English
According to the Yedas there are three earths corresponding to the three heavens, and our earth is called Bhumi. Another name of the earth is Urvi, ' wide.' In the Yish?Ri Pura?za she is represented as receiving her name from a mythical person named Prithu, who granted her life, and so was to her as a father. See above, P?-ithi or Prithu. Pii/THU. A king of the Solar race, a descendant of Iksh- waku. There are many Pr/thus. See Prithi. 244 PRIYA-DA RSl—P UN YA-SLOKA. PEIYA-DAE6I See Asoka. PRIYAM-YADA. A Yidya-dliara, son of the king of the Gandharvas. PRIYA-YRATA. One of the two sons of Brahma, and *S'ata-rupa ; or, according to other statements, a son of Mann Swayam-bhuva. " Priya-vrata being dissatisfied that only half the earth was illuminated at one time by the solar rays, followed the sun seven times round the earth in his own flaming car of equal velocity, like another celestial orb, resolved to turn night into da}'." He was stopped by Brahma. " The ruts which were formed by the motion of his chariot Avheels were the seven oceans. In this way the seven continents of the earth Avere made." — Bhcigavata Purdiia. In the Yishmi Vwrnndt, his wife is stated to be Kamya, daughter of Kardama, by whom he had ten sons and two daughters. Three of the sons adopted a re- ligious life, and Priya-vrata divided the seven continents among the others. PULAHA. Name of one of the Praja-patis and great ii/shis. His wife was Kshama, and he had three sons, Kardama, Arva- rivat, and Sahish?iu. A Gandharva (q.v.). PULASTYA. One of the Praja-patis or mind-born sons of Brahma, and one of the great iiishis. He was the medium through which some of the Pura?zas were communicated to man. He received the Yish?m PuriiTza from Brahma and communi- cated it to Parasara, who made it known to mankind. He was father of Yisravas, the father of Kuvera and Rava/ia, and all the Rakshasas are supposed to have sprung from him. PULINDAS. Barbarians ; barbarous tribes living in woods and mountains, especially in Central India ; but there were some in the north and on the Indus. PULOjMAX. a Danava and father of /S'acliT, wife of Indra. He was killed by Indra when he Avished to curse that deity for having ravished his daughter. PUA^X>ARIKAKSIIA. 'The lotus-eyed;' a name of Yisli?m. PUA^Z)RA. A country corresponding " to Bengal proper, Avitli part of South Bihiir and the Jungle INIahals." A fabulous city between the Hima-vat and Hema-ku/a. PUiY YA - 6'LOK A (mas. ), PUiY YA - ^XOK A (f em. ). 'Hymned in holy verse.' An appellation applied to Kn'slma, Yudhi-sh/hira, and Nala, also to Draupadi and Sitil PURANA. 245 PURAi\''A. ' Old,' hence an ancient legend or tale of olden times. The Pura?ias succeed the Itihasas or epic poems, but at a considerable distance of time, and must be distinguished from them. The epics treat of the legendary actions of heroes as mortal men, the Pura?zas celebrate the powers and works of positive gods, and represent a later and more extravagant deve- lopment of Hinduism, of which they are in fact the Scrij)tures. The definition of a Pura?u by Amara Sinha, an ancient Sansk?'/t lexicographer, is a work "which has five distinguishing topics : — (i.) The creation of the universe ; (2.) Its destruction and reno- vation; (3.) The genealogy of gods and patriarchs; (4.) The reigns of the Manus, forming the periods called Manwantaras. (5.) The history of the Solar and Lunar races of kings." These are the Pancha-lakshaTias or distinguishing marks, but no one of the Purawas answers exactly to the description ; some show a partial conformity with it, others depart from it very widely. The Vish?Ri Pura?2a is the one which best accords with the title. Wilson says, " A very great portion of the contents of many is genuine and old. The sectarial interpolation or embellishment is always sufficiently palpable to be set aside without injury to the more authentic and primitive material; and the Purawas, although they belong especially to that stage of the Hindu reli- gion in which faith in some one divinity was the prevailing principle, are also a valuable record of the form of Hindu belief which came next in order to that of the Yedas, which grafted hero-worship upon the simpler ritual of the