3. The Viṣṇu Purāṇa

3. Viṣṇu Purāṇa. “That in which Parāśara, beginning with the events of the Varāha Kalpa, expounds all duties, is called the Vaiṣṇava; and the learned know its extent to be twenty-three thousand stanzas^[1].” The third Purāṇa of the lists is that which has been selected for translation, the Viṣṇu. It is unnecessary therefore to offer any general summary of its contents, and it will be convenient to reserve any remarks upon its character and probable antiquity for a subsequent page. It may here be observed, however, that the actual number of verses contained in it falls far short of the enumeration of the Matsya, with which the Bhāgavata coñcurs. Its actual contents are not seven thousand stanzas. All the copies, and in this instance they are not fewer than seven in number, procured both in the east and in the west of India, agree; and there is no appearance of any part being wanting. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end, in both text and comment; and the work as it stands is incontestably entire. How is the discrepancy to be explained?