Works by the late Horace Hayman Wilson ..
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i'j{iy<KT<)y. -V. ./. No. ('as,. SClC ' No. Shelf. ^,A7-|,ll^ v.(o No. Book', WORKS THE LATE HORACE II AY MAN WILSON, M.A., F.R.S., MEMBER OP THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETIES OF CALCUTTA AND PARIS, AND OP THE ORIENTAL SOCIETY OF GERMANY; FOREIGN MEMBER OP THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE; MEMBER OF THE IMPERIAL ACADEMIES OF ST. PETERSBURGH AND VIENNA, AND OF THE ROYAL ACADEMIES OF MUNICH AND BERLIN; PH.D. BRESLAU; M. D, MARBURG, ETC.; AND BODEN PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT IN THE UNIVERSITY OP OXFORD, VOL. YI. LONDON: TRUBNER & CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1864. THE VISHNU PURANA: A SYSTEM OF HINDU MYTHOLOGY AND TRADITION. TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL SANSKRIT, AND ILLUSTRATED BY NOTES DERIVED CHIEFLY FROM OTUER PURANAS, BY THE LATE H. H. WILSON, M.A, F.R.S, BODEN rKOFESSOR OF SANSKRIT IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, ETC., ETC. EDITED BY FITZEDWARD HALL, ~ M. A., D.C.L. OXON. VOL. I LONDON: TRUBNER & CO., GO, PATERNOSTER ROW. * 1864, TO THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS, AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY H. H. WILSON, IN TESTIMONY OF fflS VENERATION FOR THE UNIVERSITY, AND IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE DISTINCTION CONFERRED UPON HIM BY HIS ADMISSION AS A MEMBER, AND HIS ELECTION TO THE BODEN PROFESSORSHIP OF THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE. Oxford, Feb. 10, 1840. NOTICE. The Editor defers till the completion of his under- taking any general remarks that he may have to offer. PREFACE. 1 HE literature of the Hindus has now been cultivated, for many years, with singular diligence, and, in many of its branches, with eminent success. There are some departments, however, which are yet but partially and imperfectly investigated; and we are far from being in possession of that knowledge which the authentic writings of the Hindus alone can give us of their re- ligion, mythology, and historical traditions. From the materials to which we have hitherto had access, it seems probable that there have been three principal forms in which the religion of the Hindus has existed, at as many different periods. The duration of those periods, the circumstances of their succession, and the precise state of the national faith at each season, it is not possible to trace with any approach to accu- racy. The premises have been too imperfectly deter- mined to authorize other than conclusions of a general and somewhat vague description; and those remain to be hereafter confirmed, or corrected, by more extensive and satisfactory research. The earliest form under which the Hindu religion appears is that taught in the Vedas. The style of the language, and the purport of the composition, of those II PREFACE. works, as far as we are acquainted with them, indicate a date long anterior to that of any other class of Sans- krit writings. It is yet, however, scarcely safe to ad- vance an opinion of the precise belief, or philosophy, which they inculcate. To enable us to judge of their tendency, we have only a general sketch of their ar- rangement and contents, with a few extracts, by Mr. Colebrooke, in the Asiatic Researches;^ a few incidental observations by Mr. Ellis, in the same miscellany;^ and a translation of the first book of the Samhita, or col- lection of the prayers of the Rig-veda, by Dr. Rosen;' and some of the Upanishads, or speculative treatises, attached to, rather than part of, the Vedas, by Ram- mohun Roy.^""'" Of the religion taught in the Vedas, Mr. Colebrooke's opinion will probably be received as that which is best entitled to deference; as, certainly, no Sanskrit scholar has been equally conversant with the original works. "The real doctrine of the whole Indian scripture is the unity of the deity, in whom the ' Vol. VIIL, p. 369. t 2 Vol. XIV., p. 37. ^ Published by the Oriental Translation Fund Committee. * A translation of the principal Upanishads was published, under the title of Oupnekhat, or Theologia Indica, by Anquetil du Perron; but it was made through the medium of the Persian, and is very incorrect and obscure., A translation of a very dif- ferent character t has been some time in course of preparation by M. Poley. To insert here a list of the numerous publications bearing on the Vedas, that have appeared since the date of this preface, 1840, would be beside the purpose of my notes. f Reprinted in Colebrooke's Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. I., pp. 9-113. * The kindness of Professor Wilson here mistook a hope for a reality. PREFACE. Ill universe is comprehended; and the seeming polytheism which it exhibits offers the elements, and the stars and planets, as gods. The three principal manifesta- tions of the divinity, with other personified attributes and energies, and most of the other gods of Hindu mythology, are, indeed, mentioned, or, at least, indi- cated, in the Vedas. But the worship of deified heroes is no part of that system; nor are the incarnations of deities suggested in any other portion of the text which I have yet seen; though such are sometimes hinted at by the commentators." ^ Some of these statements may, perhaps, require modification; for, without a careful examination of all the prayers of the Vedas, it would be hazardous to assert that they contain no indication whatever of hero-worship; and, certainly, they do ap- pear to allude, occasionally, to the Avataras, or incar- nations, of Vishnu. Still, however, it is true that the prevailing character of the ritual of the Vedas is the worship of the personified