who is said to have taught the Vedas and Puráňas 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 Vyása were, rather, his colleagues and coadjutors; for they were already conversant with what he is fabled to have taught them;1 and, amongst them, Lomaharshańa represents the class of persons who were especially charged with the record of political and temporal events. He is called Súta, as if it was a proper name: but it is, more correctly, a title; and Lomaharshana was 'a Súta', that is, a bard, or panegyrist, who was created, according to our text, to celebrate the exploits of princes, and who, according to the Váyu and Padma Puráñas, has a right, by birth and profession, to narrate the Puráñas, in preference even to the Brahmans. It is not unlikely, therefore, that we are to understand, by his being represented as the disciple of Vyása, 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 Puránas, 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

1 See Book III., Chapter III. 2 Book I., Chapter XIII. 3 Journ. Royal As. Soc., Vol. V., p. 281.*

*The article referred to is from the pen of Professor Wilson, and has been reprinted.

adhered to; and many of the Puráňas, like the Vishnu, are referred to a different narrator.

An account is given, in the following work,' of a series of Pauráńik 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 Samhitás, whilst he himself compiled a fourth. By a Samhitá is generally understood a 'collection' or 'compilation'. The Samhitás 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 Samhitás of the Puráñas, then, should be analogous compilations, attributed, respectively, to Mitrayu, Sámsapáyana, Akritabraña, and Romaharshana: no such Pauráńik Samhitás are now known. The substance of the four is said to be collected in the Vishnu Purána, which is, also, in another place,' itself called a Samhitá. But such compilations have not, as far as inquiry has yet proceeded, been discovered. The specification may be accepted as an indication of the Puránas' 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 Puráňa, which is our authority for the four Samhitás, gives us, also, the usual enumeration of the several Puráñas.

There is another classification of the Puráñas, alluded to in the Matsya Purána, and specified by the Padma

1 Book III., Chapter III.

2 Book I., Chapter I.

b*

Purána, but more fully. It is not undeserving of notice, as it expresses the opinion which native writers entertain of the scope of the Puráñas, and of their recognizing the subservience of these works to the dissemination of sectarian principles. Thus, it is said, in the Uttara Khanda of the Padma,* that the Puráńas, as well as other works, are divided into three classes, according to the qualities which prevail in them. Thus, the Vishnu, Náradíya, Bhagavata, Garuda, Padma, and Varáha Puránas are Sáttwika or pure, from the predominance, in them, of the Sattwa quality, or that of goodness and purity. They are, in fact, Vaishnava Puráñas. The Matsya, Kúrma, Linga, Śiva, Skanda, and Agni Puráňas are Támasa, or Puráñas of darkness, from the prevalence of the quality of Tamas, 'ignorance', 'gloom'. They are, indisputably, Śaiva Puráñas. The third series, comprising the Brahmáńda, Brahma Vaivarta, Márkandeya, Bhavishya, Vámana, and Brahma Puráñas, are designated as Rájasa, 'passionate', from Rajas, the property of passion, which they are supposed to represent. The Matsya does not specify which are the Puráñas that come under these designations, but remarks† that those in which the Máhátmya

* Chapter XLII.:

मात्स्यं कौर्म तथा लैङ्गं शैवं स्कान्दं तथैव च ।
आग्नेयं च षडेतानि तामसानि निबोधत ॥
वैष्णवं नारदीयं च तथा भागवतं शुभम् ।
गारुडं च तथा पाद्मं वाराहं शुभदर्शने ॥
सात्त्विकानि पुराणानि विज्ञेयानि शुभानि वै ।
ब्रह्माण्डं ब्रह्मवैवर्त मार्कण्डेयं तथैव च ॥
भविष्यं वामनं ब्राह्मं राजसानि निबोधत ।

† Chapter LII.:

of Hari or Vishnu prevails are Sáttwika; those in which the legends of Agni or Siva predominate are Támasa; and those which dwell most on the stories of Brahmá are Rájasa. I have elsewhere stated1 that I considered the Rájasa Puráñas to lean to the Sákta division of the Hindus, the worshippers of Śakti or the female principle; founding this opinion on the character of the legends which some of them contain, such as the Durgá Máhátmya, or celebrated legend on which the worship of Durga or Kálí is especially founded, which is a principal episode of the Márkańdeya. The Brahma Vaivarta also devotes the greatest portion of its chapters to the celebration of Rádhá, the mistress of Krishna, and other female divinities. Colonel Vans Kennedy, however, objects to the application of the term Sákta to this last division of the Puráñas; 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 Purána.2 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 incompatibility in the advocacy of a Tántrika modification of

*

1 As. Res., Vol. XVI., p. 10. *

2 Asiatic Journal, March, 1837, p. 241.

सात्त्विकेषु पुराणेषु माहात्म्यमधिकं हरेः ।
राजसेषु च माहात्म्यमधिकं ब्रह्मणो विदुः ॥
तद्वदमेश्च माहात्म्यं तामसेषु शिवस्य च ।
संपूर्णेषु सरस्वत्याः पितॄणां च निगद्यते ॥

Vol. I., p. 12, foot-note, of the author's collective publications.

the Hindu religion by any Purána; and it has, unquestionably, been practised in works known as Upapuráñas. The proper appropriation of the third class of the Puráñas, according to the Padma Puráňa, appears to be to the worship of Krishna, not in the character in which he is represented in the Vishnu and Bhagavata Puránas,-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, Bála Gopála, the sojourner in Vrindavana, the companion of the cowherds and milkmaids, the lover of Rádhá, or as the juvenile master of the universe, Jagannatha. The term Rájasa, implying the animation of passion and enjoyment 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 followers and descendants of Vallabha and Chaitanya, the priests and proprietors of Jagannath and Śrínáthdwár, who lead a life of affluence and indulgence, and vindicate, both by precept and practice, the reasonableness of the Rájasa property, and the congruity of temporal enjoyment with the duties of religion.1

The Puráñas are uniformly stated to be eighteen in number. It is said that there are also eighteen Upapuránas or minor Puráñas: but the names of only a few of these are specified in the least exceptionable

1As. Res., Vol. XVI., p. 85. *

* Collective Works of Professor Wilson, Vol. I., p. 119.