PURANA

(Sanscrit, a poem.) The sacred books of India which contain the explanation of the Shaster (which see). There are eighteen books of the Puranas; chiefly filled with legends of the inferior gods and the heroes of Hindostan. (See Mem. de I' Acad, des Inscr. vol. xxxviii.) It should be stated, that Profe or Wilson intimates his disbelief of the received opinion as to the great antiquity of the Puranas, and believes the writings now known under that name to be mere imitations of lost originals. (Preface to his translation of the Vishnu Purana.) See Asiatic Journal, Dec. 1840. [s. 1013]