elements; of Agni or fire; Indra, the firmament; Vayu, the air; Varuna, the water; of Aditya, the sun; Soma, the moon; and other ele- mentary and planetary personages. It is also true that the worship of the Vedas is, for the most part, domestic worship, consisting of prayers and oblations offered — in their own houses, not in temples — by individuals, for individual good, and addressed to unreal presences, not to visible types. In a word, the religion of the Vedas was not idolatry. ' As. Res., Vol. VIIL, p. 474." * Or Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. I., pp. 110 and 111. a* IV PREFACE. It is not possible to conjecture when this more simple and primitive form of adoration was succeeded by the worship of images and types, representing Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, and other imaginary beings, constituting a mythological pantheon of most ample extent; or when Rama and Krishna, who appear to have been, originally, real and historical characters, were elevated to the dignity of divinities. Image-worship is alluded to by Manu, in several passages,^ but with an intima- tion that those Brahmans who subsist by ministering in temples are an inferior and degraded class. The story of the Ramayana and Mahabhtirata turns wholly upon the doctrine of incarnations; all the chief dramatis personse of the poems being impersonations of gods, and demigods, and celestial spirits. The ritual appears to be that of the Vedas; and it may be doubted if any allusion to image-worship occurs. But the doctrine of propitiation by penance and praise prevails throughout; and Vishnu and Siva are the especial objects of pane- gyric and invocation. In these two works, then, we trace unequivocal indications of a departure from the elemental worship of the Vedas, and the origin or elab- oration of legends which form the great body of the mythological religion of the Hindus. How far they only improved upon the cosmogony and chronology of their predecessors, or in what degree the traditions of families and dynasties may originate with them, are questions that can only be determined when the Vedas and the two works in question shall have been more thoroughly examined. ' B. III., 152, 164. B. IV., 214. PREFACE. V The different works known by the name of Puranas are evidently derived from the same religious system as the Ramayana and Mahabharata, or from the mytho- heroic stage of Hindu belief. They present, however, peculiarities which designate their belonging to a later period, and to an important modification in the pro- gress of opinion. They repeat the theoretical cosmo- gony of the two great poems; they expand and sys- tematize the chronological computations; and they give a more definite and connected representation of the mythological fictions and the historical traditions. But, besides these and other particulars, which may be derivable from an old, if not from a primitive, era, they offer characteristic peculiarities of a more modern description, in the paramount importance which they assign to individual divinities, in the variety and pur- port of the rites and observances addressed to them, and in the invention of new legends illustrative of the power and graciousness of those deities, and of the efficacy of implicit devotion to them. Siva and Vishnu, under one or other form, are almost the sole objects that claim the homage of the Hindus, in the Puranas; departing from the domestic and elemental ritual of the Vedas, and exhibiting a sectarial fervour and ex- clusiveness not traceable in the Ramayana, and only to a qualified extent in the Mahabharata. They are no longer authorities for Hindu belief, as a whole: they are special guides for separate and, sometimes, con- flicting branches of it; compiled for the evident pur- pose of promoting the preferential, or, in some cases, the sole, worship of Vishnu, or of Siva. ^ ' Besides the three periods marked by the Vedas, Heroic VI PREFACE. That the Puranas always bore the character here given of them may admit of reasonable doubt: that it correctly applies to them as they now are met with, the following pages will irrefragably substantiate. It is possible, however, that there may have been an earlier class of Puranas, of which those we now have are but the partial and adulterated representatives. The identity of the legends in many of them, and, still more, the identity of the words — for, in several of them, long passages are literally the same — is a sufficient proof that, in all such cases, they must be copied either from some other similar work, or from a common and prior original. It is not unusual, also, for a fact to be stated upon the authority of an 'old stanza', w^hicli is cited accordingly; show^ing the existence of an earlier source of information: and, in very many instances, legends are alluded to, not told; evincing acquaintance with their prior narration somewhere else. The name itself, Purana, which implies 'old', indicates the object of the compilation to be the preservation of ancient traditions; a purpose, in the present condition of the Puranas, very imperfectly fulfilled. Whatever weight may be attached to these considerations, there is no disputing evidence to the like effect, afforded by other and unquestionable authority. The description given, by Mr. Colebrooke,^ of the contents of a Purana is Poems, and Puranas, a fourth may be dated from the influence exercised by the Tantras upon Hindu practice and belief: but we are yet too little acquainted Avith those works, or their origin, to speculate safely upon their consequences. ' As. Res., Vol. VII., p. 202.* • Or Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. 