PURANA
792
PURANA
probable — at least, of his oldest commentator-. Set the distinguished scholar most conversant with the ex- isting Puranas, who, in his preface to the translation of the Vvhnu- Purdna, gives a more or less detailed ac- count of their chief contents (Prof. II. EL Wilson), ob- serves, in regard to the quoted definition of the com- mentators on Amara-Sinha, that in no one instance do the actual Puranas conform to it. exactly; thai "to some of them it is utterly inapplicable; to others, il only partially applies." To the Vishnu -Purdna, he adds, it belongs more than to any other Purina; but even in the case of this Purana he shows that it fan- not be supposed to be included in the term explained by the commentators. The age of Amara-Sinha is. according to Wilson, the last half of the century pre- ceding the Christian era; others conjecture that it dates some centuries later. On the supposition, then, that Amara-Sinha himself implied by Pancha-lakshana the sense given to this term by his commentators, there would have been Puranas about 1900 years ago; but none ofthc.se has descended to our time in the shape it then possessed. Various passages in the actual Pu- ranas furnish proof of the existence of such elder Pu- ranas. The strongest evidence in this respect is that afforded by a general description given by the Matsya- Purdna of the extent of each of the Puranas (which are uniformly stated to be eighteen in number), includ- ing itself; for, leaving aside the exceptional case in which it may be doubtful whether we possess the com- plete work now going by the name of a special Purana, Prof. Wilson, in quoting the description from the Mat- sya-Purdna, and in comparing with it the real extent of the great majority of Puranas, the completeness of which, in their actual stale, does not admit, of a rea- Bonable doubt, has conclusively shown that the Mat- sya-Purdna speaks of works which are not those we now possess. We arc. then, bound to infer that there have been Puranas older than those preserved, and that their number has been eighteen : whereas, on the con- trary, it will lie hereafter seen that it is very doubtful whether we are entitled to assign this number to the actual Purana literature.
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 Sutras have un- dergone in it; by the legendary detail into which old- er legends and myths have expanded; by the numer- ous religious rites— not countenanced by the Vedic or epic works- which are taught; and. in some Puranas at least, by the historical or quasi-scientific instruction which is imparted in it. To divest that which, in these Puranas. is ancient, in idea or fact, from that, which is of parasitica] growth, is a task which Sanscrit philolo- gy has yet to fulfil; but even a superficial comparison of the contents of the present Puranas 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 thai il was drawn by priestcraft, in- terested in submitting to its sway the popular mind, and unscrupulous in the use of the means which bad to serve its ends. The plea on which the composition of the Puranas was justified, even by great Hindu author- 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 ii at large would remain without any religion at all, if, without possessing the Vedic creed, il likewise
beci ■ deprived of that based on the Puranas tins
plea is besl illustrated by a quotation from Sayana, the
celebrated coi intator on the three principal Vedas.
Ik ■/.'/',•/•. eil. Midler, vol. i. 1 1. ."».'!>: '•Women and
Siidras. though tiny, ton, are in waul of knowledge, have no righl to the Veda, for they are deprived of [the advantage of] reading it. in consequence oft lair not being invested with the sacred cord; but the knowl-
edge of law [or duty] and that of the supreme spirit arises to the;u by means of the Puranas and other books [of this kind]." Yet. to enlighten the Hindu nation a- to whether or not these hooks— which some- times are even called a fifth Veda teach thai n which is contained in the Vedas and [Jpanishads, there would be no better method than to initiate such a svs- tem of popular education as would reopen to the native mind those ancient works, now virtually closed to it.
Though the reason given by Sayana, as clearlj re- sults from a comparisi f the Puranas with th
works of Sans. -rit literature, is bul a | r justification
of the origin of the former; and though it is likewise indubitable that, even al bis time (the middle of the lath century A.D.). they were, as they still are. not merely an authoritative source of religion for "women and Sudras." but lor the ureal majority of the males of other castes also, ii nevertheless explains the greal va- riety of mailer of which the present Puranas are com- posed— so greal and so multifarious, indeed, that, in the case 'i some of them, it imparts to them 8 kind ol ey- clopaedical character. They became, as it seems, the source of all popular knowledge; a substitute to the masses of the nation not only for theological litera- ture, 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 Puranas are cosmogony, religion (including law), and the legendary matter which, to a Hindu, assumes the value of history, in some of them we meet with a description of places which gives to them something of the character of geography; and one. the Agni-Purd* na, also pretends to teach archery, medicine, rhetoric, prosody, and grammar; though it is needless to add that its teaching has no real worth.