Vyasa
The eighteen great Purāṇas (traditional attribution)
Later compilation · Essential works
The eighteen great Purāṇas (traditional attribution)
महापुराण (mahāpurāṇa)
Encyclopaedias of mythology, cosmology, royal genealogies, ritual and devotion. According to the canonical list there are eighteen: Brahma, Padma, Viṣṇu, Śiva (or Vāyu), Bhāgavata, Nārada, Mārkaṇḍeya, Agni, Bhaviṣya, Brahmavaivarta, Liṅga, Varāha, Skanda, Vāmana, Kūrma, Matsya, Garuḍa and Brahmāṇḍa. The lists vary slightly from text to text, and alongside them there are numerous upapurāṇas or minor Purāṇas.
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Authorship note
Tradition ascribes to Vyāsa the composition or compilation of the eighteen mahāpurāṇas. Rocher shows that they were composed and reworked during the first millennium CE and later; the attribution is a formula of authority.
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Other works by Vyasa
- Mahābhārata · 400
- Mahābhārata I: Ādiparvan (The Book of the Beginning)
- Mahābhārata II: Sabhāparvan (The Book of the Assembly)
- Mahābhārata III: Āraṇyakaparvan (The Book of the Forest)
- Mahābhārata IV: Virāṭaparvan (The Book of Virāṭa)
- Mahābhārata V: Udyogaparvan (The Book of the Effort)
- Mahābhārata VI: Bhīṣmaparvan (The Book of Bhīṣma)
- Mahābhārata VII: Droṇaparvan (The Book of Droṇa)
- Mahābhārata VIII: Karṇaparvan (The Book of Karṇa)
- Mahābhārata IX: Śalyaparvan (The Book of Śalya)
- Mahābhārata X: Sauptikaparvan (The Book of the Night Raid)
- Mahābhārata XI: Strīparvan (The Book of the Women)
- Mahābhārata XII: Śāntiparvan (The Book of Peace)
- Mahābhārata XIII: Anuśāsanaparvan (The Book of Instruction)
- Mahābhārata XIV: Āśvamedhikaparvan (The Book of the Horse Sacrifice)
- Mahābhārata XV: Āśramavāsikaparvan (The Book of the Hermitage)
- Mahābhārata XVI: Mausalaparvan (The Book of the Clubs)
- Mahābhārata XVII: Mahāprasthānikaparvan (The Book of the Great Journey)
- Mahābhārata XVIII: Svargārohaṇaparvan (The Book of the Ascent to Heaven)
- Harivaṃśa (The Lineage of Hari)
- Bhagavad Gītā (The Song of the Lord) · 200
- The division of the Veda into four collections (traditional attribution)
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa · 900
- Viṣṇu Purāṇa
- Devī Bhāgavata Purāṇa
- Adhyātma Rāmāyaṇa
- Brahmasūtras (Aphorisms on Brahman) · 400
- Yogabhāṣya (Commentary on the Yogasūtras) · 325
- Vyāsa Smṛti
Sources
- Rocher, Ludo. The Purāṇas. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1986 (A History of Indian Literature, vol. II, fasc. 3).
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