Importance of Vedic, Puranic and Itihas Literature as a Source of History
(Of all the Shastras Brahma first revealed the Puranas,
After that Vedas came forth his mouth.)
The Vedas, Puranas and Itihas literature is a rich source of history covering the great ancient period, that we know as Chaturyug, or the Great Four Eras of Indian History.
Antiquity and Significance of Vedas and Puranas
Vedas are very informative concerning belief and knowledge of ancient India. The root of Ved is the word vid, to know, hence Ved signifies knowledge. The Vedas are not the work of single person, but it is the knowledge in the shape of hymns transmitted from Rishis to the disciples. The Vedas were originally believed to have sprung from the four mouths of Brahma. Vedvyas arranged all the information available till then in volumes of four books of Vedas, eighteen Puranas, and wrote the greatest epic Mahabharat.
Puranas are even older than Vedas.[1] In fact, folk tales contained in Puranas were began to be transmitted orally prior to the compositions of Vedas started. In many of the Puranas, it is specifically mentioned that without first reading Itihas and Puran, it is not possible to fully understand the import of four Vedas. Reading and understanding of Puran is even more important than reading Upnishad.[2] The tradition of textual additions to Puranas continued till the British rule in India.
The Puranas and Vedas constitute a very important branch of the sacred literature of Hindus. They play a vital role in the evolution of the Hindu religion embodying a Vedic view of life.
In Skand Puran, Puranic literature has been regarded as the very soul of the Vedas.[3] According to Naradiya Puran the Puranas are the essence of the Vedas.[4]
In Vayu Puran, Mahabharat and Shiv Puran, the importance of Puran is highlighted stating that Vedas may be understood and supported properly only with the help of study of Puran. Vedas dread from those who do not understand Puranas lest the ignorant may not misinterpret or kill it.[5] Skand Puran states that Puranas include essence of all the Vedas, there is no doubt about it. One who keeps knowledge of four Vedas including Upnishad but does not know about Puranas, he is not a worthy scholar.[6]
As to the date of Vedas, there is uncertainty in scholars, but these are undoubtedly considered as the oldest literary productions of the world. Colebrooke considered them to be written before the 14th century BC. Dr. Haug considers Vedic age from 2000 BC to 1200 BC, though he thinks that some of hymns might have been composed around 2400 BC. Max-Muller gives the probable date from 1200 BC to 800 BC.[7]
Puranas and Itihas as Historical Documents
History has to be written mainly from historical accounts. The pioneers of Indian history namely: Sir William Jones, Professor Max Muller, Professor Wilson and other Indologists of early nineteenth century knew this, and the first sources they looked for Indian history were the scriptures known as Itihas and Puran, such as Mahabharat, Bhagvat Puran, Vishnu Puran, Vayu Puran, Matasya Puran and Bhavishya Puran. A chapter in Skand Puran, and a later Puran such as Bhavishya, gives the dates of the historical events in Kaliyugabd, Vikrami Samvat, Shakabd and other Indian eras, still in use at present. From these accounts, it is possible to convert the dates of all the important historical events in the Christian era. However, with some effort, it is not impossible to put the Four Eras, namely Krit, Treta, Dwapar, and Kali Yug in chronological order.
All the narrations of the events after the battle of Kurukshetra are written in future tense. Narrations are usually made in a mythological language involving the gods. This could be very confusing to scholars not familiar with the Indian traditions.
Puranas as Immense Storehouse of Knowledge
As to the Puranas, these are the authority for nearly the whole of the popular Hinduism. They are largely read until the present day, or listened to in families. Today almost every available Puran has been translated into Hindi or English.
Though great discrepancies are found in all the Puranas about the different genealogical descriptions due to many reasons, yet by meticulous and patience comparative study, it is not impossible to reach a sensible conclusion.
Except Puranas, it is the Vedas, Itihas, Ramayan and Mahabharat, that are largely saved from the interpolations and distortions owing to their less mass production of copies. Hand scripted copies of Puranas were vigorously encouraged as the Brahmanical clergy needed them more for the purpose of holding story telling sessions. The religious masses would hear the mythical stories with awe and respect, along with many erudite lessons on various subjects of social relevance. Nevertheless, every Puran is an immense storehouse of knowledge from mundane to very serious topic on philosophy.
Essentially Puranas has to have five angas, or the sections, which must deal with the description of the geography of Jambudweep and seven continents and seas called Bhugol. Puran must also include the genealogy of the Surya and Chandravanshi kings and their descendants; the primary creation, cosmology and its origin from the state of nothingness, including astronomy and its associated sciences; the secondary creation, or the destruction (Pralay) and renovation of worlds, including chronology; reign of Manus, or periods called Manvantras, and the explanation of the Yug system of time measurement along with the genealogy of gods and rishis.
Jyotish, Sanskrit Grammar, Ayurveda, Archery, Weaponry, Architecture and Sculpturing, are also considered as the part of Atharav Ved known as Vedanga. Puranas explicitly and profusely deal with such subjects.
In the preface of his book ‘The Vishnu Purana, A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition,’ Indologist H.H. Wilson’s view that the Puranas were “pious frauds written for temporary purposes in subservience to sectarian imposture” or the noting of John Foster “In the Ramayana all is pure measureless raving… magnified and distorted to the last transcendent madness of extravagance” in Eclectic Review, Sept. 1810, cannot be taken serious note of.
The two Indian great Epics are no longer regarded as fiction or fanciful flights of poets, and these are now considered as the necessary writings through which we may know about our definite past history.
