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Puranas

From Wikiquote
The Goddess Durga leading the Eight Matrikas in battle against the demon Raktabija, from Devi Mahatmya, in Markandeya Purana.
In the Puranas it was predicted that toward the end of Kali Yuga humanity would be driven to acts of madness... But how do you explain to people that their leaders and their teachers are insane? ...such mental confusion fully corresponds with the end of Kali Yuga... The Thinker warned, “Do not fall into madness.” ~Agni Yoga
It is curious to see how prophetic in almost all things was the writer of Vishnu Purâna when foretelling to Maitreya some of the dark influences and sins of this Kali Yug. For after saying that the “barbarians” will be masters of the banks… There will be contemporary monarchs, reigning over the earth— kings of churlish spirit, violent temper, and ever addicted to falsehood and wickedness... Property alone will confer rank; wealth will be the only source of devotion; passion will be the sole bond of union between the sexes... women will be objects merely of sensual gratification. ~H.P. Blavatsky
The Kalki Avatar... the final incarnation of Vishnu in the current Maha Yuga, foretold to appear at the end of Kali Yuga, the current epoch.
Maitreya corresponds to the Kalki Avatar in Hinduism (the "White Horse Avatar"—see the Revelation of St. John), and to the Messiahs of all nations... ~Helena Roerich

Puranas (Sanskrit: पुराण purāṇa, "of ancient times") are ancient Hindu texts eulogizing various deities, primarily the divine Trimurti God in Hinduism through divine stories.

Quotes

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  • The Puranas are post-Vedic texts which typically contain a complete narrative of the history of the Universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of the kings, heroes and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology and geography. There are 18 canonical Puranas, divided into three categories, each named after a deity: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. There are also many other works termed Purana, known as 'Upapuranas.
Upinder Singh:...The oldest of the Puranas are the Matsya, Vayu and the Brahmanda and for our purposes, the Vishnu Purana, somewhat later than the first three … the Vedic link also goes back to the earlier statement that the itihasa-purana was the fifth Veda.
  • According to Puranas, there are five characteristic features or subjects dealt with in each Maha Purana and these are: Sarga – the process of creation of Universe; Pratisarga – the periodical process of destruction and creation; Manvantara – the various eras; Vamsa – the histories of the solar and lunar dynasties; and Vamsanucharita – the royal lineage.
    • Shantha N. Nair, in "Echoes of Ancient Indian Wisdom: The Universal Hindu Vision and Its Edifice (1 January 2008)", p. 266
  • If the Purana written by Vyasa were still existing, then it would be honoured as a “Sruti”. In the absence of this Purana and the one written by Lomaharshana, the eighteen Puranas that still exist cannot all be given the same place of honour; among them, the Vishnu and the Bhagwata Purana composed by accomplished yogis are definitely more precious and we must recognise that the Markandeya Purana written by a sage devoted to spiritual pursuits is more profound in Knowledge than either the Shiva or the Agni Purana.
    • Sri Aurobindo, in "Sri Aurobindo Writings in Bengali Translated into English".
  • The composers of the Puranas are either accomplished yogis or seekers of Truth. The Knowledge and spiritual realisations obtained by their sadhana remain recorded in the respective Puranas. The Vedas and the Upanishads are the fundamental scriptures of the Hindu religion, the Puranas are commentaries on these scriptures.
    • Sri Aurobindo, in "Sri Aurobindo Writings in Bengali Translated into English".
  • The division created by the English educated scholars who separate the Vedas and the Upanishads from the Puranas and thus make a distinction between the Vedic dharma and the Puranic dharma is a mistake born of ignorance. The Puranas are accepted as an authority on the Hindu dharma because they explain the knowledge contained in the Veda and the Upanishads to the average man, comment upon it, discuss it at great length and endeavour to apply it to the commonplace details of life.
    • Sri Aurobindo, in "Sri Aurobindo Writings in Bengali Translated into English".
An episode from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam.
  • All the Vedic literature and the Purāṇas are meant for conquering the darkest region of material existence. The living being is in the state of forgetfulness of his relation with God due to his being overly attracted to material sense gratification from time immemorial. His struggle for existence in the material world is perpetual, and it is not possible for him to get out of it by making plans. If he at all wants to conquer this perpetual struggle for existence, he must reestablish his eternal relation with God. And one who wants to adopt such remedial measures must take shelter of literature such as the Vedas and the Purāṇas. Some people say that the Purāṇas have no connection with the Vedas. However, the Purāṇas are supplementary explanations of the Vedas intended for different types of men. All men are not equal. There are men who are conducted by the mode of goodness, others who are under the mode of passion and others who are under the mode of ignorance. The Purāṇas are so divided that any class of men can take advantage of them and gradually regain their lost position and get out of the hard struggle for existence.
  • The manifestation of unfit elements is great at the end of Kali Yuga. The fiercer Armageddon is, the better it serves as purifier of the dross. (66) The end of Kali Yuga is significant, for many cosmic events are connected with this period... Armageddon was predicted ages ago, and the abnormalities at the end of Kali Yuga were described in the Puranas, but even keen thinkers underestimated those clear indications.However, the unusualness of the events does not impress humanity, whose mental confusion was also predicted ages ago. (106) The significance of Armageddon is little understood. Anyone who knows about the approaching end of Kali Yuga recognizes that it cannot occur without world upheavals. The forces that were particularly powerful during the Black Age must now struggle for survival, and they prefer a general catastrophe to defeat... The tension of spatial currents and the discovery of Primal Energy could not be mentioned in the Puranas even though they were intended for the seeking, advanced thinkers. But both of these conditions have now been manifested in a pronounced form, making the significance of the approaching end of Kali Yuga the more obvious.(127)
  • It is true that Armageddon is raging and incredible crimes have been committed, but it is also true that against the background of these terrors a speedy evolution rushes onward. Is it possible that people do not see how much of the new is entering life? We should not permit the doubting worldlings to proclaim that the dark forces are victorious. That which belongs to Infinity cannot be conquered.
    The Thinker wisely encouraged His disciples, and prophesied the victory of the Forces of Light. (259) In the Puranas it was predicted that toward the end of Kali Yuga humanity would be driven to acts of madness. It is very dangerous that people do not recognize this state, for while it is possible to cure a patient who does not resist treatment, if he struggles against it the beneficial effects of the medicine will be diminished. But how do you explain to people that their leaders and their teachers are insane? ...such mental confusion fully corresponds with the end of Kali Yuga... Most people hate the messenger who brings knowledge... let them at least remember the warning that humanity is acting insanely. The Thinker warned, “Do not fall into madness.” (285)

