An Introduction of the Purāṇas

purāṇanyāyamīmāṃsā dharmaśāstrāṅgamiśritāḥ |
vedāḥ sthanāni vidyānāṃ dharmasya ca caturdaśa || 1.3 ||
  (Yājñavalkya-Smṛti Ācārādhyāya, Upodghāta-prakaraṇa)

According to Yājñavalkya among the fourteen branches of knowledge, the Purāṇa is the best. To know about our Indian culture, it is important to know about Purāṇa . In fact, Purāṇa is the bearer and carrier of culture. Almost all the rules of today’s society are influenced by the Purāṇa . Actually the Purāṇa is a collection of important narrative scriptures of the ancient Hindu, Buddhist and Jains. The Purāṇa discuss the history of the universe from creation to cataclysm, the genealogy of kings, warriors, sages and sub-gods, and Hindu cosmology, philosophy and geography. In the Purāṇas , a particular deity is usually predominant and shows the predominance of religious and philosophical thought. These texts are mainly in the form of anecdotes, which relate to more than one person. Although the most ancient texts of the Purāṇas are contemporary with the Gupta Empire. Most of its elements relate to this period and its later centuries, according to historical or other sources. The Purāṇas were written in different parts of India. Some general ideas are noticed in the overall text of the Purāṇas . But it is difficult to explore the effect of one Purāṇas on another. So these are generally considered to be contemporary.^[1]

The composition date of the written text is not the actual composition date of the Purāṇa . Because it can be said without a doubt that these stories have been spread orally for over a millennium. And later their shape and form were seen to change from the middle ages to the modern age.^[2]

Research on Purāṇa began when the All India Kashiraj Trust was formed under the patronage and supervision of Bibhuti Narayan Singh, Maharaj of Kashi. From this organization a critical edition of the Purāṇas and a magazine called ‘Purāṇam ’ had been published.^[3]

An ancient reference to the Purāṇas is found in the Chandogya Upaniṣad , written in 500 BC (7/1/2). The Bṛhadāranyaka Upaniṣad calls the Purāṇa as the ‘Pañcama Veda’ (2/4/10, 4/1/2, 4/5/11).^[4]

“itihāsapurāṇaṃ pañcamaṃ vedam ...”

The Atharvaveda also mentions the word (11/7/14).^[5]

Purāṇas are not just religious texts. Apart from the deities and religious texts, Purāṇas have been described with various philosophical thoughts. Moreover, a lot of information about the history, geography, economy and polities of ancient India is available from the Purāṇas . The ancient Indian social system and its customs are also a unique subject of the Purāṇas . Some of the Purāṇas contain descriptions of astrology, medicine, martial arts and weapons. Indian as well as foreign literature is also influenced by Purāṇa . Kalidās’s ‘Abhijñānam Śākuntalam ’ is influenced by the subject of the Padma-Purāṇa and and Skanda Purāṇa. The influence of Purāṇas can be seen the ‘Raghuvaṃśam ’ is written on the subject of the Brahmapurāṇa, Kālikā Purāṇa , Śiva Purāṇa in the books of Kṣemīśvara’s ‘Caṇḍakauśika’ and Joydeva’s ‘Gītagovindam ’. The Purāṇas are the significant creation of the Sanskrit literature. The contribution and influence of Purāṇas at every level of Indian society is undeniable. Directly or indirectly we depend on the Purāṇas .

In this work I have choose the Matsya Purāṇa and tried to specify what historical elements are in that Purāṇa . I have divided the work into seven chapters to make it beautiful and easy. The chapters deal with the basic details of the Purāṇas , the relationship between the Purāṇas and the history, what are the historical element and its features, and the description of the historical elements of the Matsya Purāṇa.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

(Gavin 1996) An Introduction of Hinduism, Cambridge University Press, P.-359, ISBN-0521433045.

[2]:

Nagendra Kumar Singh (edn.), Encyclopedia of Hinduism, 1997, P.-2324, ISBN-81-7488-168-9.

[3]:

Mittal, Sushil (2004), The Hindu World, P.-657, ISBN–978-0415215275.

[4]:

Śtapatha Brāhmaṇa SBE, Vol. 44, PP., 98, 369.

[5]:

Pargiter, FE (1962), Ancient Indian Historical tradition, original publisher Oxford University Press, London, Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass, P. 30-54.