Save in details, even the special 'faith-scriptures' called Tantras go no further than go the Pur[=a]nas in advocating the cult of their particular divinities. And to this advocacy of special gods all else in this class of writings is subordinated. The ideal Pur[=a]na is divided into five parts, cosmogony, new creations, genealogies of gods and heroes, manvantaras (descriptions of periodic 'ages,' past and future), and dynasties of kings. But no extant Pur[=a]na is divided thus. In the epic the doctrine of trinitarianism is barely formulated. Even in the Harivança, or Genealogy, va[.n]ça, of Vishnu, there is no more than an inverted triunity, 'one form, three gods,' where, in reality, all that is insisted upon is the identity of Vishnu and Çiva, Brahm[=a] being, as it were, perfunctorily added.[10] In the Pur[=a]nas, on the other hand, while the trinity is acknowledged, religion is resolved again into a sort of sectarian monotheism, where the devotee seems to be in the midst of a squabbling horde of temple-priests, each fighting for his own idol. In the calmer aspects of religion, apart from sectarian schism, these writings offer, indeed, much that is of second-rate interest, but little that is of real value. The idle speculations in regard to former divinities are here made cobweb thin. The philosophy is not new, nor is the spirit of religion raised, even in the most inspired passages, to the level which it has reached in the Divine Song. Some of these Pur[=a]nas, of which eighteen chief are cited, but with an unknown number of subordinate works,[11] may claim a respectable age; many of them are the most wretched stuff imaginable, bearing about the same literary and historical relation to earlier models as do the later legal Smritis. In fact, save for their religious (sectarian) purport, the Pur[=a]nas for sections together do not differ much in content from legal Smritis, out of which some may have been evolved, though, probably, they were from their inception legendary rather than didactic. It is more probable, therefore, that they appropriated Smriti material just as they did epic material; and though it is now received opinion that legal Smritis are evolved out of S[=u]tras, this yet can be the case only with the oldest, even if the statement then can be accepted in an unqualified form. In our own opinion it is highly probable that Pur[=a]nas and later legal Smritis are divergent developments from the same source.[12] One gives an account of creation, and proceeds to tell about the social side; the other sticks to the accounts of creation, goes on to theology, takes up tales of heroes, introduces speculation, is finally wrenched over to and amplified by sectarian writers, and so presents a composite that resembles epic and law, and yet is generally religious and speculative.
A striking instance of this may be seen in the law-book of 'Vishnu.' Here there is an old base of legal lore, S[=u]tra, interlarded with Puranic material, and built up with sectarianism. The writer is a Vishnuite, and while recognizing the trinity, does not hesitate to make his law command offerings to Krishna V[=a]sudeva, and his family (Pradyumna, Aniruddha), along with the regular Brahmanic oblations to older spirits.[13] Brahmanism recognized Hindu deities as subordinate powers at an early date, at least as early as the end of the S[=u]tra period; while Manu not only recognizes Vishnu and Çiva (Hara), but recommends an oblation to Çr[=i] and K[=a]l[=i] (Bhadrak[=a]li, here, as elsewhere, is Durg[=a]).[14]
In their original form the Pur[=a]nas were probably Hesiodic in a great extent, and doubtless contained much that was afterwards specially developed in more prolix form in the epic itself. But the works that are come down as Pur[=a]nas are in general of later sectarian character, and the epic language, phraseology, and descriptions of battles are more likely taken straight from the epic than preserved from ante-epic times. Properly speaking one ought to give first place to the Pur[=a]nas that are incorporated into the epic. The epic M[=a]rkandeya Pur[=a]na, for instance, is probably a good type of one of the earlier works that went by this name. That the present Pur[=a]nas are imitations of the epic, in so far as they treat of epic topics, may be presumed from the fact that although they often have the formulae intact of the battlefield,[15] yet do they not remain by epic descriptions but add weapons, etc., of more modern date than are employed in the original.[16]
The sectarian monotheism of the Pur[=a]nas never resulted in dispensing with the pantheon. The Hindu monotheist is a pantheist, and whether sectarian or philosophical, he kept and added to his pantheon.[17] Indra is still for warriors, Maruts for husbandmen, although old views shift somewhat. So for example, in the K[=u]rma Pur[=a]na the Gandharvas are added for the Ç[=u]dras.[18] The fourfoldness, which we have shown in the epic to be characteristic of Vishnu, is now represented by the military epithet caturvy[=u]has (agmen quadratum), in that the god represents peace, wisdom, support, and renunciation; though, as a matter of fact, he is avy[=u]ha, i.e., without any of these.[19] Starting with the physical 'god of the four quarters,' one gets even in the epic the 'controller of four,' or perfect person, conceived like [Greek: anêr tetragônos]. Tennyson's 'four-square to all the winds that blow' is a good connecting link in the thought. The Pur[=a]nas are a mine of legend, although most of the stories seem to be but epic tales, more or less distorted. Nala 'the great-great-grandson of R[=a]ma' is described after the history of R[=a]ma himself; the installation of P[=u]ru, when his father had passed over his eldest son, and such reminiscences of the epic are the stock in trade of the legendary writers.[20]