11., pp. 4 and 5, foot-note. PREFACE. VII taken from Sanskrit writers. The Lexicon of Amara Sin'iha gives, as a synonym of Parana, Pancha-laksliana, 'that which has five characteristic topics'; and there is no difference of opinion, amongst the schoUasts, as to what these are. They are, as Mr. Colebrooke mentions: I. Primary creation, or cosmogony; 11. Secondary cre- ation, or the destruction and renovation of worlds, including chronology; III. Genealogy of gods and patriarchs; IV. Reigns of the Manus, or periods called Manwantaras; and, V. History, or such particulars as have been preserved of the princes of the solar and lunar races, and of their descendants to modern times. ^ Such, at any rate, were the constituent and character- istic portions of a Purana, in the days of Amara Sihiha,* fifty-six years before the Christian era;f and, if the ' The following definition of a Purana is constantly quoted: it is found in the Vishnu, Matsya, Vayu, and other Purarias: A variation of reading in the beginning of the second line is noticed by Ramasrama, the scholiast on Amara, WJfTf^^WT'f^ 'Destruction of the earth and the rest, or final dissolution;' in which case the genealogies of heroes and princes are comprised in those of the patriarchs. t That Amarasiiiiha lived at that time, though possible, has not been proved. Professor Wilson — Sanskrit Dictionary, first edition, Preface, p, V. — asserts that "all tradition concurs in enumerating him amongst the learned men who, in the metaphorical phraseology of the Hindus, are denominated the 'nine gems' of the court of Vikramaditya. * * * Authorities which assert the contemporary existence of Amara and Vi- kramaditya might be indefinitely multiplied; and those are equally nu- merous which class him amongst the 'nine gems'.'' In the second Vni PREFACE. Puranas had undergone no change since his time, such we should expect to find them still. Do they conform edition of his Dictionary, under the ■word •T'^7!?^) the Professor explains the "nine gems" to be: "The nine men of letters at the court of Vikra- maditya, or, Dhanwantari, Kshapanaka, Amarasiiiiha, Sanku, Vetalabhat't'a, Ghat'akarpara , Kalidasa, Varahamihira, and Yararuchi." The tradition about these ornaments he thinks — Meghadiita , second edition, Preface, p. V. — to be one of those regarding -which "there is no reason to dispute the truth." The "authorities" spoken of in the first of the preceding extracts are not specified by Professor Wilson; and they are not known to have fallen yet in the way of any one else. Those authorities apart, he ad- duces a stanza about the "nine gems", of which he says, that it "appears in a great measure traditionary only; as I have not been able to trace it to any authentic source, although it is in the mouth of every Pandit, when interrogated on the subject." The stanza in question occurs in the Jyotirvkldhharana , near its con- clusion, where we find the following verses: ^#^ f^^TT^TT^ ^»n^^^ II ^^T^TT^nRfTTn^^^TTt^fr: i ^^■Rm^T^^^r^c^^T t^t^t: ii T(^Tf^ % ^-^T^^^ f^^^ II * 'A •!{- * -sf « * * ■Sf -A- * * * « * * •if "JI- -if -Sf -sf ^ -Jf # •}{• -Jf "Jf "Jf vf -Sf 'Jf '5f PREFACE. IX to this description? Not exactly, in any one instance; to some of them it is utterly inapplicable; to others it only partially applies. There is not one to which it belongs so entirely as to the Vishnu Purana; and it is one of the circumstances which gives to this work a i?nf7if^^: ^^R^x^ ^TTf^fr: i %-^Tgf ^TT^i^T f^^ ^Tt^T^: II ^%' ^^^m^TlfHT^ f^tf fTT wrfTlf^^ lftcl% II Here we see named, as contemporaries at the court of Vikramaditya, lord of Malava, in the year 3068 of the Kali age, or B. C. 33: Mani, Aiiisudatta, Jishi'iii, Trilochana, and Ilari ; also Satya, Srutasena, Badara- yai'ia, Maiiittha, and Kiimarasiiiiha, astronomers; and the "nine gems" already particularized. The writer of the Jyotirviddbharaiia is represented as professing to be one with the author of the Raghiwaihsa. As to Vikramaditya, 180 re- gions are said to have been subject to his sway. Further, according to some verses of which I have not quoted the original , there were 800 viceroys subordinate to him, of picked warriors he had ten millions, and he possessed 400,000 boats. His victims in battle, among Sakas alone, are multiplied to the whimsical aggregate of 555,555,555. These de- stroyed, he established his era. There is every reason for believing the Jjjotirviddbharaiki to be not only pseudonymous but of recent composition. And now we are pre- pared to form an opinion touching the credibility of the tradition, so far as yet traced, which concerns the "nine gems" of Vikramaditya. In the Benares Magazine for 1852, pp. 274-276, I first printed and translated the verses just cited and abstracted. A detailed English version of them has been given by the learned Dr. Bhau Daji, in the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal As. Soc, January, 1862, pp./26 and 27. X PREFACE. more authentic character than most of its fellows can pretend to. Yet, even in this instance, we have a book upon the institutes of society and obsequial rites inter- posed between the Manwantaras and the genealogies of princes; and a life of Krishna, separating the latter from an account of the end of the world ; besides the insertion of various legends of a manifestly popular and sectarial character. No doubt, many of the Pu- ranas, as they now are, correspond with the view which Colonel Vans Kennedy takes of their purport. "I cannot discover, in them," he remarks, "any other object than that of religious instruction." "The de- scription of the earth and of the planetary system, and the lists of royal races that occur in them," he asserts to be "evidently extraneous, and not essential circum- stances; as they are omitted in some Purahas, and very concisely illustrated, in others; while, on the contrary, in all the Puranas, some or other of the leading prin- ciples, rites, and observances of the Hindu religion are fully dwelt upon, and illustrated, either by suitable legends, or by prescribing the ceremonies to be prac- tised, and the prayers and invocations to be employed, in the worship of different deities."