Purana

(“old”) An important genre of smrti texts,
and the repository of traditional Indian
mythology. The smrtis, or “remembered,”
texts were a class of literature that,
although deemed important, was considered less authoritative than the shrutis, or
“heard” texts. In brief, the shrutis denoted
the Vedas, the oldest and most authoritative Hindu religious texts, whereas the
smrtis included the two great epics, namely the Mahabharata and the Ramayana,
the dharma literature, the Bhagavad Gita,
and the compendia known as the puranas.
According to one traditional definition, a purana should contain accounts
of at least five essential things: the creation of the earth, its dissolution and
recreation, origins of the gods and patriarchs, the reigns of the Manvantaras,
and the reigns of the Solar and Lunar
Lines. In practice, the puranas are compendia of all types of sacred lore, from
mythic tales to ritual instruction to exaltation of various sacred sites (tirthas)
and actions. Individual puranas are
usually highly sectarian and intended to
promote the worship of one of the
Hindu gods, whether Vishnu, Shiva, or
the Goddess. By tradition the major
puranas number eighteen, but there are
hundreds of minor works. Along with
the epics, the puranas are the storehouses of the mythic tales that are the
common religious currency for traditional Hindus. In this respect the
puranas are much more influential than
any of the Vedas, because the tales in
the puranas are common knowledge.
The contents of the Vedas, though more
authoritative, are less well known.
Judgments on the importance of individual puranas vary according to sectarian persuasion, but some of the
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Punya
most important puranas are the Agni
Purana, Shiva Purana, Brahma Purana,
Bhagavata Purana, Vishnu Purana,
Harivamsha, and Markandeya Purana.
For a general translation of stories from
puranic texts, see Cornelia Dimmitt and
J. A. B. van Buitenen, Classical Hindu
Mythology, 1978.