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The Puranas and the Hindu Religion [辫耻谤腻峁嚹乼颈 hindudharmamtha] / By Dr. V.S. Agrawala; 307-332 puranani 333-346 Professor, Indology College, B.H.U., Varanasi. / 333-346

[ asmin nibandhe purananam hindudharmena saha sambandho vimarsitah | bharatiyanam dharmadarsanapujavidhanadini puranaih prabhavitani santi | hindudharmah 'puranadhamamh ' iti vaktum sakyate | puranapratipadito'yam dharmo'tivodaro varttate, atah sa sarvesameva jananam dharmikabhavanah pusnati | puranavanmayam veda iva pracinatamam, vede'pi puranasailyam racitanyanekani srakhyanani prapyante | 'puranam sarvasastranam prathamam brahmana smrtam ' iti puranesu kathitam | vedoktani adhyatmikatatvani srstividyatmakani ca tattvani prathamata eva lokakathasu nihitanyasan | puranesu ta eva katha upabrmhitah prapyante | purananam racanayah purvamapi tah katha lokesu pracalita asan | parasaryo vyasah sarvastah katha ekatra purananamna samgrhitavan | vyasasya mulapuranasamhita paravattibhih puranakaraih parivardhita sati astadasapurananamabhirvibhakta ca caturlaksaslokatmika samjata | parantu, vaidikesu caranesu racitasya sarvasya vaidikavanmayasya racayita yatha caranasamsthapaka rsideva sammata asit, evamakhilasyapi puranavanmayasya racayita mulapuranasamhitakartta maharsirvyasa eva manyate sma | purananam sargapratisargau dvau mukhyau visayau stah | tathapi, purananam pradhanam pratipadyam tu nityam niskalamavyaktamekam cidatmakam tattvameva, etadeva puranesu param satyam manyate, etenaiva visvam srjyate palyate samhriyate ca | etasyaiva paramatattvasya brahmavisnusivatmikastisro'bhivyaktayah sambhavanti | ete trayo deva eva brahmandacakrasya pravattayitarah | puranesu brahmavisnu- sivavisayika bhaktih pratipadyate | etesam trayanam devanam ca visaye- 'nekanyakhyanani ca racitani samkalitani ca | etena ca devatraya- visayakabhaktibhavena tatsambandhibhirakhyanaisca loke dharmah sahityam kala ca bahudha prabhavitani | *Extension lecture delivered on 22nd April 1964, in the Jammu and Kashmir University, Srinagar, Kashmir, 10

334 puranam - PURANA [Vol. VI., No. 2 asmin nibandhe brahmavisnusivabhidhanam trayanam devanam tesam vahanadinam ca buddhigamya vyakhya'pi krta | yatha - brahma prajapatireva, tasya hamso vyastimanah, manasasarasca samastimanah | brahma devanamasuranam ca pitamahah | prakasarupa devah, tamorupascasurah | brahmandasya sthitaye devanamivasuranamapi srapeksa varttate | visnuh srstipalako devah | vaisnavadharmena sarvanyeva puranani prabhavitani | guptasamrajyakale'yameva dharmo'tra pradhana prasit | tada ca bhagavatadharmam eva pauraniko dharmam ityamanyata | visnorvahanam garudah chandomayi gatih suparnarupena kalatmakah suryo va | ksirasagare sesasayyayam visnuh sete | visvasya pralaya prapomayah samudrah srstisca ksirasagarah | sesascanantam brahma | puranesu visnostrivikramavataro vaidikatrivikramasyaiva vistarah | sivah puranesu 'rudra ' ityapi prasiddhah | rudrasca vaidiko devo'gnireva | agnirudrayoscabhedah puranesu prathitah sivasya ardhanarisvararupe 'agni- somatmakam jagat ' iti vaidika siddhantasyaivabhivyanjana varttate | rudra evomaya saha vivahitah san sivo babhuva | tasya pancasyani akasadini panca tattvani | evam sivasya gangacandrasarpavisadinyapi catra vyakhyatani | puranadharmamsca saktipujapradhana ityapyatra pratipaditah vedesu ya mahimata'ditih saiva puranesu jagadamba vikhyata| saiva jagat srjati | anekarupesu sakterbhaktisca pracalita vattamte | sarvanyeva tani puranesu samkalitani | evameva ganapatikartikeyasuryadinam capyatra vyakhya krta | hindudharmo'pi bharatiya visvavidyalayesu sradhyayanavisayo bhavituma hai- titi cante lekhaka mahodayena svamatam prakasitam | ] The Puranas are eighteen in number and four lakhs of Slokas in extent. It is a vast literature ascribed traditionally to Sri Veda Vyasa as their author. In India there is no other literature comparable to the Puranas in range of topics and in its influence which is far-reaching on the religion, philosophy, modes of worship and spiritual inspiration and faith of the people. It may be stated with truth that Hinduism is the religion of the Puranas and moulded by their teachings as a subtle influence on all its aspects,

