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CHAPTER II BRAHMANICAL DEFINITION OF THE PURĀNA AND ITS APPLICABILITY TO THE
JAINA PURĀNAS
(Analysis af the Jaina Definition) The term Purāna etymologically. means "a thing of past origin ” But as indicated by the enumeration of the materials from which the original Purāna is said to have been compiled, the term in question meant in the Pre-Purānic period ancient traditional tales of gods, sages and celebrated kings of thc most ancient period These materials are said to have been (1) Akhyāna (floating popular tales), (11) Upalniana (legendary episodes), (111) Gâthās (old laudatory songs) and (iv) Kalpajoklis (accounts of cosmic ages) Next, in the later stage of the Purānic development the term came to be employed in the sense of a special class of sacred literature dealing with five topics such as (1) Sarga (crcation), (11) Pralisarga seconde ary creation after the dissolution of the world), (111) Vomsa
1 The term "Purāna' consists of two elements, thc basc Pura and the
taddhita suffix ana=(na=na) Pură signifies the sense of ancient and ana means 'the state of being', and thus thic term denotes 'a thing of ancicot origin' This mcaning is aptly conycycd by its annotation as Puräbhadam occurring in the past Siddhānta Kaumud on Panini's Aşládhjõgi, 4 3 23 आख्यानेश्चाप्युपाख्यानथाभि कल्पजोवितभि । पुराणसहिता चक्रे पुराणार्थ-विशारद ।
-Bd II 34 21, Vă 80 21 (wbich reads are in place of golfa), Vișnu III b 16, Also sec Pargiter, AIHT, pp 21, 24, 25, S D Gväni, Agnipurāna
A Study, pp 21-24 3 Pargiter, op al pp 22,25-27, 33-34
