PURANA

(Sanskrit: Ancient Lore), in Hindu sacred literature, any of a number of popular encyclopaedic collections of myth, legend, and genealogy, varying greatly as to date and origin. Traditionally a Purana treats five subjects: primary creation of the universe, secondary creation after periodical annihilation, genealogy of gods and saints, grand epochs, and history of the royal dynasties. Puranas are connected in subject with the Mahabharata (Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty) and have some relationship to the lawbooks (Dharma-sastras). Around this central core has amalgamated much other material of religious concern during the period c. AD 400 to c. 1000, which describes such things as customs, ceremonies, sacrifices, festivals, caste duties, donations, construction of temples and images, and places of pilgrimage. Puranas are written almost entirely in narrative couplets in much the same easy, flowing style as the epic poems, though some scholars judge them poetically inferior to the epics. The 18 principal surviving Puranas are often grouped loosely according to whether they exalt Vishnu, Siva (Shiva), or Brahma, but each sect made an attempt to include its own teaching in the popular Puranas as a way of influencing the people, and they all deal with similar material. The main Puranas are usually regarded as (1) the Visnu-, Naradiya-, Bhagavata-, Garuda-, Padma-, and Varaha-; (2) the Matsya-, Kurma-, Linga-, Siva-, Skanda-, and Agni-; and (3) the Brahmanda-, Brahmavaivarta-, Markandeya-, Bhavisya-, Vamana-, and Brahma-Puranas. By far the most popular is the Bhagavata-Purana (q.v.), which in its treatment of the early life of Krishna has had profound influence on the religious beliefs of India. There are also 18 lesser, or Upapuranas, treating similar material, and a large number of sthala-Puranas, or mahatmyas, glorifying temples or sacred places, which are recited in the services of the temples.