The origin of the four castes;[21] the descriptions of hell, somewhat embellished,[22] where the 'sinful are cooked in fire';[23] the exaltation of Vishnu as Krishna or K[=a]ma in one, and that of Çiva in another—these and similar aspects are reflections of epic matter, spirit, tone, and language, only the faith is still fiercer in religious matters, and the stories are fainter in historical references. According to the Pur[=a]na last cited: "There is no expiation for one that bows to a phallic emblem," i.e., Çivaite, and "all the B[=a]uddhas are heretics";[24] and according to the K[=u]rma Pur[=a]na: "Vishnu is the divinity of the gods; Çiva, of the devils," although the preceding verses teach, in the spirit of the Divine Song, that each man's divinity is that which he conceives to be the divinity. Such is the concluding remark made by Vasistha in adjudicating the strife between the Vishnuite and Çivaite sectaries of the epic heroes.[25] The relation that the Puranic literature bears to religion in the minds of its authors is illustrated by the remark of the N[=a]rad[=i]ya to the effect that the god is to be honored "by song, by music, by dance, and by recounting the Pur[=a]nas" (xvii. 9).
Some of the epic religious ceremonies which there are barely alluded to are here described with almost the detail of a technical handbook. So the N[=a]nd[=i]ya (xix.) gives an elaborate account of the raising of a dhvaja or standard as a religious ceremony.[26] The legal rules affecting morality and especially caste-intercourse[27] show a laxity in regard to the rules as formerly preached. Even the old Puranic form of the epic is reproduced, as when M[=a]rkandeya converses again with Yudhistris, exactly as he does in the epic.[28] The duration of the ages; the fruit of sacrifices, among which are still mentioned the r[=a]jas[=u]ya, açvamedha, and other ancient rites;[29] the virtue of holy-places;[30] the admixture of pure pantheism with the idea of a personal creation[31]—these traits are again just those which have been seen already in the epic, nor is the addition of sections on temple-service, or other more minute details of the cult, of particular importance in a history of religious ideas.
The Pur[=a]nas for our present purpose may all be grouped with the remark that what is ancient in them is a more or less fugitive resemblance to the epic style and matter;[32] what is new is the more pronounced sectarianism with its adventitious growth of subordinate spiritualities and exaggerated miracles. Thus for instance in the Var[=a]ha Pur[=a]na there are eleven, in the Bh[=a]gavat Pur[=a]na twenty (instead of the older ten) avatars of Vishnu. So too the god of love—although K[=a]ma and his dart are recognized in the late Atharvan—as a petty spirit receives homage only in the latest S[=u]tra (as Cupid, [=A]pastamba, ii, 2. 4. 1), and in late additions to the epic he is a little god; whereas in the drama he is prominent, and in the Pur[=a]nas his cult is described at length (though to-day he has no temple). The 'mother'-fiend P[=u]tan[=a], who suckles babes to slay them, is scarcely known to the early epic, but she is a very real personality in the late epic and Pur[=a]nas.
The addition to the trinity of the peculiar inferior godhead that is advocated in any one Pur[=a]na, virtually making four divinities, is characteristic of the period.
In proportion as sectarian ardor is heightened religious tone is lowered. The Puranic votary clinging to his one idea of god curses all them that believe in other aspects of the divinity. Blind bigotry fills the worshipper's soul. Religion becomes mere fanaticism. But there is also tolerance. Sometimes in one and the same Pur[=a]na rival forms are honored. The modern Hindu sects are in part the direct development of Puranic doctrine. But most of the sects of to-day are of very recent date, though their principles are often of respectable antiquity, as are too their sectarian signs, as well as the animals of their gods, some of which appear to be totems of the wild tribes, while others are merely objects of reverence among certain tribes. Thus the ram and the elephant are respectively the ancient beasts of Agni and Indra. Çiva has the bull; his spouse, the tiger. Earth and Skanda have appropriated the peacock, Skanda having the cock also. Yama has the buffalo (compare the Khond, wild-tribe, substitution of a buffalo for a man in sacrifice). Love has the parrot, etc; while the boar and all Vishnu's animals in avatars are holy, being his chosen beasts.[33]