir.ara-; 17. (probably, however, a misreading for Bhargava); and 18. Wis'ishtha-Upapuriin'a. Another list, differing from the hitter, not in the number, but in the names of the Upapuran'as, is likewise given in prof. Wilson's Preface to the Vishn'n-Pardn'a. Many of these
Upapuran'as are apparently no longer procurable, while other works so called, but not included in either list, are sometimes met with; for instance, a 31-udgala and Ganes'a Upapuran'a. The character of the Upapurati'as is, like that of the Puran'as, sectarian; the S UPapurdn' a, for instance, inculcates the worship of Siva, the Upapu rdn' a that of Drirgil or Devi.
Both Puriin'as and Upapuran'as are for a considerable portion of their contents laigely indebted to the two great epic works, the Malalbhdrata (q.v.) and licimayan'a (q.v.), more especially to the former of them. Of the Puriin'as, the original text of three has already appeared in print: that of the Blaigarata in several native editions, published at Bombay, with the commentary of S'ridharaswilmin, and partly in a Paris edition by Eugene Burnouf, which remained incomplete through the premature death of that distinguished scholar; that of the .1fark,an'-d'eya-Pardn'a, edited at Calcutta in the lhdheca Indica, by the rev. K. M. Bauerjea; and that of the Linga-Purein'n, edited at Bom bay for, regarding a fourth, the Garud'a-Puviim'a, edited at Benares and Bombay, it seems doubtful whether that little work is the same as the Puritin'a spoken of in the native list. Besides these, small portions from the Padma, Slcanda, Bhacishyottara, Heirkan'd'eya, and other Puidn'as have been published in India and Europe. Of translations we have only to name the excellent French translation by Burnouf of the first nine books of the Bluigavata, and the elegant translation of the whole Vish n' u - Para' n' a, together with valu able notes by the late prof. H. H. Wilson, which has recently been republished in his works, in a new edition, amplified with numerous notes, by prof. F. E. Hall.—For gen eral information on the character and contents of the Puran'as, see especially Wilson's preface to his translation of the Vishn'u-Pariin'a (Works. vol. vi., Lond. 1864), Burnouf's preface to his edition of the Blaigavata (Paris, 1840), Wilson's Analysis of the Purvin'as (Works, vol. iii., Lond. 1S64, edited by prof. R. Host), K. M. Banerjea's Inbroduction to Miirkan'deya (Calcutta, 1862), and John Muir's Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and Ilidory of the People of India, vols. i. to v. (Loud. 1858-71).