July, 1964] THE PURANAS AND HINDU RELIGION 335 Many millions of men living in villages and cities owe their allegiance to Hinduism as propounded in the Puranas. We therefore owe it as a duty to inquire about the authorship, antiquity, contents and the inspiring ideals of the Purana literature. In matters of religion the Puranas inculcate an eclectic system which is extremely elastic to suit the needs of all persons in society. This attitude is characteristically Indian which is unique in the world and which has exercised its benign influence on the entire religious tradition of India. In fact, the door of the Puranas was thrown wide open to all the religious disciplines ranging from the highest Vedic philosophy to the most primitive austric cults rooted in the soil. It is done with a broadmindedness that fills the Puranic descriptions with a super-gladenning atmosphere. The antiquity of the Puranas goes back to the Vedic times. The Itihasa-Purana literature existed in the time of the Atharvaveda and there are many legendary elements in the Vedas that properly belong to the realm of the Puranas and have the same style. There is again a reference to the Itihasa-Purana-Vidya which Narada had learnt before he came to Sanatkumara for instruction in higher Brahma-knowledge. In fact it is stated in the Puranas that Brahma first created the Puranic literature even before he produced the Vedas. The meaning of this statement is that the metaphysical truths found in the Vedic Mantras were first cast in the form of legends that belonged to the realm of the Puranas, and these must have been current in the legendary lore of the people in an extensive area from where they were taken into the Vedic Mantras. Such may be the great legends of Indra and Vritrasura, Indra and Sambara, Indra and Namuchi, Rudra and his conflict with the demons, Asvins and their stories of exploits about Soma, Surya and his wife Saranyu, etc. Behind all these tales some cosmogonical truths were implied from the Vedic points of view, but they were presented as stories which the Puranas have presented in amplified form. About the authorship of the Puranas it may be said that they existed much earlier than Veda Vyasa himself, but he organised this literature just as he compiled and classified the

336 puranam - PURANA [Vol. VI., No. 2 available Vedic Mantras into their respective Sakhas and Samhitas. It was an epoch-making literary task of which the credit goes to Veda Vyasa, as the greatest doyen of Sanskrit scholarship in ancient times. But the chapter was never closed and the work of redaction he began was continued throughout, so that there were a number of Puranic authors known as Vyasa in North India and as Purani in Gujarat and Maharashtra. We find frequent references to them in Sanskrit literature. It is clearly stated in the Vayu Purana (61.59) that the original Purana-Samhita consisted of four thousand verses from which many other Samhitas were compiled with additional material by subsequent authors so that to-day we have inherited a massive literature of eighteen Puranas comprising four lakhs of slokas, that is, hundred times its original extent. Those who were responsible for this miracle of authorship and colossal amplification comprised a succession of the most brilliant poets and religious teachers who did much original thinking and incorporated a large number of new subjects in the corpus of the Puranic text. The over-riding condition was that the name of the original author Veda Vyasa was to be retained throughout and under his aegis the new material was taken. This was an important rule which had been fixed in the Vedic Academy that all the Samhita texts and whatever literature was produced under an Academy should bear the name of the Founder-teacher and not of any subsequent author. In a way the literature belonged to the whole Academy and was named after it and no individual authorship was claimed. The Taittiriya Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka, Upanishads, and Pratisakhya all bore the name of the Taittiriya Academy. Similarly the Purana Samhita was originally a text produced under either the Vedic Academy of Parasarya Veda Vyasa and was distinguished by his conventional authorship. Although factually there was a continuous addition of new matter and it was considered obligatory on new generations of Pauranikas to bring the text upto date from time to time. The belief in Vyasa's authorship was maintained with uncompromising vigour and in fact the whole tradition of two thousand years no one ever thought or dared to disturb or question this. Dvaipayana Vyasa was also regarded as Vachyayana (Ahirbudhnya-

