Chapter 5.11 - The Daurvasasa-purana (study)

THE DAURVASASA-UPAPURANA (alias ASHCARYA-UPAPURANA?) This work is mentioned in all the lists of Upapuranas except those contained in the Ekamra-purana and the Brhaddharma-purana In some of these lists it is named as 'Durvasasokta'; the Saura-samhita of the Skanda-purana calls it 'Durvasah-samprokta'; and Narasimha Vajapeyin names it as 'Durvasah-purana'. In the lists of Upapuranas contained in the Kurma-purana, Garuda-purana, and Skanda-purana VII (Prabhasa-khanda) as well as in those lists which are ascribed to the Kurma-purana in the Malamasa-tattva, Viramitrodaya, Caturvarga-cintamani and Sabdakalpadruma, this Upapurana is described as 'durvasasoktam ascaryam.' 23 See Chapter III (under Narasimha-purana) above. 24 For these lists see Chapter I above,

We are not sure whether the word 'ascarya' is the title of the Upapur- ana 'narrated by Durvasas', or it is merely an adjective denoting the nature of this Upapurana. Radharamana Gosvami-bhattacarya, in his commentary on the Malamasa-tattva, takes the word 'ascarya' to be the title of the Upapurana 'narrated by Durvasas'. 25 According to the Reva-khanda (of the Skanda-purana) and the Revamahatmya the 'Daurvasasa' Upapurana belonged to the 'Bhagavata' Purana. So, this Upapurana must have been a work of the Vaisnavas. 26 The mention of this Upapurana in all the comparatively early lists of Upapuranas shows that it must have been written before 800 A.D. and that it attained great popularity at an early date. As no Manuscript of this Upapurana or of any tract on Vrata, Mahatmya etc. claiming to belong to it, has been discovered as yet, and as none of the commentators and Nibandha-writers is found to draw upon or refer to this work, it is not possible to say anything about its contents. It seems that this work became extinct even before the tenth century A. D.