^ Now, however accurate this description may be of the Puranas as they are, it is clear that it does not apply to what they were when they were synonymously designated as Pancha- lakshanas or 'treatises on live topics'; not one of which five is ever specified, by text or comment, to be "re- ligious instruction". In the knowledge of Amara Simha, ' Researches into the Nature and Affinity of Ancient and Hindu Mythology, p. 153, and note. PREFACE. XI the lists of princes were not extraneous and unessential; and their being now so considered by a writer so well acquainted with the contents of the Puranas as Colonel Vans Kennedy, is a decisive proof that, since the days of the lexicographer, they have undergone some mate- rial alteration, and that we have not, at present, the same works, in all respects, that were current, under the denomination of Puranas, in the century prior to Christianity. The inference deduced from the discrepancy be- tween the actual form and the older definition of a Purana, unfavourable to the antiquity of the extant works generally, is converted into certainty, when we come to examine them in detail. For, although they have no dates attached to them, yet circumstances are sometimes mentioned, or alluded to, or references to authorities are made, or legends are narrated, or places are particularized, of which the comparatively recent date is indisputable, and which enforce a corresponding reduction of the antiquity of the work in which they are discovered. At the same time, they may be ac- quitted of subservience to any but sectarial imposture. They were pious frauds for temporary purposes: they never emanated from any impossible combination of the Brahmans to fabricate for the antiquity of the en- tire Hindu system any claims which it cannot fully support. A very great portion of the contents of many, some portion of the contents of all, is genuine and old. The sectarial interpolation, or embellishment, is always sufficiently palpable to be set aside without injury to the more authentic and primitive material; and the Puranas, although they belong especially to that stage XII PREFACE. of the Hindu religion in which faith in some one di- vinity was the prevaihng principle, are, also, a valuable record of the form of Hindu belief which came next in order to that of the Vedas; which grafted hero- worship upon the simpler ritual of the latter; and which had been adopted, and was extensively, perhaps uni- versally, established in India, at the time of the Greek invasion. The Hercules of the Greek writers was, in- dubitably, the Balarama of the Hindus; and their no- tices of Mathura on the Jumna, and of the kingdom of the Suraseni and the Pandaean country, evidence the prior currency of the traditions which constitute the argument of the Mahabharata, and which are con- stantly repeated in the Puranas, relating to the Pah- dava and Yadava races, to Krishna and his contem- porary heroes, and to the dynasties of the solar and lunar kings. The theogony and cosmogony of the Puranas may, probably, be traced to the Vedas. They are not, as far as is yet known, described in detail in those works; but they are frequently alluded to, in a strain more or less mystical and obscure, which indicates acquaintance with their existence, and which seems to have supplied the Puranas with the groundwork of their systems. The scheme of primary or elementary creation they borrow from the Sankhya philosophy, which is, pro- bably, one of the oldest forms of speculation on man and nature, amongst the Hindus. Agreeably, however, to that part of the Pauranik character which there is reason to suspect of later origin, their inculcation of the worship of a favourite deity, they combine the interposition of a creator with the independent evolu- PREFACE. Xra tlon of matter, in a somewhat contradictory and unin- telligible style. It is evident, too, that their accounts of secondary creation, or the development of the exist- ing forms of things, and the disposition of the universe, are derived from several and different sources; and it appears very likely that they are to be accused of some of the incongruities and absurdities by which the nar- rative is disfigured, in consequence of having attempted to assign reality and significancy to what was merely metaphor or mysticism. There is, however, amidst the unnecessary complexity of the description, a general agreement, amongst them, as to the origin of things and their final distribution; and, in many of the circum- stances, there is a striking concurrence with the ideas which seem to have pervaded the whole of the ancient world, and which we may, therefore, believe to be faith- fully represented in the Puranas. The pantheism of the Puranas is one of their in- variable characteristics; although the particular divinity who is all things, from whom all things proceed, and to whom all things return, be diversified according to their individual sectarial bias. They seem to have de- rived the notion from the Vedas; but, in them, the one universal Being is of a higher order than a per- sonification of attributes or elements, and, however imperfectly conceived, or unworthily described, is God. In the Puranas, the one only Supreme Being is sup- posed to be manifest in the person of Siva, or Vishnu, either in the way of illusion, or hi sport; and one or other of these divinities is, therefore, also the cause of all that is, — is, himself, all