John Garrett, mentions that “the beauty, however, as well as the value, of the two great Epics of India, is now acknowledged. They are no longer regarded as worthless fictions or mere idle flights of imagination.”[8]
Interpolations and Insertions in Later Periods
There are some inconsistencies in the accounts of the different Puranas, partly due to the errors in copying, proof reading etc., including modern printing; and partly due to deliberate modifications to suit the purposes of the royal families, in whose courts the scriptures were maintained. These inconsistencies may be corrected by going through and comparing all the Puranas as well as the different versions of the same Puran. It could be hardly expected to have been done in an impartial manner by the early European orientalists, who were exploring a field hitherto completely unknown. The later orientalists, like Pargiter, could not do a proper assessment as they were already biased by the earlier works.
Script to some of the Puranas and up-Puranas were added till the time of Mughal emperors Akbar and Shajahan; they forced Brahman clergy to do so. Even Krista Puran was composed by Thomas Stephens (1549-1619) in Konkani language, later to be translated in Marathi, Hindi and English. The central character of this Puran is Christ, while the structure is of Hindu Puran. In fact at places it is a replica of Yog-Vasisth in English version with altered names.
The Venkateshwar edition of Bhavishya Puran has incorporated a summary of the Biblical account from Adam to Abraham, from the early chapters of Genesis. This interpolation has been made very recently in view of Christianity.[9]
Various kings and Ranas even got the Puranas composed and handwritten in an attempt to prove their descension from Suryavanshi or Chandervanshi kings, Shri Ram and Shri Krishan, as late as 13th century. To cover up the long gap of period of many centuries between Puranic kings and their own period, they got the descendants list stretched vertically, to the point of listing, may be brothers as sons and grandsons. There are large number of entries naming the persons in the list, whom we do not know much about, except their names only. This resulted in basic distortions—rishis, munis and Brahmans had to have exceptionally long life of many centuries, longer than what is humanly possible and credible, as compared to the life spans of kings and ranas. Religious mentors, philosophers and Brahmans had to devise ways to convince believers of this anomalies, necessitating insertions of the theories of Kalp, Manvantar and Yug into the corpus of Puranas. Brahmans were forced by Kshatriya kings to sacrifice ancient astronomical knowledge, calculations, research and science to meet their selfish ends.
About the Book :
This is a never before eye opening fact file of our ancient history. It is an exhaustive but completely original research work delving into Ramayan, Mahabharat and the Puranas, referenced with abundant quotations in Sanskrit. It redefines the temporal coordinates of the ‘Four Indian Eras’ known as the ‘Chaturyugas’ and also demonstrates that the so called Ramayan and Mahabharat periods were chronologically overlapping and converging into each other. These ‘Four Eras’ were actually exhausted in the duration of a little more than two centuries, covering the lifetime of famous kings, rishis and gods of the ancient India.
The book discusses about the 116 kings & rishis and others who lived through most of the Four Eras, even beyond and prior to it, and interacted with each other. The book also contains a description and exploits of the battling avtars of Vishnu, Shiv and Shakti; Saptchiranjivis; twelve major wars that were fought between Devatas and Daityas to protect the inherent belief and faith in Vedas and Vedic culture.
The question of Kali Yug is raised again with special reference to Aryabhatt and Brahmgupta, and in view of Puranic system, it is established that considering the commencement of Kali Yug in 3102 BC is an unjustified and hypothetical belief for purposes of deciding chronological Reference Point of the history of India. It discusses about the idea of Chaturyug as conceived in Vedas, using the allegory of the Cosmic bull.
It also proves beyond any doubt that Shri Ram and Shri Krishan were contemporary, only a couple of years apart. Kalki is already born and he commenced next Krit Yug, even in the lifetime of Vedvyas.
The book is full of many surprises, such as the fact that Valmiki and Vedvyas were also contemporary. It was from Valmiki that Vedvyas had learnt the principles of writing Puranas and Itihas; and that two daughters of Valmiki, Rohini and Pauravi, were wedded to Vasudev, father of Shri Krishan. It was Rohini who was the mother of Balram. Three sisters Maina, Dhanya and Kalavati were mothers of Parvati, Sita and Radha respectively, and so by implication Parvati, Sita and Radha were cousin sisters.
This breakthrough work, in addition, is informative about 14 Manus, their inter-relationships; Manvantras, Yugas, and much more from the Puranic and Itihas chronicles of Ancient India.
Available on Amazon.in
https://www.amazon.in/dp/9390758173?ref=myi_title_dp
[1] Matasya Puran, Adhyay 53, Shlok 3.
[2] Padam Puran, Adhyay 2, Shlok 50-51.
[3] Skand Puran, Prabhas Khand, Adhyay 2, Shlok 90.
[4] Naradiya Mahapuranam, Khemraj Shrikrishandass, Shri Vainkateshwar Steam Yantralaya, Mumbai, 1867, Adhyay 9, Shlok 97.
[5] Vayu Puranam, Rampratap Tripathi Shastri, Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Prayag, Allahabad, 1987, Adhyay 1, Shlok 200.
Mahabharat, Adi Parv, Adhyay 1, Shlok 267-268.
Shiv Puran, Vayviya Sanhita, Purv Khand, Adhyay 1, Shlok 39-40.
[6] Skand Puran, Prabhas Khand, Adhyay 2, Shlok 89-91.
[7] Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic, WJ Wilkins, Thacker & Co. London, Second edition, 1900, p. 7.
[8] Classical Dictionary of India, John Garrett, Higginbothan and Co. 1871, Preface p. vii.
[9] The Purana Text of the Dynasties of the Kali Age, P.E. Pargiter, Oxford University Press, 1913, p. xviii.
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