July, 1964] THE PURANAS AND HINDU RELIGION 337 and an Samhita 12.17), son of Goddess Vak or Sarasvati, incarnation of Vishnu, whose authorship of the eighteen Puranas, Brahma-Sutras, Maha-Bharata and the Bhagavata, was justly regarded as the most stupendous literary achievement in the annals of human history. Puranic writers and those who listen to these texts as Katha remained unconcerned as to the period when the texts were compiled. They were statements of eternal Dharma. But, the successive ages have left their clear impression on the Puranic texts and modern scholars have unravelled with critical acumen the different strata of historical and institutional material of which layers upon layers lie embedded in the corpus of the Puranas. It is a good thing in one respect that it shows the elastic nature of these compilations which have taken part in the untrammelled development of Hinduism. Apart from historical questions, our major concern is to know the contents of the Puranas and how they vitalise the roots of Hinduism. According to an ancient definition the two major subjects of a Purana are creation and dissolution, Sarga and Pratisarga. These are but two aspects of the same medal. The complex problem of cosmogony or creation of the world and of the individual as twofold manifestations of the divine power are subjects of the highest importance in the Puranas. It may be said with some justification that the highest concern of the Puranas is to state their belief in the transcendent reality and to explain its nature. This is a theme which they broach in a hundred ways to speak of the glory of the one divine Lord who is the creator, preserver and destroyer of the worlds. The Puranas clearly believe that the ultimate reality is one. He is the supreme Soul, the Universal Lord, the one God without the second, whose transcendence none can compare. His might, glory and power are supreme. He is beyond nature, but also inherent in nature and its real master and cause. The basic doctrine of Puranic cosmogony (Srishti Vidya) is that of the three Devas who represent the triadic pattern in manifestation. Brahma, Vishnu and Siva are the three deities who are present in every living centre. They

338 puranam - PURANA [Vol. VI., No. 2 constitute the cyclic wheel revolving as Brahmanda Chakra. In abstract terms they are the three supreme principles of creation, preservation and dissolution, that is, a release of the worldbuilding forces from an unmanifested point or tranquil substratum, maintaining those forces in a balanced condition and ultimately their withdrawal into the same source. As seen in the rhythm of time this law of coming and going, rising and setting with a stable interval between is operative everywhere. We know it from the time of Rigveda but the great merit of the Puranas consists in transforming the conception of the three deitics, Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, as the nuclei of devotional worship and investing each of them with an encircling mythology of great beauty and symbolical significance that has inspired religion, literature, art and recitations. It may be noted that the Puranas maintain the supremacy of each deity in his own sphere or station so that each one trancendent as well as accompanied by the team of the three brothers, Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. It is emphatically stated that they are all of equal rank and in the Puranic view any idea of their relatively superior or inferior position is inadmissible. Brahma is the creator of the worlds; Brahma signifies the ancient coception of Prajapati, the Lord of all creatures and the maker of the worlds. Literally Brahma represents the same idea as Brahma, that is, the principle of growth or irresistible emanation of dynamic power from its centre. This emanation is exemplified in the four directions which take the form of a Svastika and correspond to the four faces of Brahma. The Lake in which Brahma floats on his vehicle Hamsa is Manasarovara which symbolises universal Mind. The Hamsa is the individual mind. Brahma is thus the great principle of Buddhi or universal consciousness with which creation begins. The first act of Brahma for initiating his creative activity is to set in harmony the two conflicting forces of cosmic energy symbolised as Madhu and Kaitabha. Brahma is the genius of Yajna and Yajna implies a perfectly balanced system in which a field of energy is created with a controlling centre and an all-round regulation. This is

July, 1964] THE PURANAS AND HINDU RELIGION 339 said to be the region of the Devas who are brought into existence by the supreme intelligence or Speech of Brahma named Vak or Sarasvati, that is alternatively spoken of as the Knowledge of the Vedas. Brahma's vision and power are due to his Vedic Wisdom which is a synonym for the Universal Mind or the conscious will to act as inspired by activated knowledge. Brahma is said to have a Brahma-Sabha attended by all the Rishis or archetypal sages. It is stated that none can transgress the ordinances of Brahma and that the immutable law of karma has been established by Brahma Prajapati. The order of the cosmos which is seen in the revolution of time and space is the visible form of Brahma's will or his Universal Karma. A noteworthy feature about the mythology of Brahma is that he is the guardian of both Devas and Asuras; both may approach him and obtain his protection. The Asuras frequently propitiate him by the power of their Tapas and they exist by his sufference and no one wholly uproot them for all times and from all places. The meaning is that the Devas as light and the Asuras as Darkness must co-exist to constitute the tensional dualism of the cosmos; otherwise creation would lapse into a stillness or equilibrium without expression of activity. Brahma is credited in the Puranas with having created the vast order of time whose durations become manifest as fourteen Manvantaras in the day-time of Brahma and fourteen in his night-time, and one each in the two twilights (Sandhya Kala), making up a total of thirty Manvantara periods. It is very surprising how a minute record of these astronomical periods of time has been maintained in the Puranas. The vast immensity of time and the measureless depths of space are a favourite theme of the Puranas and both appertain to the miracle of Brahma's creative activity. It is said in a short story that Brahma himself was not able to charter fully the extent of space created by him. He flew on his Hamsa and did not reach an end, which means that even with the power of his mind he was not able to comprehend how big the cosmos is.