that exists. The identity of God and nature is not a new notion: it was very general XIV PREFACE. in the speculations of antiquity; but it assumed a new vigour in the early ages of Christianity, and was carried to an equal pitch of extravagance by the Platonic Christians as by the Saiva or Vaishhava Hindus. It seems not impossible that there was some communi- cation between them. We know that there was an active communication between India and the Red Sea, in the early ages of the Christian era, and that doc- trines, as well as articles of merchandise, were brought to Alexandria from the former. Epiphanius^ and Eu- sebius^ accuse Scythianus of having imported from India, in the second century, books on magic, and he- retical notions leading to Manichajism; and it was at the same period that Ammonius Saccas instituted the sect of the new Platonists at Alexandria. The basis of his heresy was, that true philosophy derived its origin from the eastern nations. His doctrine of the identity of God and the universe is that of the Vedas and Pu- ranas; and the practices he enjoined, as well as their object, were precisely those described in several of the Purahas, under the name of Yoga. His disciples M-^ere taught to extenuate, by mortification and contempla- tion, the bodily restraints upon the immortal spirit; so that, in this life, they might enjoy communion with the Supreme Being, and ascend, after death, to the universal Parent.^ That these are Hindu tenets, the following pages ^ will testify; and, by the admission of their Alexandrian teacher, they originated in India. The importation was, perhaps, not wholly unrequited: ' Adv. Manichseos. " Hist. Evang. ' See Mosheini, I., II., i. * See Book VI., Chap. VII. PREFACE. XV the loan may not have been left unpaid. It is not im- possible that the Hindu doctrines received fresh ani- mation from their adoption by the successors of Am- monius, and, especially, by the mystics, who may have prompted, as well as employed, the expressions of the Puranas. Anquetil du Perron has given, ^ in the intro- duction to his translation of the 'Oupnekhat', several hymns by Synesius, a bishop of the beginning of the fifth century, which may serve as parallels to many of the hymns and prayers addressed to Vishnu in the Vishnu Puraha. But the ascription, to individual and personal deities, of the attributes of the one universal and spiritual Su- preme Being, is an indication of a later date than the Vedas, certainly, and, apparently, also, than the Rama- yana, where Rama, although an incarnation of Vishnu, commonly appears in his human character alone. There is something of the kind in the Mahabharata, in respect to Krishna; especially in the philosophical episode known as the Bhagavad Gita. In other places, the di- vine nature of Krishna is less decidedly affirmed; in some, it is disputed, or denied; and, in most of the situations in which he is exhibited in action, it is as a prince and warrior, not as a divinity. He exercises no superhuman faculties in the defence of himself or his friends, or in the defeat and destruction of his foes. The Mahabharata, however, is, evidently, a work of various periods, and requires to be read throughout, carefully and critically, before its weight as an author- ity can be accurately appreciated. As it is now in Theologia et Philosopbia Indica, Dissert., p. xxvi. XVI PREFACE. type/ — thanks to the pubhc spu'it of the Asiatic So- ciety of Bengal, and their secretary, Mr. J. Prinsep, — it will not be long before the Sanskrit scholars of the continent \Yill accurately appreciate its value. The Puranas are, also, works of evidently different ages, and have been compiled under different circum- stances, the precise nature of which we can but im- perfectly conjecture from internal evidence and from what we know of the history of religious opinion in India. It is highly probable that, of the present popular forms of the Hindu religion, none assumed their actual state earlier than the time of Sankara Acharya, the great Saiva reformer, who flourished, in all likelihood, in the eighth or ninth century. Of the Vaishnava teachers, Ramanuja dates in the twelfth century; Ma- dhwacharya, in the thirteenth; and Vallabha, in the sixteenth;^ and the Puranas seem to have accompanied, 01" followed, their innovations; being obviously intended to advocate the doctrines they taught. This is to as- sign to some of them a very modern date, it is true; but I cannot think that a higher can, with justice, be ascribed to them. This, however, applies to some only out of the number, as I shall presently proceed to specify. Another evidence of a comparatively modern date ' Three volumes have been printed: the fourth and last is understood to be nearly completed.* * As. Res., Vols. XVI. and XVII. Account of Hindu Sects, f * It was completed in 1839: at least, it bears that date, t This "Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus", by Professor Wilson, will be found in the fn-st volume of his collected works. PREFACE. XVII most be admitted in those chapters of the Puranas which, assuming a prophetic tone, foretell ^Yhat dy- nasties of kings will reign in the Kali age. These chapters, it is true, are found but in four of the Pura- nas; but they are conclusive in bringing down the date of those four to a period considerably subsequent to Christianity. It is, also, to be remarked that the Vayu, Vishnu, Bhagavata, and Matsya Puranas, in which these particulars are foretold, have, in all other re- spects, the character of as great antiquity as any works of their class. ^ The invariable form of the Puranas is that of a dia- logue, in which some person relates its contents, in reply to the inquiries of another. This dialogue is interwoven with