Puranas

Puranas (Sanskrit: पुराण, romanized: Purāṇa, lit. 'Ancients') are a vast genre of Hindu literature that include a wide range of topics, especially legends and other traditional lore. The Puranas are known for the intricate layers of symbolism depicted within their stories. Composed originally in Sanskrit and in other South Asian languages, several of these texts are named after major Hindu deities such as Devi, Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma. The Puranic genre of literature is found in both Hinduism and Jainism.

The Puranic literature is encyclopedic, and it includes diverse topics such as cosmogony, cosmology, genealogies of gods, goddesses, kings, queens, heroes, heroines, sages, other gods, other goddesses, folk tales, pilgrimages, temples, medicine, astronomy, grammar, mineralogy, humor, love stories, theology, philosophy, etc. The content is highly inconsistent across the Puranas, and each Purana has survived in numerous manuscripts which are themselves inconsistent. The Hindu Mahapuranas are traditionally attributed to Vyasa, but many scholars consider them likely the work of many authors over the centuries; in contrast, most Jaina Puranas can be dated and their authors assigned.

There are 18 Mukhyapuranas (Major Puranas) and 18 Upapuranas (Minor Puranas), with over 400,000 verses. The first versions of various Puranas were likely to have been composed between 3rd and 10th century CE. While the Puranas do not enjoy the authority of a scripture in Hinduism and are considered Smritis, they shaped Hinduism more than the Vedas, providing a "culture synthesis" in weaving and integrating the diverse beliefs of a great number of local traditions into the Vedic-Brahmanic fold. The Puranas praise many gods and goddesses and the religious practices included in them are considered Vaidika (congruent with Vedic literature). The Puranic literature wove with the Bhakti movement in India, and both Dvaita and Advaita scholars have commented on the underlying Vedantic themes in the Maha Puranas.