340 puranam - PURANA [Vol. VI., No. 2 Vishnu, the preserver, is the second great deity of the Puranas. There is hardly a Purana that has not received Vaishnava influences or been impressed with the Bhagavata stamp of religion, philosophy and cult-worship. The Bhagavata movement be-strided the whole country of which a comprehensive record is available in the existing Purana literature and also in the form of temples and sculptures that have survived. Great emperors like Samudragupta and Chandragupta were devotees of Bhagavan Vishnu and it was specially during the hundred years of their reign that Vaishnavism emerged as the greatest religion of Bhakti. The available Bhagavata text is the greatest document of that movement. It gives us the quintessence of the Puranic religion and gives a clarion call to rally round the worship of Vishnu as representing the supreme deity who pervades the whole world and life. Vishnu is the great bowl or container, Maha-Patra, of all the moral and spiritual virtues for which the soul aspires, e.g. truth, compassion, breadth of heart, Dharma, Tapas, Vairagya, etc. The Bhagavatas distinguished themselves by a sympathetic understanding towards all creatures high and low and men and animals. In the Gupta period Puranic culture and Bhagavata culture became interchangeable terms. Vishnu is described in various forms. His vehicle Garuda is a winged bird iconographically, but explained in the Bhagavata as the embodiment of rhythmic movement (Chandomayena Garudena samuhyamanah). Garuda was the same as Suparna Garutman of the Rigveda to be identified with Surya or the principle of Time who is bearing on its back the cosmos. Vishnu is said to be sleeping in the ocean of milk, Kshirasagara, and from his navel rises a lotus stalk on which Brahma takes his seat before he begins his creative activity. There are two concepts, namely a primeval ocean of water and then an ocean of milk; the latter is brought into existence by the process of churning. The meaning is that dissolution (Pralaya) is symbolised as the ocean of water and Srishti as the ocean of milk. Conversion of water into milk implies an act of creation that we see in the cow

July, 1964] THE PURANAS AND HINDU RELIGION 341. and in the Mother. Milk is the sign of motherhood generated in the breast for the sake of the child that is born from the mother's womb. It is stated in the Puranas that Vishnu was at first in a state of rest. He had withdrawn the principle of time into his own body and time is symbolised as Rishi Markandeya, who lived to an age of a thousand years, who entered Vishnu's mouth to initiate the period of dissolution. At the end of it, when the process of creation was to re-start, the Goddess of Sleep (Nidra) came out of Vishnu's body and was, propitiated in a Stotra by Brahma. This roused Vishnu to fresh activity. This is a symbolical description of the twofold rhythms of periodic activity and rest, also known as creation and dissolution. As soon as he woke up, Vishnu found the two demons, Madhu and Kaitabha, locked in combat and he used a device to bring about their mutual balancing. These were the two forces of Rajas and Tamas, activity and inertia, and Vishnu as the genius of Sattva brings the two under his control and thus the stage for the balanced interplay of the three forces or Gunas is set, by which creation proceeds. Vishnu's couch on which he sleeps is said to be the cosmic serpent, Ananta Sesha, with a thousand heads. Ananta has obviously reference to the infinite substratum of the finite worlds, The former refers to the transcendent and infinite Brahman and the latter to his form-made finite in the cosmos. Sesha and Vishnu are like the two wheels of a single chariot which support each other. The thousand heads of the cosmic serpent recall the thousand-headed purusha of the Rigveda, an oft-repeated theme of the Puranas and a motif here re-employed for a new purpose of art and cult. In each major incarnation of Vishnu like that of Rama and Krishna there is a Sesha-counterpart of him. Sesha literally means the remainder which fills the mathematical contents of the whole. In a way the Puranas employ their own terminology to express the absolute and the relative and both are said to be the two aspects of Vishnu. 11