others, which are repeated as having been held, on other occasions, between different indi- viduals, in consequence of similar questions having been asked. The immediate narrator is, commonly, though not constantly, Lomaharshana or Romahar- shana, the disciple of Vyasa, who is supposed to com- municate what was imparted to him by his preceptor, as he had heard it from some other sage. Vyasa, as will be seen in the body of the work,^ is a generic title, meaning an 'arranger or 'compiler'. It is, in this age, applied to Krishna Dwaipayana, the son of Parasara, * On the history of the composition of the- Punu'ias, as they now appear, I liave hazarded some speculations in my Analysis of the Vayu Parana : Journ. Asiatic Society of Bengal, December, 1832. * 2 Book III., Chapter III. See Vol. III. of our author's collected writings. I. b XVIII PREFACE. who is said to have taught the Veclas and Puranas to various disciples, but who appears to have been the head of a college, or school, under whom various learned men gave to the sacred literature of the Hindus the form in which it now presents itself. In this task, the disciples, as they are termed, of Vyasa were, rather, his colleagues and coadjutors; for they were already conversant with what he is fabled to have taught them ;^ and, amongst them, Lomaharshana represents the class of persons who were especially charged with the re- cord of political and temporal events. He is called Siita, as if it was a proper name: but it is, more cor- rectly, a title; and Lomaharshana was 'a Siita', that is, a bard, or panegyrist, who was created, according to our text,^ to celebrate the exploits of princes, and who, according to the Vayu and Padma Puranas, has a right, by birth and profession, to narrate the Puranas, in pre- ference even to the Brahmans.^ It is not unlikely, therefore, that w^e are to understand, by his being re- presented as the disciple of Vyiisa, the institution of some attempt, made under the direction of the latter, to collect, from the heralds and annalists of his day, the scattered traditions which they had imperfectly preserved: and hence the consequent appropriation of the Puranas, in a great measure, to the genealogies of regal dynasties and descriptions of the universe. How- ever this may be, the machinery has been but loosely ' See Book III., Chapter III. ^ -g^^i^ i Chapter XIII. =* Journ. Royal As. Soc, Vol. V., p. 281.* * The article referred to is from the pen of Professor Wilson, and has been reprinted. PREFACE. xrx; adhered to; and many of the Puraiias, Uke the Vishnu, are referred to a different narrator. An account is given, in the following work,^ of a series of Pauranik compilations of which, in their present form, no vestige appears. Lomaharshaha is said to have had six disciples, three of whom composed as many fundamental San'ihitas, whilst he himself com- piled a fourth. By a Sainhita is generally understood a 'collection' or 'compilation'. The Saihhitas of the Vedas are collections of hymns and prayers belonging to them, arranged according to the judgment of some individual sage, who is, therefore, looked upon as the originator and teacher of each. The Saihhitas of the Purahas, then, should be analogous compilations, at- tributed, respectively, to Mitrayu, Samsapayana, Akri- tabraha, and Romaharshaha: no such Pauranik Sam- hitas are now known. The substance of the four is said to be collected in the Vishnu Puraha, which is, also, in another place, ^ itself called aSamhita. But such compilations have not, as far as inquiry has yet pro- ceeded, been discovered. The specification may be ac- cepted as an indication of the Purahas' having existed in some other form, in which they are no longer met with; although it does not appear that the arrangement was incompatible with their existence as separate works; for the Vishnu Puraha, which is our authority for the four Samhitas, gives us, also, the usual enu- meration of the several Purahas. There is another classification of the Purahas, alluded to in the Matsya Puraha, and specified by the Padma ' Book III., Chapter III. - Book I., Chapter I. XX PREFACE. Puraha, but more fully. It is not undeserving of no- tice, as it expresses the opinion which native writers entertain of the scope of the Puranas, and of their re- cognizing the subservience of these works to the dis- semination of sectarian principles. Thus, it is said, in the Uttara Khanda of the Padma,* that the Puranas, as well as other works, are divided into three classes, according to the qualities which prevail in them. Thus, the Vishnu, Naradiya, Bhagavata, Garuda, Padma, and Varaha Puranas are Sattwika or pure, from the pre- dominance, in them, of the Sattwa quality, or that of goodness and purity. They are, in fact^ Vaishnava Pu- ranas. The Matsya, Kiirma, Linga, Siva, Skanda, and Agni Purjii'ias are Tamasa, or Puranas of darkness, from the prevalence of the quality of Tamas, 'igno- rance', 'gloom'. They are, indisputably, Saiva Puranas. The third series, comprising the Brahmanda, Brahma Vai varta, Markandeya, Bhavishya, Vamana, and Brahma Puranas, are designated as Rajasa, 'passionate', from Rajas, the property of passion, which they are sup- posed to represent. The Matsya does not specify which ai-e the Puranas that come under these designa- tions, but remarks f that those in which the Mahatmya * Chapter XLII.: JT^ ^ TEflfTTf^ ff-R^Tf^ t^^VfT II tw^ ^TT^^ ^ ^W{ m^^fj ^^^ I 'n^^ ^ rr^ VJ^ ^TTTf '^H^^^ II WWT^ W1T%^^ ^T^T§^ fT%^ '^f II t Chapter LII.: PREFACE. XXI of Hari or Vishnu prevails are Sattwika; those in which the legends of Agni or Siva predominate are Tamasa; and those which dwell most on the stories of Brahma are Rajasa. I have elsewhere stated^ that I considered the Rajasa Puranas to lean to the Sakta division of the Hindus, the worshippers of Sakti or the female prin- ciple; founding this opinion on the character of the legends which some of them contain, such as the Durga Mahatmya, or celebrated legend on which the worship of Durga or Kali is especially founded, which is a principal episode of the Miirkahdeya. The Brahma Vaivarta also devotes the greatest portion of its chap- ters to the celebration of Radha, the mistress of Krishna, and other female divinities. Colonel Vans Kennedy, how^ever, objects to the application of the term Sakta to this last division of the Puranas; the worship of Sakti being the especial object of a different class of works, the Tantras; and no such form of worship being particularly inculcated in the Brahma Purana.