Preface. Form Of The Pur'anas
*
"The Vishnu Purana", translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840],
Form of the Purnas
The invariable form of the Purnas is that of a dialogue, 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 individuals, in consequence of similar questions having been asked. The immediate narrator is commonly, though not constantly, Lomaharshana or Romaharshana, the disciple of Vysa, who is supposed to communicate what was imparted to him by his preceptor, as he had heard it from some other sage. Vysa, as will be seen in the body of the work 19, is a generic title, meaning an 'arranger' or 'compiler.' It is in this age applied to Krishna Dwaipyana,
p. xi
the son of Parara, who is said to have taught the Vedas and Purnas 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 Vysa were rather his colleagues and coadjutors, for they were already conversant with what he is fabled to have taught them 20; and amongst them, Lomaharshana represents the class of persons who were especially charged with the record of political and temporal events. He is called Sta, as if it was a proper name; but it is more correctly a title; and Lomaharshana was 'a Sta,' that is, a bard or panegyrist, who was created, according to our text 21, to celebrate the exploits of princes; and who, according to the Vyu and Padma Purnas, has a right by birth and profession to narrate the Purnas, in preference even to the Brahmans 22. It is not unlikely therefore that we are to understand, by his being represented as the disciple of Vysa, 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 Purnas, in a great measure, to the genealogies of regal dynasties, and descriptions of the universe. However this may be, the machinery has been but loosely adhered to, and many of the Patinas, like the Vishnu, are referred to a different narrator.
An account is given in the following work 23 of a series of Paurnik compilations, of which in their present form no vestige appears. Lomaharshana is said to have had six disciples, three of whom composed as many fundamental Sanhits, whilst he himself compiled a fourth. By a Sanhit is generally understood a 'collection' or 'compilation.' The Sanhits 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 Sanhits of the Purnas, then, should be analogous compilations, attributed respectively to Mitrayu, napyana, Akritavrana, and Romaharshana: no such Paurnik Sanhits are now known, The
p. xii
substance of the four is said to be collected in the Vishnu Purna, which is also, in another place 24, itself called a Sanhit: but such compilations have not, as far as inquiry has yet proceeded, been discovered. The specification may be accepted as an indication of the Purnas 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 Purna, which is our authority for the four Sanhits, gives us also the usual enumeration of the several Purnas.
Footnotes
x:19 p. 272.
xi:20 See P. 276.
xi:21 P. 102.
xi:22 Journ, Royal As. Soc. vol. V. p. 281.
xi:23 P. 283.
xii:24 P. 5.
"The Vishnu Purana", translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840],
Form of the Purnas
The invariable form of the Purnas is that of a dialogue, 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 individuals, in consequence of similar questions having been asked. The immediate narrator is commonly, though not constantly, Lomaharshana or Romaharshana, the disciple of Vysa, who is supposed to communicate what was imparted to him by his preceptor, as he had heard it from some other sage. Vysa, as will be seen in the body of the work 19, is a generic title, meaning an 'arranger' or 'compiler.' It is in this age applied to Krishna Dwaipyana,
p. xi
the son of Parara, who is said to have taught the Vedas and Purnas 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 Vysa were rather his colleagues and coadjutors, for they were already conversant with what he is fabled to have taught them 20; and amongst them, Lomaharshana represents the class of persons who were especially charged with the record of political and temporal events. He is called Sta, as if it was a proper name; but it is more correctly a title; and Lomaharshana was 'a Sta,' that is, a bard or panegyrist, who was created, according to our text 21, to celebrate the exploits of princes; and who, according to the Vyu and Padma Purnas, has a right by birth and profession to narrate the Purnas, in preference even to the Brahmans 22. It is not unlikely therefore that we are to understand, by his being represented as the disciple of Vysa, 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 Purnas, in a great measure, to the genealogies of regal dynasties, and descriptions of the universe. However this may be, the machinery has been but loosely adhered to, and many of the Patinas, like the Vishnu, are referred to a different narrator.
An account is given in the following work 23 of a series of Paurnik compilations, of which in their present form no vestige appears. Lomaharshana is said to have had six disciples, three of whom composed as many fundamental Sanhits, whilst he himself compiled a fourth. By a Sanhit is generally understood a 'collection' or 'compilation.' The Sanhits 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 Sanhits of the Purnas, then, should be analogous compilations, attributed respectively to Mitrayu, napyana, Akritavrana, and Romaharshana: no such Paurnik Sanhits are now known, The
p. xii
substance of the four is said to be collected in the Vishnu Purna, which is also, in another place 24, itself called a Sanhit: but such compilations have not, as far as inquiry has yet proceeded, been discovered. The specification may be accepted as an indication of the Purnas 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 Purna, which is our authority for the four Sanhits, gives us also the usual enumeration of the several Purnas.
Footnotes
x:19 p. 272.
xi:20 See P. 276.
xi:21 P. 102.
xi:22 Journ, Royal As. Soc. vol. V. p. 281.
xi:23 P. 283.
xii:24 P. 5.
