Original Purana-Samhita

Original Purana-Samhita [mulapuranasamhita] / By Dr. V. S. Agrawala ; Professor, College of Indology, Banaras Hindu University / 232-245

[ atra mulapuranasamhitaya vyasah romaharsanasahayyena esa mulapuranasamhimta sadbhyah kasyapah savarnih samsapayanasca utpatti-svarupa- vistaradivisaye vivecanam krtam | maharsina vedavyasena vedasamhitanam puranasamhitanam ca samkalanam krtva sisyebhyastasamadhyapanam krtam | puranasamhitastu vyasat prakkalata eva pracalita asan sutaisca tasam pravacanam krtam | sutanam romaharsanah pramukha asit | mulapuranasamhitayah samgraham krtavan | sisyebhya adhyapita | tesu sisyesu puranasamhitayah prathamakartaro babhuvuh | imah puranasamhitah catuspada asan | tatra prathame prakriyapade sargavarnanam, dvitiye anusangapade devarsinam brahmarsinam ca vamsavarnanam, trtiye upodghatapade manvantaravarnanam rajarsivamsavarnananca caturthe upasamharapade ca pratisargavarnanamasit | esa catuspadavyavastha vayubrahmandapuranayoh adyapi drsyate | kalantarena mulapuranasamhitayamaneke navinavisaya api samavistah, yena puranasamhitaya vistaro babhuva | atra vayupuranavisayanam samalocanam krtva, mulavayupuranasamhitayah svarupam nirdharitam praksipta- dhyayanamapi prthak svarupam pradarsitam | tatraivam nirdharitam mulavayu- puranameva mulapuranasamhita'tra svikrta | ] The compilation of the Purana Samhita is traditionally attributed to Krishnadvaipayana Vyasa. He also accomplished a similar literary task in respect of the mass of Vedic mantras which in course of time had became divided into many schools. Their names for each Veda are listed in the Charana-Vyuha and several Puranas. The credit is given to Vyasa for organising the Samhita texts of the four Vedas through his four pupils viz. Paila for Rigveda, Vaisampayana for Yajurveda, Jaimini for Samaveda and Sumantu for Atharvaveda. Here we are concerned with what Dvaipayana Vyasa undertook to do with respect to the transmission of the Purana Samhita.

July, 1966] ORIGINAL PURANA SAMHITA 233 We are indebted to the Vayu Purana and the Brahmanda Purana for a precise statement of how Dvaipayana Vyasa as an institution accomplished the difficult and important task of originating the Purana Samhita. The two texts are as follows:- patsah krtva mayapyuktam puranamrsisattamah || atreyah sumatirdhiman kasyapo krtavranah | bharadvajo'gnivarcasca vasistho mitrayusca yah | savarnih saumadattistu susarma samsapayanah | ete sisya mama brahman puranesu drdhavratah | tribhistisrah krtastisrah samhitah punareva hi | kasyapah samhitakarta savarnih samsapayanah | mamika ca caturthi syatsa caisa purvasamhita | sarvasta hi catuspadah sarvascaikarthavacikah | pathantare prthagbhuta vedasakha yatha tatha || catuhsahasikah sarvah samsapayanikamrte | lomaharsanika mula tatah kasyapika 'para | savarnikastrtiyasta yajurvakyarthamanditah | samsapayanikascanya nodanarthavibhusitah | ( Vayu, 61.55-61) satsah krtva mayapyuktam puranamrsisattamah | atreyah sumatirdhiman kasyapo'krtavranah || bharadvajo'gnivarcasca vasistho mitrayusca yah | savarnih saumadattisca susarma samsapayanah || ete sisya mama proktah puranesu dhrtavratah | tribhistatra krtastisrah samhitah punareva hi || kasyapah samhitakarta savarnih samsapayanah | mamika tu caturthi syaccatasro mulasamhitah || sarvasta hi catuspadah sarvascaikarthavacikah | pathantare vrthabhuta vedasakha yatha tatha ||

