Thread: What are Purans? Who wrote them and why were they written? Article by @kaundabhatta

Vedas are mantratmaka brahmavidya which are restricted to only Dvijas (Brahmin, Ksatriya and Vaishya Males) as per Shastras. Thus, in order to give the vaidika knowledge to women, shudras, and all humans in general, Vyasa revealed Puranas.

If Dvijas have Vedas, why should they need Puranas? Are Puranas only meant for Non-dvijas?
No. Puranas are the essence, the Heart of Vedas. It is not possible to correctly interpret Vedas without proper study of Puranas. The major purpose of making Puranas is 'Upabrihmhana'

(elaboration and interpretation) of Vedas and revealing the essence of Vedas. Vedas have 2 parts, the prior part (karma-kanda) has described Bhagavan in Yajna form, hence has all descriptive Yajnas. The latter part (jnana-kanda or Upanishads) describes bhagavan in Jnana-form,

where all knowledge of aatma brahm satchidanand is detailed.
There is another Kanda, which is called Upasana-kanda, but this is spread all across the Vedas. This describes the glories and greatness of Bhagavan.

What are the Puranas dealing with? The Puranas describe Bhagavan in form of Leela. All the various Leela (divine sport) or Bhagavan is detailed here. Through his Leelas, Jnana, Karma and Bhakti (upasana) parts of Vedas are elaborated and their essence is revealed.

For eg, Vedas say "perform agnihotra for life" but Puranas clarify that in Kali when the Varnashrama system will collapse, Agnihotra will also subside, hence an alternative is the Aupasana.

This was eg in elaboration and clarification of Karma part, like this even Jnana and Bhakti are elaborated.The puran samhita is further divided into 18 Mahapuran, 18 Upa Puranas and a server Aupa Purans. The vyas of this Yuga is none other than Krishna Dvaipayana who is the

Saakshat Avatar of Sriman Narayana.

What do Purans Contain?

As per the Matsya Puran, all purans deal in these 5 things

1. Sarga: cosmogony or the creation of the world

2. Pratisarga: cosmogony and cosmology.

3. Vamsha: genealogy of the gods, sages and kings.

4. Manvantara: cosmic cycles, history of the world during the time of one patriarch. 5. Vamshanucharitam: Account of royal dynasties dynasty, including the Suryavamshi and Chandravamshi kings.

Purans are contradictory in nature, how to deal with contradictions?

Ans-Purans are not contradictory. Hinduism believes in time to be circular and not linear. We have various kalpas where different Leelas are performed, if 1Purana differs with another, 1 should imagine difference of Kalpa. (Kalpa means 1 day of Brahma and a 1000 Yugas of humans).

Various Purans contain events of previous kalpas, mahayugas and manvantars which happen with a bit of change, That is why different Purans have different versions of the same event.

Why in some Purans Vishnu is greater and in some Purans Shiva is greater?