^ This last argument is of weight in regard to the particular instance specified; and the designation of Sakti may not be correctly applicable to the whole class, although it is to some of the series: for there is no incompati- bility in the advocacy of a Tantrika modification of ' As. Res., Vol. XVI., p. 10. * ^ Asiatic Journal, March, 1837, p. 241. fTi[^^ ^TfTfj^i fn^%g tir^^ "^ I ^Wg ^T^^t: fv^W\ ^ f^^% II Vol, I., p. 12, foot-note, of the author's collective publications. XXII rREFACE. the Hindu religion by any Parana; and it has, unques- tionably, been practised in works known asUpapuranas. The proper appropriation of the third class of the Pu- rafias, according to the Padma Purana, appears to be to the worship of Krishna, not in the character in which he is represented in the Vishnu and Bhagavata Pura- nas, — in which the incidents of his boyhood are only a portion of his biography, and in which the human character largely participates, at least in his riper years, — but as the infant Krishna, Govinda, Bala Gopala, the sojourner in Vfindavana, the companion of the cow- herds and milkmaids, the lover of Radha, or as the juvenile master of the universe, Jagannatha. The term Rajasa, implying the animation of passion and enjoy- ment of sensual delights, is applicable not only to the character of the youthful divinity, but to those with whom his adoration in these forms seems to have originated, the Gosains of Gokul and Bengal, the fol- lowers and descendants of Vallabha and Chaitanya, the priests and proprietors of Jagannath and Srinathdwar, who lead a life of affluence and indulgence, and vin- dicate, both by precept and practice, the reasonable- ness of the Rajasa property, and the congruity of tem- poral enjoyment with the duties of religion/ The Puranas are uniformly stated to be eighteen in number. It is said that there are also eighteen Upa- puranas or minor Puranas: but the names of only a few of these are specified in the least exceptionable ' As. Res., Vol. XVI., p. 85. * Collective Works of Professor Wilson, Vol. I., p. 119. PREFACE. XXIII authorities; and the greater number of the works is not procurable. With regard to the eighteen Puranas, there is a pecuUarity in their specification, which is proof of an interference with the integrity of the text, in some of them, at least; for each of them specifies the names of the whole eighteen. Now, the list could not have been complete whilst the work that gives it was unfinished; and in one only, therefore, the last of the series, have we a right to look for it. As, however, there are more last words than one, it is evident that the names must have been inserted in all except one, after the whole were completed. Which of the eighteen is the exception, and truly the last, there is no clue to discover; and the specification is, probably, an inter- polation, in most, if not in all. The names that are specified are commonly the same, and are as follows: 1. Brahma, 2. Padma, 3. Vai- shnava, 4. Saiva, 5. Bhagavata, 6. Naradiya, 7. Mar- kandeya, 8. Agneya, 9. Bhavishya, 10. Brahma Vai- varta, 11. Lainga, 12. Varaha, 13. Skanda, 14. Vamana, 15. Kaurma, 16. Matsya, 17. Gtiruda, 18. Brahmanda.^ This is from the twelfth book of the Bhagavata, and is the same as occurs in the Vishnu.^ In other authori- ^ The names are put attributively; the noun substantive, Pu- nii'ia, being understood. Thus, Yaishnavani Puraiiam means the Puraria of Vishnu; Saivam Puraiiam, the Puraiia of Siva; Brah- marh Purariara, the Parana of Brahma. It is equally correct, and more common, to use the two substantives in apposition, as Vishnu Puraria, Siva Puraria, &c. In the original Sanskrit the nouns are compounded, as Vishriu-puraria, &c. : but it has not been customary to combine them, in their European shape. 2 Book III,, Chapter VI. XXIV PREFACE. ties there are a few variations. The hst of the Kurma Purana omits the Agni Purana, and substitutes the Vayu.* The Agni leaves out the Siva, and inserts the Vayu. The Varaha omits the Garuda and Brahmahda, and inserts the Vayu and Narasiniha: in this last, it is singular. The Markahdeya agrees with the Vishnu and Bhagavata, in omitting the Vayu. The Matsya, like the Agni, leaves out the Siva. Some of the Purahas, as the Agni, Matsya,f Bhaga- vata, t and Padma, also particularize the number of stanzas which each of the eighteen contains. In one or two instances they disagree; but, in general, they concur. The aggregate is stated at 400,000 slokas, or 1,600,000 lines. These are fabled to be but an abridg- ment; the whole amount being a krore or ten millions * Professor Wilson's MS. has ^TT^^^nT^T %^; but four MSS. that I have consulted have ^TTofi'H^'^^^T'IT'^- And the latter reading is to be preferred. The Kurma professes, at the end of its list of the Pa- rai'ias, to have enumerated eighteen; and, unless it names both the Vdiju and the Agni, it enumerates but seventeen. f The particulars from the MaUya will be found in the sequel. + The computation of the