234 puranam - PURANA [Vol. VIII, No. 2 catuhsahasrikah sarva samsapayanikamrte | lomaharsanika mula tatah kasyasika para || savarnika trtiya 'savrjuvakyartham mandita | samsapayanika canya nodanarthavibhusita || (Brahmanda Purana II. 35. 63-69) The Vayu gives a list of 27 teachers who had inherited the Purana lore from Brahma upto Krishna Dvaipayana. is as follows : brahma dadau sastramidam puranam matarisvane | tasmaccosanasa praptam tasmaccapi brhaspatih brhaspatistu provaca savitre tadanantaram || savita mrtyave pradanmrtyuscendraya vai punah | indrascapi vasisthaya sopi sarasvataya ca || sarasvatastridhamne ca tridhama ca saradvate | saradvatastrivistaya sontariksaya dattavan || varsine cantarikso vai sopi trayyarunaya ca | trayyaruno dhananjaye sa ca pradatkrtanjaye || krtanjayattrnanjayo bharadvajaya sopyatha | gautamaya bharadvajah sopi niryantare punah || niryantarastu provaca tatha vajasravaya ca | sa dadau somasusmaya sa dadau trnabindave || trnabindustu daksaya daksah provaca saktaye | sakteh parasarascapi garbhasthah srutavanidam || parasarajjatu karnastasmad dvaipayanah prabhuh | dvaipayanatpunascapi maya proktam dvijottamah || (Vayu 103.58-66) This list

July, 1966] ORIGINAL PURANA SAMHITA 235 Separating Brahma and Vayu as mythical names we have a list of 25 teachers for whom a period of 500 years may be allowed counting 20 years for each generation from the time of Usanas to that of Dvaipayana Vyasa. That was the pre-Samhita stage of Purana transmission. Its chronological position is problematical but a tentative supposition may be 1500 B. C.-1000 B. C. or even somewhat earlier. We find from several versions e.g. in Linga Purana ch. 64. that Parasara in the above list occupied an important position so far as Purana Samhita was concerned; and it appears that Vyasa himself owed his knowledge of the Puranas to Parasara. It is said that Vasishtha had a son named Sakti whose posthumous son was Parasara. His pupil was Jatukarna and his disciple was Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa (S- :: Vayu 103.66). Probably Jatukarana was a senior fellow student of Vyasa and the two learnt the Purana from Parasara. Vyasa's role in this literary activity was two-fold: firstly, his relationship with the bards who were the traditional custodians of the Puranas and secondly, with the authorship of the Purana Sammhita in a precise literary form. MULA SAMHITA Vyasa found that the material of the Puranas was in the hands of the Sutas or bards. Their number seems to have been quite large and they were connected with many families and royal houses and they went about in their round meeting people with the object of imparting to them what they knew of the ancient genealogies, ballads and anecdotes. They were also invited for this purpose and held recitations. This institution of the bards was an ancient one referred to in the Yajurveda (Satarudriya Book XVI. 18, 26 as Suta Ksattra). The most important person of this class in the time of Vyasa was Romaharshana or Lomaharshana. He was well versed in the material that had been orally handed down. He was taken into confidence by Vyasa to collaborate in organising this branch of knowledge in a systematic manner and to continue what the Sutas were already doing in the 2

236 puranam - PURANA [Vol. VIII, No. 2 form of Katha recitations. The work of collaboration between Dvaipayana and Lomaharshana seems to have been on this pattern that Vyasa supplied the Vedic material of Puranic lore since the Puranas also existed in the time of Vedas and the Purana knowlege is mentioned there by name. This is clearly specified in the Vayu stating that Vyasa undertook the substance of the Vedic subject mater to incorporate the same in the Puranic corpus sarvavedarthaghatitam vyasah pauranika katham Vayu 104.20. This material seems to have appertained to various creation myths of the Rigveda and other Samhitas. The Suta, on the other hand, contributed his portion in the form of dynastic lists and genealogies of Rishis and kings. This was the Mula Samhita or the original Purana Samhita at which Dvaipayana himself seems to have worked. The Vishnu Purana ascribes its authership to Romaharshana and says that this formed the Mula Samhita which was the original of the three subsequent Samhitas giving the form of definite texts by Kasyapa, Savarni and Samsapayana. This seems to have contained mostly the topics and subjects forming the Purana tradition and was of the nature of that class of literature which, according to Paninian definition, was styled as 'tena proktam' (IV.3.101). Lomaharshana being instructed in this manner by Vyasa as teacher continued the recitations of the Purana Samhita as other members of his class had been doing from much earlier times. Dvaipayana and Lomaharshana may be credited with the pravachana of the Mula Purana Samhita in a manner that the Prokta technique of book-making implied. It was the cultivation of a new branch of knowledge by an eminent teacher who imparted its instructions to his desciples or members of his school. His own son named as Lauma-harshani Suta became an adept in this art. The house-holders assembled at Naimisharanya and known as Naimishiyah besided under the leadership of Saunaka to listen to a prolonged recitation of the Purana Samhita from the mouth of Lomaharshana. The Mula-Samhita was styled as Lomaharshanika Samhita. It is problematical how far that Samhita was in the form of verses. It rather seems to have consisted mainly of

