THE SACRED LIBRARY
About Puranas
Purana names a literary and religious family rather than a single book with one uniform narrative. Lists of eighteen major Puranas are prominent within the tradition, but the shared classification does not erase the differences among their individual accounts.
The Bhagavata describes characteristic topics including creation, subsequent manifestation, sustenance, Manus, royal dynasties, their deeds, dissolution and the supreme shelter. It also acknowledges descriptions using five characteristics. Such schemes express the family’s range rather than requiring every surviving work to devote equal space to every topic.
More About Puranas
Cosmology, genealogies, sacred narratives and pilgrimage traditions.
AT A GLANCE
Identity & Context
- Identity
- Text
- Tradition
- Hindu religious traditions
INSIDE THE TEXT