Bhagavata Purana

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Vishnu Purana

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H.H.Wilson:The Narada or Naradiya Purana is where Narada has described the duties which were observed in Vrihat Kalpa, that is called Naradiya, having twenty five thousand stanzas....It is communicated by Narada to the rishis in Naimisharanya, on the Gomati River.
  • Vishnu Purana is one of the eighteen traditional puranas, which were an important genre of smriti text, and the repository of much of traditional Indian mythology... Most of the puranas are highly sectarian as is the Vishnu Purana which is focused on the worship of Vishnu. It gives an exhaustive account of Vishnu’s mystic deeds – many of which have become the common mythic currency for many traditional Hindus – as well as instructions for how, where, and when Vishnu is to be worshipped.
  • It is a primary text of the Vaishnava branch of Hinduism, and one of the Cnanonical puranas of the Visnhu Category. Among the portions of interest are a cycle of legends of the boyhood deeds of Krishna and Rama.

Naradiya Purana

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Vamana Purana

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H.H.Wilson:Vamana Purana is that in which the four faced Brahma taught the three objects of existence, as subservient to the account of the greatness of Trivikrama, which treats also of the Shiva Kalpa, and which consists of ten thousand stanzas....
  • Vamana Purana is that in which the four faced Brahma taught the three objects of existence, as subservient to the account of the greatness of Trivikrama, which treats also of the Shiva Kalpa, and which consists of ten thousand stanzas. It contains an account of the dwarf incarnation of Vishnu; but it is related by Pulastya to Narada, and extends to but about seven thousand stanzas. Its contents can scarcely establish its claim to the character of a Purana.
    • H.H.Wilson, in "Oriental Translation Fund, Volume 52 (Google eBook), Volume 52 (1840)}, P. xivii