July, 1966] ORIGINAL PURANA SAMHITA 237 the topics on which Lomaharshana expaliated for the delectation of his Naimishiya audience. We know from other sources that the progress of the twelve year session was interrupted during its ninth year (Tandya* 25.6.5). The thread was later on taken up on the banks of the Sarasvati in Kurukshetra by some other Suta. The next approach of Romaharshana in fulfilment of his obligation was more of an academic nature i. e. teaching the Mula Samhita i. e. the Lomaharshanika Samhita or the Puranic lore to regular students who studied as an integral subject or branch of learning and on the tradition in schools similar to that of the Vedic schools. Romaharshana admitted six pupils or students for this purpose to whom he imparted the mula-samhita as his Brahmacharins. They were Brahmacharin students under him, whose term of admission coincided with the period in which they learned the subject. For this special purpose we are envisaging some arrangement as implied in Panini's rule tadasya brahmacaryam (V. 1.94), The names of these six students are recorded in both Vayu and Brahmanda together with their Gotra names as follows: 1. sumati atreya (i.e. of Atri Gotra) 2. akrtavrana kasyapa (ie of the Kasyapa Gotra ) 3. agnivarcah bharadvaja (ie of the Bharadvaja Gotra) 4. mitrayu vasistha (ie of the Vasishtha Gotra) 5. saumadatti savarni (ie of the Savarna Gotra) 6. susarma samsapayana (ie of the Samsapa Gotra) (also Vishnu III. 6. 17-9 sat sisyastasya cabhavan, 17 ) * te ha saptadasebhya evadhyuttasthusta u hocuryo nah prajayamrdhyatai sa etatsatram samapayaditi | tadetatsamipsanto brahmanassatramasate | (ti0 ) te naimisiyah saptadasebhya eva saptadasastoma kebhyastribhyah samvatsarebhyah sapta- darsa samapyaiva'dhyuttasthuh satradutthita asan | taucha ete khalu tadevamucuh yo | diksito no'smakam prajayam putrapautradilaksanayam rdhyatai yajnangaih samrddhassyat sa etat satra ekavimsavarsatrayamapyanusthaya samapayediti | etavata'sya navasamvatsaranusthanam vidyate | tatha'pi sadhanasamrddhavapyanapadi saptadasebhya utthapanam kuryadityuktam bhavati | yasmadyo nah prajayamrdhyata iti naimisiyai- ruktam tasmadityarthah | tatsatram samipsantah samapayitumicchanto brahmana dvadasa samvatsarameva satramasate (iti tandya mahabrahmane sayanacaryaviracite madhaviye vedarthaprakase ) |

238 puranam - PURANA [Vol. VIII, No. 2 It is said that Romaharshana made six divisions of his Mula Purana Samhita and taught his six pupils each one of them. Evidently this Mula Samhita had not yet taken the form of a book but consisted mainly of large number of topics and subjects. Their exact nature is not indicated. The Panchalakshana Purana is a later attempt to give some idea of what the Mula Samhita comprised, but the same seems to have been of a fluid nature in which floating topics and themes from earlier and contemporary traditions were admitted with a certain amount of freedom. The details of the corpus depended on the interest of the listeners and the competence of the bards to comply with their wishes. The method of the interlocutors and narrators which is always recorded in the Purana therefore played an important part in the organising of the subject matter. PARA-SAMHITA Of the six students of Romaharshana only three became the regular authors of the Purana Samhita texts. These were firstly Kasyapa, secondly Savarni and thirdly Samsapayana. The other three viz. Sumati Atreya, Mitrayu Vasishtha, Agnivarchas Bharadvaja seem to have been of a less marked calibre and did not launch upon any literary venture. The literary activity of the three pupils comes under the category of Krte granthe (IV. 3. 87) of Panini as coming next to 'tena proktam'; this is clearly mentioned in the Vayu Purana. : i.e. he gave it the form of a regular text or book. Thus there were two stages in the art of book-making, viz., the cultivation of a branch of knowledge by a master mind or original thinker and secondly, its treatment in the form of a book. These two stages were distinguished as 'tena proktam' and 'adhikritya krite granthe'. The teacher who mastered the subjcct and gave it the form of a regular book was the real grantha-karta Such was the status of Kasyapa who is mentioned as Samhita Karta. The style of Kasyapa's work was simple and it consisted of Vakyas or sentences having some topics for their meaning : ). This appears to signify that these Samhitas (

