A closer examination of these four issues will now be made, beginning with
the last one, then dealing with the other three in the order in which they have
just been mentioned. In some cases this may uncover more problems rather than
offering solutions, but it should convey to the reader that the study of the
Pura ̄n.as is a challenging and rewarding field.
Books or Performances?
The difference between the Pura ̄n.as’ oral origins and their current existence as
books is one which continues to create misunderstandings as to their nature and
purpose. It is hard to remember that the text which the reader sees is not a fixed
entity deliberately intended by a writer or group of writers (although it is pos-
sible that the Bha ̄gavatais an exception here; cf. Hardy 1990: 76; Doniger 1993:
127), but something fluid, a snapshot of a river of tradition, made up of many
tributaries, which might look very different if the shot had been taken further
up or downstream.
Like the Maha ̄bha ̄rata, the Pura ̄n.as are generally thought by scholars to have
been first recited by su ̄tas, bards who attended ks.atriyaleaders and provided them
with inspiration and entertainment in the form of stories of their ancestors.
According to Va ̄yu1.31–2:
svadharma es.a su ̄tasya sadbhir dr.s.t.ah.pura ̄tanaih./ deva ̄ta ̄na ̄m r.s. ̄naı ̄m.ca ra ̄jña ̄m. ca ̄mit-
atejasa ̄m // vam.s ́a ̄na ̄m.dha ̄ran.am.ka ̄ryam. s ́ruta ̄na ̄m.ca maha ̄tmana ̄m / itiha ̄sapura ̄n.es.u
dis.t.a ̄ ye brahmava ̄dibhih.//(Thesu ̄ta’s special duty as perceived by good men of old
was to preserve the genealogies of gods, rishis and most glorious kings, the tradi-
tions of great men, which are displayed by those who declare sacred lore in the
Itiha ̄sas and Pura ̄n.as. (Pargiter’s translation, Pargiter 1972: 15; cf. Padma
5.1.27–8)A good deal of the material which is known today as making up the Pura ̄n.as
must have circulated orally for centuries in the repertoires of such men as these,
no doubt in the form of short pieces which they would combine together in
longer sequences, adapting their material to suit their audiences.
Almost all the Pura ̄n.as are said to have the Su ̄ ta (either Lomahars.an.a or his
son Ugras ́ravas) as their overall narrator, even though his chief task is some-
times – as in, for example, the Bha ̄gavata– to introduce a previous narrator from
whom he has heard the story. But the Su ̄ ta is not seen as the composer of the
Pura ̄n.a, which has a more exalted origin. According to Matsya53.3–4, it was
Brahma ̄ who first proclaimed the one Pura ̄n.a of a billion s ́lokas. This was medi-
ated to the human world by Vis.n.u in the form of Vya ̄sa, who condensed the
divine text into a shorter version and divided it into 18.
This theory of divine origin shows that the Pura ̄n.as regard themselves as reli-
gious texts with an importance equal to that of the Vedas; they are vedasammita
(Va ̄yu1.11, 4.12). At some point in their transmission they became carriers of
130 freda matchett