latter, and which had been adopted, and was extensively, perhaps universally, estab- lished in India at the time of the Greek invasion." According to the same authority, Pantheism " is one of their invariable characteristics," and underlies their whole teaching, " although the particular divinity who is all things, from whom all things proceed, and to whom all things return, is diversified according to their individual sectarian bias." The Pura?ias are all written in verse, and their invariable form is that of a dialogue between an exponent and an inquirer, intersj)ersed with the dialogues and observations of other individuals. Thus Pulastya received the Yish^iu Pura?ia from Brahma ; he made it known to Parasara, and Parasara narrated it to his disciple Maitreya. The Pura?ias are eighteen in number, and in addition to these there are eighteen Upa Pura?2as or subordinate works. The Purawas are 246 PURANA. classified in tliree categories, according to tlie prevalence in them of the qualities of purity, gloom, and passion. Those in which the quality of Sattwa or purity j)revail are — (i.) Yish7?-u, (2.) Naradiya, (3.) Bhagavata, (4.) Garuc/a, (5.) Padma, (6.) Yaraha. These are Vaishnava Pura/?as, in which the god Yish??Ai holds the pre-eminence. The Purawas in which Tamas, the quality of gloom or ignorance, predominates are — (i.) ]\ratsya, (2.) Kurma, (3.) Linga, (4.) ^S'iva, (5.) Skanda, (6.) Agni. These are devoted to the god ^iva. Those in which Rajas or passion prevails relate chiefly to the god Brahma. They are — (i.) Brahma, (2.) Brahmawc/a, (3.) Brahma-vaivarta, (4.) ^MarkaTZC^eya, (5.) Bhavi- shya, (6.) Yamana. The works themselves do not fully justify this classification. ISTone of them are devoted exclusively to one god, but Yishmi and his incarnations fill the largest space. One called the Yayu Purawa is in some of the PuraTias substituted for the Agni, and in others for the *S'iva. This Yayu is appa- rently the oldest of them, and may date as far back as the sixth century, and it is considered that some of the others may be as late as the thirteenth or even the sixteenth century. One fact appears certain : they must all have received a supplementary revision, because each one of them enumerates the whole eighteen. The Markaw(/e3''a is the least sectarian of the Pur- a?ias ; and the Bhagavata, which deals at length Avith the incar- nations of Yishwu, and particularly with his form K?"ish7ia, is the most poj^ular. The most jierfect and the best known is the Yislmu, which has been entirely translated into English by Professor Wilson, and a second edition, with many valuable notes, has been edited by Dr. F. E. Hall. The text of the Agni and Marka?if/eya Pura/zas is in course of publication in the Bibliotheca Indica. The Purfmas vary greatly in length. Some of them specify the number of couplets that each of the eighteen contains. According to the Bhagavata, the sum total of couplets in the whole eighteen is 400,000 ; the Skanda is the longest, with 81,000, the Brahma and the Yamana the shortest, with 10,000 couplets each. TheUimPurawas are named — (i.) Sanat-kumiira, (2.) Xara-sinha or N?7*-sinha, (3.) Naradlya or Yr/han (old) Naradlya, (4.) 51 va, (5.)Dur-vasasa,(6.)Kapila, (7.)j\[rinava, (8.)Ausanasa, (9.)ATiruwa, (10.) Kalikti, (11.) AS'amba, (12.) Nandi, (13.) Saura, (14.) Para- sara, (15.) Aditya, (16.) INIilheswara, (17.) Bhagavata, (18,) PURAN-JA YA—PURU-RA VAS. 247 Vasish/ha. These works are not common. Other modern Avorks exist to which the term PuraTZ-a has been applied. An account of each of the eighteen great Piiray^as is given under its own name. PURAN-JAYA. ' City-conqneror.' A prince of the Solar race, son of Yikukshi. His story, as told in the Yishmi Piirawa, is that in the Treta age there was war between the gods and the Asuras, in which the former were worsted. They had re- course to Yislmu for assistance, and he directed them to obtain the aid of Puran-jaya, into whose person he promised to infuse a portion of himself. The prince complied with their wishes, and asked that their chief, Indra, Avould assume the form of a bull and carry him, the prince, upon his hump. This was done, and tlius seated Puran-jaya destroyed all the enemies of the gods.