July, 1966] ORIGINAL PURANA SAMHITA 239 were in a versified form, in a very simplified style as we find in several places in the extant older Puranas. The Samhita texts of these three authors have been distinguished as far to show their difference from the mulasamhita . The Samhita text of Kasyapa Akritavrana became famous as Kasyapika, the Samhita of Savarni Saumadatti as Savarnika and the third one of Samsapayana as Samsapayanika. These three were regular Samhita's which took the form of text or books consisting of slokas, of which the common source was the MulaSamhita of Romaharshana. The extent as to the number of verses of these regular texts is given as 4000 slokas each. This held good in the case of Kasyapika and Savarnika but the extent of the w some what different. What exactly it was is not said but in the Linga Purana (64.122) we read of six thousand verses ( as the Purana text in the initial stages when these compilations were being done and that may have been the number in the samsapayanika samhita . THE THEORY OF PATHANTARA The reason why one Mula Samhita became transformed as three Para-samhitas in the hands of Kasyapa, Savarni and Samspayana is so clear and precise that any modern diaskuest could not wish for anything better. It is said that there was no essential difference between them but their distinction was rooted in variant readings or repetitions : pathantare prthagbhuta vedasakha yatha tatha . The comparision with the Vedic Sakhas which were distinct from each other owing to their variants of words and phrases or repetitions of Mantras here and there is quite apt and graphic. In order to give a clear idea of the one Purana Samhita becoming three-fold in the hands of three disciples who had studied the subject from a common teacher. ekarthavacikah - This statement is quite happy and initiates us more intimately into the inner nature of the three subsequent Samhitas. They were treating of the same topics or expressing the same meaning

240 puranam - PURANA [Vol. VIII, No. 2 or declaring identical themes (:). The uniformity of significance was the most distinguishing feature of authorship for the three Samhitas. What this subject matter (1) was we are left to conjecture and we may not be far from the truth if we discover these topics from the nature of the earlier (5) Puranic text. Cosmogony () and genealogy were essentially two such subjects. The other two appear to have been Manvantara descriptions and pratisarga or dissolution. Thus Sarga and Pratisarga became one pair and Manvantara and Vamsa another pair of the subjects treated. For this reason the original Samhitas consisted of four padas or a four-fold divisions and for following this scheme they were known as catuspadah ('catuspadam puranam tu brahmana vihitam pura ' Vayu, 32.67.) The division is preserved only in the Vayu and Brahmanda Puranas. These are named as :- prakriyapada prakriya prathamah padah kathyavastuparigrahah | upodghato 'nusangasca upasamhara eva ca || Vayu 4.13. anusangapada upodghatapada and upasamharapada These more or less correspond to the definition as follows:- 1. i. e. creation corresponds to Sarga; prakrya implying aff. Chs. 1-6 in Vayu are so named. The original topics under this head seem to have dealt with ekarnavavidhi, hiranyagarbha or f and the birth of T from the golden egg. These three were Vedic topics enunciating the metaphysics of creation and were recast by Puranic writers in their own mould and definitions. 2. anusangapada - anusanga literally implied connected matter i.e. the subjects connected with the first portion of srstividya . It

July, 1966] ORIGINAL PURANA SAMHITA 241 included the birth and genealogies of brahmarsi s, devarsi s and rajarsi s but the last topic was transfered to the division. In the Vayu the ac division extends from Ch. 7 upto 58 with a supplementary portion of six chapters (59-64) added later At the end of its 58th ch. the Vayu states :- anusangah samakhyatah srstisargam nibodhata | (58. 126). At the end of ch. 64 the same is repeated as follows:- ityesa vai maya pado dvitiyah kathito dvinah | (64. 31) The description of the fs seems to have formed part of devadi srsti and came under this pada. 3. upodghatapada division of the Puranas It seems to correspond to the together with the dynastic lists of Solar and Lunar dynasties and the achievements of individual kings like Mandhata, Harischandra, Pururavas and Yayati who also were dovetailed under Vamsa. This seems to have been the subject styled 3ara or the beginning and continuation of the genealogies. The subject of Manvantaras specially svayambhuva and vaivasvata is found in three places in Vayu viz. ch. 21, 61-62 and 85-89. This may be due to careless redaction and interposition of exotic material in place which do not conform to the context. 4. upasamhara This was the same topic as cf treating of the destruction of the worlds and to withdrawal of creation into its source. Vayu names this frankly as fa (ch. 102). THE PANCHALAKSANA The The number of topics of the Puranas is generally put as pancalaksana viz. sarga, pratisarga, vamsa, manvantara and vamsanucarita (Vayu 4. 10-11 ; Matsya 53-64). These subjects seem to have been quite compact to cover the pages of a single book of modest size, i. e. four thousand slokas in extent. It is possible to recover it from the extant oldest

