پران पुराण purāṇ S s. m. A Purāṇa or sacred and poetical work, supposed to have been com- piled or composed by the poet Vyāsa. There are eighteen acknowledged Purāṇas, comprising the whole body of Hindū theology: and, each Purāṇa treats of five topicks especially, i. e. the creation; the destruction and renovation of worlds; the genealogy of gods and heroes; the reigns of the Manus; and, the transactions of their descendants. The Purāṇas are, 1. Brah- ma; 2. Padma, or the lotus; 3. Brahmāṇḍa, or the egg of Brahmā; 4. Agni, or fire; 5. Vish̤ṇu; 6. Garuḍa, the bird or vehicle of Vish̤- ṇu; 7. Brahmavaivarta, or transformations of Brahmā; 8. Siva; 9. Linga; 10. Nārada, son of Brahmā; 11. Skanda, son of Siva; 12. Mārkaṇḍeya, so called from a sage of that name; 13. Bhavish̤yat, future or prophetick; 14. Mat- sya, or the fish; 15. Varāha, or boar; 16. Kūrma, or tortoise; 17. Vāmana, or dwarf; and 18. The Bhāgavat, or life of Krish̤ṇa, which last is by some considered as a spurious and modern work. The Purāṇas are reckoned to contain four hundred thousand stanzas. There are, also, eighteen Upapurāṇas, or simi- lar poems of inferiour sanctity and different ap- pellations; the whole constituting the popular or poetical creed of the Hindūs, and some of them, or particular parts of them, being very generally read and studied.
