The Puranas (Sanskrit: पुराण purāṇa, "of ancient times") are a group of important Hindu (or Jain and Buddhist) religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the Universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of the kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography. Puranas usually give prominence to a particular deity and most use an abundance of religious and philosophica...
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The Puranas (Sanskrit: पुराण purāṇa, "of ancient times") are a group of important Hindu (or Jain and Buddhist) religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the Universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of the kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography. Puranas usually give prominence to a particular deity and most use an abundance of religious and philosophical concepts. They are usually written in the form of stories related by one person to another.
Vyasa, the narrator of the Mahabharata, is traditionally considered the compiler of the Puranas. However, the earliest written versions date from the time of the Gupta Empire (third-fifth century CE) and much material may be dated, through historical references and other means, to this period and the succeeding centuries. The texts were probably written all over India. Common ideas are found throughout the corpus but it is not possible to trace the...
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