242 puranam - PURANA Puranas, lika the Vayu, Brahmanda etc. In number of topics was increased considerably [Vol. VIII, No. 2 course of time the from five to ten and from ten to hundred or more as found in the (Ch. 53 and 290) (II. 10. 1-6) and the affar (XI. 31-56). According to the Narada P. (Ch. 92-109) this list includes several hundred topics for all the eighteen Puranas. ANALYSIS OF THE PRESENT VAYU PURANA: It is necessary to examine closely the contents of the present Vayu Purana to recover the Mula Samhita of about 4000 slokas. We may proceed by eliminating such chapters as appear on the surface to bear the stamp of a later date or subsequent redaction, which are as follows:Chapter 1. INTERPOLATIONS PRAKRIYA PADA Subject Anukramanika (a long ch. of 205 slokas giving the contents of the Purana). ANUSHANGA PADA Chaturasrama vibhaga Pasupatayoga 8. 11. 12. Yogopasarga 13. Yogaisvarya 14-15. Pasupatayoga 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 23. 24. 25. 26. Sauchachara Paramasramavidhi Yati Prayaschitta Arishtanirupana Omkarapraptilakshana Mahesvaravatara yoga Sarvastava (Sivastotra by Vishnnu) Madhukaitabh-otpatti Svarotpattih

July, 1966] ORIGINAL PURANA SAMHITA 27. 32. 34-53. 54. 55. 29. 56. 57. 58-64. 71-87. 97-98, 243 Mahadevatanu-varnanam (A description of the 8 names of Siva and of the 9th as Kumara). Yugadharma Jambudvipa, Bhuvanakosa, Jyotish-prachara. Nilakanthastava Lingodbhava. Agnivamsa-A concocted genealogical tree of the family of Fire which was improved by some Vedic scholar during Gupta times. The idea was inspired by the Surya and Chandra-Vamsa list. It is a compilation of 49 names of fire arranged as a family tree. It is also found in Matsya P. and also in the Epic. (eidu od *Pitrivarnanam Yajnavarnanam Chaturyugakhyana Rishi Lakshana Veda Sakha Puranasakha, Mahasthana tirtha, Prithividohana. UPODGHATA PADA Sraddha Vishnumahatmya UPASAMHARA PADA .20 101. 104. 105-112. Bhurlokadivyavastha Vyasasamsayopanodanam. Gayasraddha. 103. Srishtivarnanam-A repetition of the description of creation in later terminology importing the agency vitasud of the 3 gunas and three devas. The above statement of the spurious material extending over 80 adhyayas appears to be very near the truth with a probable margin of 10%. The broad topics relating to Pasupata yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, Bhuvanakosha, Sraddha, Gaya Mahatmya are undoubtedly later fabrications and cannot in any manner be ascribed to the Mula-samhita. Besides the subject-matter being 3

244 : puranam - PURANA [Vol. VIII, No. 2 of a later stratum some of these chapters are missing in manuscripts and their number of verses is quite long. The size of the original chapters is usually much less in their number of slokas. Thus we may re-arrange the Chatushpada Mula Puiana Samhita as fonfined to the following topics and chapters as far as possible to retreive them from the present recension of the Purana. Original Chapters 2. 3. 4-6. 7. 9. 10. 21-22. 28. 30. 31. 33. 65. 66-69. 70. 88-89. 90-95. 96. 99. 96 100. 103, I. PRAKRIYA PADA Subjects Dvadasavarshika Sattia Prajapatisrishti Srshtiprakaranam (Account of creation). II. ANUSHANGA PADA Pratisamdhivarnanam Devadisrishti Dakshavamsa Kalpanirupanam Rishivamsa (genealogy of the Rishis) Dakshasapa Devavamsa Svayambhuvavamsa III. U PODGHATA PADA Prajapativamsa Kasyapiya Prajasarga Rishivamsa Vaivasvatamanuvamsa Somavamsa Vishnuvamsa (A corollary of the Somavamsa subsequently added) Turvasvadivamsa IV. UPASAMHARA PADA Manvantaranisarga (should be carried to Upodghata) Pratisarga-varnanam.

July, 1966] ORIGINAL PURANA SAMHITA 245 Thus we have for the Mula-Purana Samhita or the Romaharshanika Samhita or the Samhita-text as constituted of 4000 slokas, a text comprised of about 30 chapters. The Samhita produced under the authorship of Kasyapa named Kasyapika may Have been a simple modest text of this nature. The number of Adhyayas may have been a little more but we think we are not far from the truth in arriving at the names of topic and the selection of subjects that were included in the four padas of the Kasyapika Samhita.