B/ukjai'ata , XII., 13, 4-8, is as follows: Brahma, 10,000 stanzas; Padma, 55,000; VMi'ni, 23,000; Siva, 24,000; Bhagavata, 18,000; Ndrada, 25,000; Murkamlaja, 9,000; Agni, 15,400; Bhavishya, 14,500; Brahma-vaivarta, 18,000; Linga, 11,000; Varaha, 24,000; Skanda, 81,100; Vdmana, 10,000; Kiirma, 17,000; Matsya, 14,000; Garucla, 19,000; BrahmdMa, 12,000. The total is 400,000. The Blidgavata here calls the Ayni and the Gariida by the names of Vdhna and Sauparnn. The Devi-hhdgavata substitutes, in place of the Siva, the Vdyu, and assigns to it 10,600 stanzas. Further, it gives to the Agni, 16,000; to the Skanda, 81,000; and to the Brahmdnda, 12,100. The Revd-mdhdtmya also has, instead of Sivn, Vdyu, but reckons it at 24,000 couplets; and it likewise allows 16,000 to the Agni. To the Skanda it gives 84,000; and to the Brahmdnda, 12,200. For further details, see Burnoufs edition of the Bhagavata- purana. Vol. I., Preface, pp. lxxxvi-lxxxix, foot-note. PREFACE. XXV of stanzas, or even a thousand millions." If all the fragmentary portions claiming, in various parts of In- dia, to belong to the Puranas were admitted, their ex- tent would much exceed the lesser, though it would not reach the larger, enumeration. The former is, how- ever, as I have elsewhere stated,^ a quantity that an individual European scholar could scarcely expect to peruse with due care and attention, unless his whole time were devoted exclusively, for many years, to the task. Yet, without some such labour being achieved, it was clear, from the crudity and inexactness of all that had been hitherto published on the subject, with one exception," that sound views on the subject of Hindu mythology and tradition were not to be ex- pected. Circumstances, which I have already explained in the paper in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic So- ciety, referred to above, enabled me to avail myself of ' Journ. Royal As. Soc, Vol. V., p. 61. f - I allude to the valuable work of Colonel Vans Kennedy, Researches into the Nature and Affinity of Ancient and Hindu Mythology. However much I may dift'er from that learned and industrious writer's conclusions, I must do him the justice to ad- mit that he is the only author who has discussed the subject of the mythology of the Hindus on right principles, by drawing his materials from authentic sources. * So says the ^latsyn-purdi'ia, LIT., nd inif.: ^^nTt ^ ^^^ ^T^^ f^f^cTT: II t See Professor Wilson's collective works, Vol. Ill, XXVI PREFACE. competent assistance, by which I made a minute ab- stract of most of the Puranas. In course of time I hope to place a tolerably copious and connected ana- lysis of the whole eighteen before Oriental scholars, and, in the meanwhile, offer a brief notice of their several contents. In general, the enumeration of the Puranas is a simple nomenclature, wath the addition, in some cases, of the number of verses; but to these the Matsya Pu- rana* joins the mention of one or two circumstances peculiar to each, which, although scanty, are of value, as offering means of identifying the copies of the Pu- ranas now found with those to which the Matsya re- fers, or of discovering a difference between the present and the past. I shall, therefore, prefix the passage de- scriptive of each Purana, from the Matsya. It is neces- sary to remark, however, that, in the comparison in- stituted between that description and the Purana as it exists, I necessarily refer to the copy or copies which I employed for the purpose of examination and ana- lysis, and which were procured, with some trouble and cost, in Benares and Calcutta. In some instances my manuscripts have been collated with others from dif- ferent parts of India; and the result has shown that, with regard at least to the Brahma, Vishnu, Vayu, Matsya, Padma, Bhagavata, and Kurma Puranas, the same works, in all essential respects, are generally cur- rent under the same appellations. Whether this is in- variably the case, may be doubted; and further inquiry may possibly show that I have been obliged to con- * Chapter LII. PEEFACE. XXVn tent myself with mutilated or unautlientic works. ^ It is with this reservation, therefore, that I must be un- derstood to speak of the concurrence or disagreement of any Purana with the notice of it which the Matsya Purana has preserved. 1 . Brahma Purana. ''That, the whole of which was formerly repeated by Brahma to Marichi, is called the Brahma Purana, and contains ten thousand stanzas."' In all the lists of the Puranas, the Brahma is placed at the head of the series, and is, thence, sometimes also entitled the Adi or 'first' Purana. It is also de- signated as theSaura; as it is, in great part, appropriated to the worship of Surya, 'the sun'. There are, how- ever, works bearing these names which belong to the class of Upapuninas, and which are not to be con- founded with the Brahma. It is usually said, as above, to contain ten thousand slokas; but the number actu- ally occurring is between seven and eight thousand. There is a supplementary or concluding section, called the Brahmottara Purana, and which is different from a portion of the Skanda called the Brahmottara Klianda, which contains about three thousand stanzas more. But ' Upon examining the translations of different passages from the Puranas, given by Colonel Vans Kennedy in the work men- tioned in a former note, and comparing them with the text of the manuscripts I have consulted, I find such an agreement as to warrant the belief, that there is no essential difference between the copies in his possession and in mine. The varieties which occur in the MSS. of the East India Company's Library will be noticed in the text. XXVIII PREFACE. there is every reason to conclude that this is a distinct and unconnected work. 