پران पुराण purāṇ :
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.