Matsya Purana

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Matsya Purana
  • Matsya Purana is that in which, for the sake of promulgating the Vedas, Vishnu, in the beginning of the Kalpa related to Manu the story of Narasimha and the events of seven Kalpas, that O, sages know to be the Matsya containing twenty thousand stanzas...the subjects of the Purana were communicated by Vishnu, in the form of a fish to Manu. The Purana, after the usual prologue open with the account of the Matsya or ‘fish’ Avatars of Vishnu, in which he preserves a king named Manu, with the seeds of all things, in an ark, from the waters of the inundation which in the season of Pralaya overspreads the world. This story is told in the Mahabharata, with reference to the Matsya as its authority; from which it might be inferred that the Purana was prior to the poem.
    • H.H.Wilson, in "Oriental Translation Fund, Volume 52 (Google eBook), Volume 52 (1840)}, P.li

Garuda Purana

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Brahma Purana

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  • Brahma Purana is the whole of which was formerly repeated by Brahma to Marichi and contains ten thousands stanzas. In all the lists of Puranas, Brahma Purana is placed at the head of the series, and is thence sometimes also entitled to Adi or ‘First’ Purana. It is also designated as Saura, as it is in great part appropriated to the worship of Surya, the ‘sun’. There is a supplementary or concluding section called the Brahmottara Khanda, which contains about three thousand more; but there is every reason to conclude that this a distinct and unconnected work...The immediate narrator of the Brahma Purana is Lomaharshana, who communicates it to the Rishis or sages assembled at Naimisharanya, as it was originally revealed by Brahma, not to Marichi as the Matsya affirms, but to Daksha, another of the patriarchs: hence the denomination of the Brahma Purana.
    • H.H.Wilson, in "Oriental Translation Fund, Volume 52 (Google eBook), Volume 52 (1840)}, P.xvi

Bhavishya Purana

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  • Bhavishya Purana is the Purana in which Brahma, having described the greatness of the sun, explained to Manu the existence of the world, and the characters of all created things, in the course of the Aghora Kalpa, the stories being for the most part of the events of a future period. It contains fourteen thousand five hundred stanzas. This Purana, as the name implies should be a book of prophesies, foretelling what will be (bhavishyat), as the Matsya Purana intimates.
    • H.H.Wilson, in "Oriental Translation Fund, Volume 52 (Google eBook), Volume 52 (1840)}, P.xxxix

Agni Purana

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  • The cyclopedial character of the Agni Purana, as it is now described, excludes it from any legitimate claims to be regarded as a Purana, and proves that its origin cannot be remote. It is subsequent to the Itihasas; to the chief works on grammar, rhetoric, and medicine; and to the introduction of the Tantrika worship of Devi. When this latter took place is yet far from determined, but there is every probability that it dates long after the beginning of our era. The materials of the Agni Purana are however, no doubt of some antiquity. The medicine of Sushruta is considerably older than the ninth century; and the grammar of Panini probably precedes Christianity. The chapters on archery and arms, and on regal administration, are also distinguished by an entirely Hindu character, and must have been written long anterior to the Mohammedan invasion. So far the Agni Purana is valuable, as embodying and preserving relics of antiquity, although compiled at a more recent date.
    • H.H.Wilson, in "Oriental Translation Fund, Volume 52 (Google eBook), Volume 52 (1840)}, p. xxxviii

Brahma Vaivarta Purana

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Brahmananda Purana

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  • Brahmananda Purana, has declared in twelve thousand two hundred verses, the magnificence of the egg of Brahma, and in which an account of the future Kalpa is contained, as was revealed by Brahma. It is usually considered to be in much the same predicament as Skanda, no longer procurable in a collective body, but represented by a variety of Khandas and Mahatmyas, professing to be derived from it.
    • H.H.Wilson, in "Oriental Translation Fund, Volume 52 (Google eBook), Volume 52 (1840)}, p. liv