342 puranam - PURANA [Vol. VI., No. 2 As a deity Vishnu is known in the Rigveda and his greatest exploit is the taking of the three steps (Trivikrama); at first he is Vamana, but by taking three strides, he becomes Virat. This becomes the Trivikrama legend in the Puranas. Although cast in a mythical mould the meaning of the legend is clear. Each centre of new life is a dwarf in the beginning, that is of small or stunted growth; but by virtue of life's expanding rhythm it grows into its full form that is called the Giant, Virat. Even the cosmos grew into its present dimensions from tiniest beginnings. The child in the womb grows from the zygote into the foetus or from the first fertilised cell to the fullest embryo in the mother's womb by the clearly established law of the Dwarf becoming the Giant by the virtue of Vishnu's three steps. In each growth or movement these three steps are visible, since Vishnu is present everywhere. Outward movement (Gati), inward movement (Agati) and rest (Sthiti), these are the three forms in which Vishnu shows his activity. These are said in the Rigveda to be the Dharmas of Vishnu and the Puranas made of them a legend of great beauty as the story of Vishnu's Trivikrama incarnation. Another distinguishing feature of Vishnu is the fourfold nature of his form, his four arms holding four attributes, which has reference to the fourfold manifestation or the cosmic Svastika. The Rigveda describes it as the perfect chakra in the hands of Vishnu, which consists of four angles of 90掳 each (Rigveda, 1. 155. 6). What is said to be Yuva Kumara in the Rigveda is the same as Vamana in the Puranas, the 'young Hero', the 'beautiful boy'. He symbolises the principle of life (Prana), Agni, Surya, Narayana, Indra, etc., in the Upanishadic literature. The Puranas were called upon to take their clue from Vedic heights and to adjust their formulations to the new religious cults that were developing. So it happened in the case of Vishnu whose fuller descriptions display many new elements and a congeries of the old one. The Puranas were assimilative of many strands and wove them into a new fabric of fresh meaning and beauty. The concept of Vishnu as formulated by the Bhagavatas is of this type and is a theme surcharged with the spirit of devotion.

July, 1964] THE PURANAS AND HINDU RELIGION 343 The great God Mahadeva Siva is the third deity of the Trideva pantheon on whom the Puranas pour their highest love. It is difficult to bring under reasonable limits the manifold descriptions of the metaphysical, religious and mythical forms of Siva as given in the Puranas. Siva was also called Rudra, and Rudra was a distinctive name of Agni, the Vedic God in its most popular form. The identity of Agni and Rudra, an essentially Vedic theme, is repeated many times in the Puranas. The philosophical idea that Agni and Soma take part in the creation of life (Agnishomatmakam jagat) found its most beautiful expression in the Ardha-narisvara form of Siva elaborated in the Puranas. The right half is male and the left half is female, that is a combination of Siva and Parvati as the two parents of the world who are present in each and every centre where new life or Pranagni symbolising the babe or Kumara Skanda is produced. The Puranas speak of him as the son of Agni or Rudra who has become Siva by his marriage with Uma. Siva is said to have five faces which the Puranas clearly speak to be the five great elements, sky, air, fire, water and earth. Siva is Chandrasekhara, that is, bears the moon-god on his head. The moon represents the universal mind of the creator, namely the death-conquering principle of illumination or Samadhi. He is Gangadhara, where Ganga typifies the stream of Soma as it flows from the immortal heaven to the level of the mortal pancha bhutas. The matted locks of Siva on his head symbolise the principle of Akasa consisting of the directions of space in which the stream of Ganga first descends and then loses her way and finally is released to descend on mortal earth. Both the moon and the river Ganga point to the immortal nature of Siva by which he is called Mrtyunjaya. He has conquered death in his own body represented as poison and the serpents. He keeps the poison in his throat, that is, in the midst of Akasa where its deadly fumes are dispersed without any baneful effect. He is also immune from the poisonous fangs of the vipers that clasp around his body. The motif of the winding serpents was taken from the

