The Puranas.
The period of the Guptas saw the production of the
first of the series traditionally 18 Puranas voluminous texts that treat in
encyclopaedic manner the myths, legends, and genealogies of gods, heroes, and
saints.
The usual list of the Puranas is as follows:
the Brahma-, Brahmanda-, Brahmavaivarta
MaIkandeya-, Bhavisya-, and Vamana-Puranas;
the Visnu-, Bhagavata-, Naradiya-, Garuda-, Padma-,
and Varaha-Puranas;
and the Shiva-, Linga-, Skanda-, Agni- (or Vayu-),
Matsya-, and Kurma-Puranas.
Many deal with the same or similar materials.
With the epics, with which they are closely linked
in origin, the Puranas became the scriptures of the common people; they were
available to everybody, including women and members of the lowest order of society,
and were not, like the Vedas, restricted to initiated men of the three higher
orders.
The origin of much of their contents may be
non-Brahmanic, but they were accepted and adapted by the Brahmans, who thus
brought new elements into their orthodox religion.
At first sight the discontinuity between Vedic and
Puranic mythology appears to be so sharp that they might be considered as being
of altogether different traditions.
Yet it soon becomes clear that they are in part
continuous and that what appears to be discrepancy is merely a difference
between the liturgical emphasis of the Vedas and the more eclectic genres of
the epics and Puranas.
For example, the great god of the Rigveda is Indra,
the god of war and monsoon, prototype of the warrior; but for the population as
a whole he was more important as the rain god than the war god, and it is as
such that he survives in early Puranic mythology.
Little is learned in the Veda of goddesses, yet they
rose steadily in recognition in Puranic mythology.
Although in the Puranas some of the Vedic gods have
an afterlife in which their importance is reduced, other gods, previously of
less official significance, arise. The two principal gods of Puranic Hinduism
are Vishnu and Shiva. Both are known in the Vedas, though they play only minor
roles: Vishnu is the strider who, with his three strides, established the three
worlds heaven, atmosphere, and Earth and thus is present in all three orders;
and Rudra-Shiva is a mysterious god who must be propitiated.
Puranic literature documents the stages of the rise
of the two gods as they eventually attract to themselves the identities of
other popular gods and heroes:
Vishnu assumes the powers of those gods who protect
the world and its order, Shiva the powers that are outside and beyond Vishnu's.
To these two is often added Brahma, creator of the world and teacher of the
gods.
Although still a cosmic figure, Brahma appears in
the Puranas primarily to appease over-powerful sages and demons by granting
them boons.
In the Puranic literature of AD 500 to 1000,
sectarianism creeps into mythology, and one god is extolled above the others.
Of prime interest are cosmology, myths of the great ascetics who in some
respect eclipse the old gods, and myths of sacred places, usually rivers and
fords, whose powers to reward the pilgrim are often cited and related to local
legends.
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