Padma Purana

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  • Padma Purana is that which contains an account of the period when the world was a golden lotus (padma)), and of all the occurrences of that time, is therefore called Padma by the wise. It contains fifty five thousand stanzas. The second Purana in the usual lists is always Padma, a very voluminous work, containing according to its own statement, as well as of other authorities fifty-five thousand slokas; an amount not far from the truth. These are divided amongst five books or Khandas: 1. Srishti Khanda, or section on creation; 2. the Bhumi Khanda, description of the earth; 3. the Swarga Khanda, chapter on heaven; 4. the Patala Khanda, chapters on regions below the earth; and 5. The Uttara Khanda, last or supplementary chapter. There is also current a sixth division, the Kriya Yoga Sara, a treatise on the practice of devotion.
    • H.H.Wilson, in "Oriental Translation Fund, Volume 52 (Google eBook), Volume 52 (1840)}, p. xviii

Shiva Purana

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James G. Lochtefeld:...It gives an exhaustive account Shiva’s mythic deeds – many of which have become the common mythic currency for many traditional Hindus – as well as instructions for how, where, and when Shiva is to be worshipped.
  • Most of the puranas are highly sectarian as is the Shiva Purana, which is one of the longer and larger puranas. It gives an exhaustive account Shiva’s mythic deeds – many of which have become the common mythic currency for many traditional Hindus – as well as instructions for how, where, and when Shiva is to be worshipped.
    • James G. Lochtefeld, in "Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: N-Z (2002)", p. 637

Linga Purana

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B.K. Chaturvedi: Linga Purana, listed eleven in the order of composition, enunciates many rituals in the text with legends and stories that date back to a hoary period. It gives details of Shiva Puja ...
  • Linga Purana, listed eleven in the order of composition, enunciates many rituals in the text with legends and stories that date back to a hoary period. It gives details of Shiva Puja and has two parts – the first part is said to be ‘Poorva Bhaga’ and the other ‘Uttara Bhaga'. It has 180 chapters in the first part and 55 in the second. The language of the Purana is difficult.

Kurma Purana

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Kurma Avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu.
  • Kurma Purana is that in which Janardhana, in the form of a tortoise, in the regions under the earth, explained the objects of life – duty, wealth, pleasure, and liberation - in communication with Indradyumna and the Rishis in the proximity of Sakra, which refers to the Lakshmi Kalpa, and contains seventeen thousand stanzas. The first chapter of the Purana gives an account of itself. Suta the narrator says: “This most excellent Kurma Purana is the fifteenth. Samhitas are fourfold, from the variety of the collections. The Brahmi, Bhagavathi, Sauri, and Vaishnavi (Matrika goddess, are well known to the four Sanhitas [religious character] which confer virtue, wealth, pleasure, and liberation…]].
    • H.H.Wilson, in "Oriental Translation Fund, Volume 52 (Google eBook), Volume 52 (1840)}, p. xlix.

Markandeya Purana

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B.K. Chaturvedi:Markandeya Purana along with Bhagavat Purana is considered to be quite a celebrated work. Ranked seventh in the list of Puranas, probably one of the oldest works, its recitation is believed to free one from taints of sin. Named after the sage Markandeya, who acquired its knowledge from Brahma, the creator,...
  • Markandeya Purana is that in which, commencing with the story of birds that were acquainted with right and wrong, everything is narrated fully by Markandeya, as it was explained by holy sages, in reply to the question of the Muni. It contains nine thousand verses, This is called from its being, in the first instance, narrated by Markendaya Muni, and, in the second instance place by certain fabulous birds.
    • Horace H. Wilson, in "Works:¬Vol. ¬6 : ¬The Vishṅu Purāṅa: a system of Hindu mythology ..., Volume 6 (1864)}, p. Liii
  • Markandeya Purana along with Bhagavat Purana is considered to be quite a celebrated work. Ranked seventh in the list of Puranas, probably one of the oldest works, its recitation is believed to free one from taints of sin. Named after the sage Markandeya, who acquired its knowledge from Brahma, the creator, its narration starts with sage Jaimini (author of Mimamsa sutras) approaching the wise birds (Dronaputras appearing as birds residing in the Himalayas) to get answers at the behest of Markandeya. Initially the Purana gets answers to the five basic questions: How was Vishnu born as a mortal? How Draupadi became the wife of five Pandavas? Why did Balabadra undertake the penance (pilgrimage) for having committed brahmanicide (killing of Brahmins) and why were the children of Draupadi destroyed so unceremoniously? These questions cover the whole gamut of ancient history, logic, morality, astronomy and so forth.