344 puranam - PURANA [Vol. VI., No. 2 Rigveda where Vritrasura is the great serpent interlocked in a mortal combat with Indra. The king of serpents pendent along Siva's breast is the Puranic version of Vedic Vrtra. About one thing the Vedas and the Puranas are unanimous, namely that Rudra and Surya are identical. There is both death and immortality in Surya. On this side of Surya, in the material world, there is death and darkness (Mrityu, tamah) and on the other side there is light and immortality (Jyotih, amritam). This side and that side are to be viewed as the material and spiritual aspects of the mind in depth psychology of which each individual is constituted. Siva after all is the great deity, the divine principle in each individual, named Prana. He is a Tryambaka God, son of three mothers, Ida, Pingala and Sushumna, or the one who has three eyes, Sun, Moon and Fire. The Tryambaka form of Siva is mentioned in the Rigveda. The three mothers according to the Puranas are Durga, Sarasvati and Lakshmi, the three consorts of Siva, Brahma and Vishnu who typify in Puranic symbology the threefold manifestation of the one Sakti, who is the universal Mother. The religious cult of the Puranas is based on that of Sakti as one of their greatest contributions. The Devi-Bhagavata contains the most graphic description of the worship of the Great Goddess in her several other forms also. The Devi-Mahatmya which is one of the most popular texts under the name of DurgaSaptasati is a theme of sublime inspiration, the creation of a rare genius. Its several Stotras are an asset higher than which there is hardly anything known in Puranic imagery. In the Vedas both the male and the female aspects of the divine creator have been admitted. Aditi is said to be the mother of all gods. She was the same as the Great Mother Goddess, Mahi Mata, and identified with Sakti or Jagadamba, the Universal Mother, who creates all forms : Saktih srijati brahmandam, says the Devi-Bhagavata. This was the bed-rock of truth and conviction of the Puranic approach to the cult of the Female Energy which has found such elaboration not only in the Puranas but also in the Agamas and the Tantras to which the Hindu religion owes such deep-seated allegiance.

July, 1964] THE PURANAS AND HINDU RELIGION 345 The whole country is dotted with shrines of the Mother Goddess in various forms. The Puranas have brought about an integration of the thousands of the local Goddesses with the emergence of a supreme Goddess in whose transcendence all others abide and have their being in the living consciousness of the people, from Sarada to Minakshi and Hingula to Kamakshi, a vast world of the worship of the Female energy or Mother-Goddess has prevailed in this country in Hindu religion and the Puranas have taken note of it in the form of a list of 108 Devi-Pithas of which several versions are current. Other gods like the elephant-headed deity, Ganapati, the six-headed war-god Karttikeya, Surya and the Navagrahas, etc., form part of the Puranic pantheon. The technique of taking original Vedic elements and combining them with new folk elements to evolve the form of a god or goddess was favourite with the Purana writers to which they have taken recourse in the case of these gods also. Ganesa was identical with Brahmanaspati Soma which transcends the cosmic level and descends into the world through an enveloping filter. The Vedic Soma is symbolised as the sweet cake or sweet ball in the hands of Ganapati. The elephant head is the symbol of the universal mind, and the small mouse, the individual mind, which borrows in matter. Surya is interpreted in the Puranas in more ways than one. He is the deity of time riding on a grand chariot which is the solar year and which is described with its seven rays and seven vibrational tensions named as Rishis, Devas, Pitris, Apsarasas, Gandharvas, Yakshas and Rakshasas. This was the Indian VIBGYOR to represent the different conditions of actinic and thermal rays of the The whole country pays its homage to the sun-god of the Puranas by building numerous temples with sun images on wheeled chariots. The Bhavishya Purana is a document par excellence of Sun-worship, in which Iranian elements were admitted along with the Indian and a new synthesis of the two was produced both in the form of the image and in the attendants of Surya. sun. Hinduism is a living cult which has its scriptures at several levels. There is a tradition about Hinduism which Dr. Coomara-

346 puranam - PURANA [Vol. VI., No. 2 swamy used to give the name of Philosophia Perennis, that is Sanatana Dharma. Hinduism is re-inforced by great scriptural texts as well as by the living practices of millions of teachers and the common people. As such it is a unique discipline worthy of study and interpretation at the highest University levels just as other religions are studied at the Universities of America and Europe. Even Chairs for the specific study of Hinduism in its many branches have to be established. The Puranas on that account deserve an extended investigation not only about the organised presentation of their contents and constituted critical texts, etc., but what mainly concerns their meaning and the interpretation of their legends throwing light on the religion and philosophy of Hinduism. It should be realised that Hinduism is not an ordinary legacy. It is the vastest system of religious discipline having an unbroken tradition of five thousand years with four hundred millions of followers whose destiny and way of life are linked with the health of this great religion.