THE PURANAS

The Puranas are a class of literary texts, all written in Sanskrit verse, whose composition dates from the 4^th century BCE to about 1,000 A.D. The word "Purana" means "old", and generally they are considered as coming in the chronological aftermath of the epics, though sometimes theMahabharata, which is generally classified as a work of itihas (history), is also referred to as a purana. Some scholars, such as van Buitenen, are inclined to view the Puranas as beginning around the time that the composition of the Mahabharata came to a close, that is about 300 A.D. Certainly, in its final form the Mahabharata shows puranic features, and the Harivamsa, which is an appendix to the Mahabharata where the life of Krishna or Hari is treated at some length, has sometimes been seen as a purana. The special subject of the puranas is the powers and works of the gods, and one ancient Sanskrit lexicographer, Amarasinha, writing in the fifth or sixth century A.D., defined a purana as having five characteristic topics, orpancalaksana: "(1) The creation of the universe; (2) Its destruction and renovation; (3) The genealogy of gods and patriarchs; (4) The reigns of the Manus, forming the periods called Manwantaras; (5) the history of the Solar and Lunar races of kings." No one purana can be described as exhibiting in fine (or even coarse) detail all five of these distinguishing traits, but sometimes the Vishnu Purana is thought to most closely resemble the traditional definition. Around the time when the puranas first began to be composed, the belief in particular deities had become established as one of the principal marks of the Hindu faith, and to some degree the puranas can be described as a form of sectarian literature. Some puranas exhibit devotion to Shiva; in others, the devotion to Vishnu predominates.