Varaha Purana

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H.H.Wilson:Varaha Purana is that in which the glory of the great Varaha is predominant, as it was revealed to Earth by Vishnu, in connection, wise Munis, with the Manava Kalpa, and which contains twenty-four thousand verses...
  • Varaha Purana is that in which the glory of the great Varaha is predominant, as it was revealed to Earth by Vishnu, in connection, wise Munis, with the ManAva Kalpa, and which contains twenty-four thousand verses...It is narrated by Vishnu as Muni or in the boar incarnation, to the personified Earth. Sumantu, a Muni observed :”The divine Varaha in former times expounded a Purana, for the purpose of solving the perplexity of Earth.”... Like the Linga Purana, it is a religious manual, almost wholly occupied with forms of prayer, and rules for devotional observances, addressed to Vishnu; interspersed with legendary illustrations, most of which are peculiar to itself; though some are taken from the common and ancient stock; many of them, rather incompatibly with the general scope of compilation, relate to the history of Shiva and Durga. A considerable portion of the work is devoted to descriptions. In the sectarianism of the Varaha Purana there is no leaning to the particular adoration of Krishna, nor are the Rathyatra or Janmshtami included amongst the observances enjoined.
    • H.H.Wilson, in "Oriental Translation Fund, Volume 52 (Google eBook), Volume 52 (1840)}, p. xlv

Skanda Purana

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  • One who visits Ayodhya the way enjoined sheds all one’s sins and finds one’s abode in the House of Hari (Hari-mandira). Likewise, ‘for one who takes bath in the Svargadvara and visits the Rama temple (Ramalaya) nothing remains to be done here and he has fulfilled his duty.
    • Skanda Purana II, Vaisnava-khanda (2) Badarikasrama-Mahatmya (3) . I.24. (The Ayodhya-Mahatmya refers to Ramajanmasthana once, Janmasthana twice, and Janmabhumi twice. Paying a visit (pradarsana) to the same is said to be infinitely meritorious. Skanda Purana, Ayodhya-Mahatmya.) Quoted from Narain, Harsh (1993). The Ayodhya temple-mosque dispute: Focus on Muslim sources. Delhi: Penman Publishers. [1]
  • Skanda Purana is that in which the six faced deity (Skanda) has related the events of the Tatpurusha Kalpa, enlarged with many tales, and subservient to the duties taught by Maheshwara. It is a said to contain eighty-one thousand one hundred stanzas. In a collective form it is not noteable, but in fragments in the shape of Samhitas, Khandas [chapters], and Mahtmyas; the most celebrated of these portions in Hindustan is the Kali Khanda, a very minute description of temples of Shiva in or adjacent to Benares, mixed with directions for worshipping Mahehwara, and a great variety of legends explanatory on its merits, and of the holiness of Kashi. Many of them are puerile and uninteresting, but some are of a higher character.
    • H.H.Wilson, in "Oriental Translation Fund, Volume 52 (Google eBook), Volume 52 (1840)}, p. xlv-xlvi

Quotes about the Puranas

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  • Armageddon was predicted ages ago, and the abnormalities at the end of Kali Yuga were described in the Puranas, but even keen thinkers underestimated those clear indications... (106) ...It is true that Armageddon is raging and incredible crimes have been committed, but it is also true that against the background of these terrors a speedy evolution rushes onward. Is it possible that people do not see how much of the new is entering life? We should not permit the doubting worldlings to proclaim that the dark forces are victorious. That which belongs to Infinity cannot be conquered. (259)
  • In the Puranas it was predicted that toward the end of Kali Yuga humanity would be driven to acts of madness. It is very dangerous that people do not recognize this state, for while it is possible to cure a patient who does not resist treatment, if he struggles against it the beneficial effects of the medicine will be diminished. But how do you explain to people that their leaders and their teachers are insane? ...such mental confusion fully corresponds with the end of Kali Yuga... Most people hate the messenger who brings knowledge... let them at least remember the warning that humanity is acting insanely. The Thinker warned, “Do not fall into madness.” (285)
  • We are in the Kali Yuga [a Sanskrit term meaning Dark Age] and its fatal influence is a thousand-fold more powerful in the West than it is in the East; hence the easy preys made by the Powers of the Age of Darkness [evil] in this cyclic struggle, and the many delusions under which the world is now laboring. One of these is the relative facility with which men fancy they can get at the "Gate" and cross the threshold of Occultism without any great sacrifice. It is the dream of most Theosophists, one inspired by desire for Power and personal selfishness, and it is not such feelings that can ever lead them to the coveted goal. For, as well said by one believed to have sacrificed himself for Humanity--"Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life" eternal, and therefore "few there be that find it." (Matthew 7:14) So strait indeed, that at the bare mention of some of the preliminary difficulties the affrighted Western candidates turn back and retreat with a shudder... Let them stop here and attempt no more in their great weakness. For if, while turning their backs on the narrow gate, they are dragged by their desire for the Occult one step in the direction of the broad and more inviting gates of that golden mystery which glitters in the light of illusion, woe to them!
  • As the “ Satya-yuga” is always the first in the series of the four ages or Yugas, so the Kali ever comes the last... Anyhow, it is curious to see how prophetic in almost all things was the writer of Vishnu Purâna when foretelling to Maitreya some of the dark influences and sins of this Kali Yug. For after saying that the “barbarians” will be masters of the banks… he adds: “ There will be contemporary monarchs, reigning over the earth— kings of churlish spirit, violent temper, and ever addicted to falsehood and wickedness. They will inflict death on women, children, and cows; they will seize upon the property of their subjects, and be intent upon the wives of others; they will be of unlimited power, their lives will be short, their desires insatiable... People of various countries intermingling with them, will follow their example; and the barbarians being powerful... in the patronage of the princes, while purer tribes are neglected... Wealth and piety will decrease until the world will be wholly depraved. Property alone will confer rank; wealth will be the only source of devotion; passion will be the sole bond of union between the sexes; falsehood will be the only means of success in litigation; and women will be objects merely of sensual gratification.
  • I shall quote an interesting passage from The Secret Doctrine taken from the Puranas. "... a man if rich will be reputed pure; dishonesty... will be the universal means of subsistence, weakness the cause of dependence, menace and presumption will be substituted for learning; liberality will be devotion; mutual assent, [will replace] marriage; fine clothes [will be regarded as] dignity. . . . He who is the strongest will reign.. the people, unable to bear the heavy burden, Kara-bhara (the load of taxes) will take refuge among the valleys. . . 
  • Thus, in the Kali age will decay constantly proceed, until the human race approaches its annihilation (pralaya). . . . When the close of the Kali age shall be nigh, a portion of that divine being which exists, if its own spiritual nature . . . shall descend on Earth . . . as Kalki (Avatar) endowed with the eight superhuman faculties. . . . He will re-establish righteousness on Earth, and the minds of those who live at the end of Kali-Yuga shall be awakened and become as pellucid as crystal. The men who are thus changed. . . shall be the seeds of human beings, and shall give birth to a race who shall follow the laws of the Krita age, (the age of purity). As it is said, 'When the sun and moon and the lunar asterism Tishya and the planet Jupiter are in one mansion the Krita (or Satya) age shall return.'
  • Fortunately the Puranic genealogies from the time of the founder of Buddhism onward can be tested by the evidence supplied by the Buddhist and Jain literature, dramas and inscriptions. (…) the mistakes regarding the names, the order of succession and the regnal years of kings are certainly not many.
    • (Bhargava 1998:2-3) , quoted in Elst, Koenraad (2018). Still no trace of an Aryan invasion: A collection on Indo-European origins.
  • “If the Puranic genealogies from the time of the Buddha onward are almost faultless, the presumption naturally is that the earlier genealogies too are not mere figments of the imagination. (…) In the first place a large number of these names occur in the Vedic literature which is quite independent of the Purāṇas. Secondly, even those names which do not occur in the Vedic literature are so archaic that they could not have been coined by the authors of the present Purāṇas in whose time the style of names had completely changed.”
    • (Bhargava 1998:3-4) , quoted in Elst, Koenraad (2018). Still no trace of an Aryan invasion: A collection on Indo-European origins.
  • “There are numerous synchronisms recorded in the Vedic, Puranic and epic literatures which are in consonance with the arrangement of names in the dynastic lists of the Puranas. These facts clearly establish the correctness of the arrangement of names in the Puranic genealogies.”
    • (Bhargava 1998:5), quoted in Elst, Koenraad (2018). Still no trace of an Aryan invasion: A collection on Indo-European origins.
  • The Puranic tradition, even if not in written form, existed already “in the Upaniṣadic period if not earlier” (Siddhantashastree 1977) and was mentioned in the Mahābhārata (18.6.97, “eighteen Purāṇas”) and in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (7:1:2-4).... These distortions are common fare in any appropriation of ancient history by later writers, and only corroborate that we are dealing with authors really trying to do history, though it was an embellished and ideologically streamlined history. So, we have to treat would-be historical information from the Purāṇas with care; but with that caveat, we dare provisionally to draw upon at least the Puranic genealogies. These are the hard core of their pretended narrative of the past.
    • Elst, Koenraad (2018). Still no trace of an Aryan invasion: A collection on Indo-European origins. quoting (Siddhantashastree 1977:8)
  • There is actual mention in the Samhita and Brahmana literature of a work called Purana.
    • PL Bhargava, quoted in S. Talageri, The Aryan Invasion Theory and Indian Nationalism (1993) [2]
  • The (hymns of the) Atharvangiras are the bees, the Itihasa-Purana is the flower.
    • Chandyoga Upanishad. III 4-1., quoted in S. Talageri, The Aryan Invasion Theory and Indian Nationalism (1993)
  • Contrary to popular scholarly opinion, the genealogies found in the Puranas, which list over a hundred and twenty kings in one Vedic dynasty alone, fit into the new model of ancient Indian history. The Puranic records are far more trustworthy than has hitherto been assumed. They are the distillate of countless generations of remembered knowledge, especially knowledge concerning the vicissitudes of royal houses. They date back to the third millennium B.C.E. and earlier. Greek accounts point to the existence of Indian royal lists (perhaps coinciding with those of the Puranas) that are reported to go back to the seventh millennium B.C.E.
    • Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak, and David Frawley. - In search of the cradle of civilization _ new light on ancient India-Quest Books (2011)
  • The Atharvaveda and the Itihasa-Veda are also Vedas.
    • Kautilya's Arthasastra,, quoted in S. Talageri, The Aryan Invasion Theory and Indian Nationalism (1993)
  • They alone contain something like a continuous historical narrative, and it is absurd to suppose that the elaborate royal genealogies were all merely figments of imagination or a tissue of falsehoods.
    • AD Pusalker, [3], quoted in S. Talageri, The Aryan Invasion Theory and Indian Nationalism (1993)
  • There is nothing in them (Puranic accounts), as far as I am aware, really inconsistent with the most ancient book we possess, namely, the Rigveda, and they throw much light thereon, and on all problems concerning ancient India.
    • Ancient Indian Historical Tradition by F.E. Pargiter, Motilal Banarsidas, Delhi-Varanasi-Patna, 1962. Quoted in Talageri, S. (2000). The Rigveda: A historical analysis. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.
  • Admittedly, the Vedas are a defective source of history. As religious books, they only deal with historical data in passing. But that has never kept the invasionist school from treating the Vedas as the only source of ancient Indian history, to the neglect of the legitimate history books, the ItihAsa-PuraNa literature, i.e. the Epics and the Puranas. It is like ignoring the historical Bible books (Exodus, Joshua, Chronicles, Kings) to draw ancient Israelite history exclusively from the Psalms, or like ignoring the historians Livius, Tacitus and Suetonius to do Roman history on the basis of the poet Virgil. What would be dismissed as “utterly ridiculous” in Western history is standard practice in Indian history.

See Also

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