puranas

Purāṇas are a genre of Hindu religious literature written mainly in Sanskrit. They are part of Smṛti and are distinguished from the Shruti corpus of the Vedas. They present cosmogony, myth, legend, genealogies of gods, sages, and heroes, sacred geography, pilgrimage sites, ritual instructions, and ethical exempla, often through devotional narratives centered on a principal deity.

Traditionally, the Purāṇas are organized into two broad groups: the Mahāpurāṇas, consisting of eighteen major works, and the Upapurāṇas, a larger number of secondary texts. They are also frequently grouped by sectarian emphasis into Vaishnava, Shaiva, and Shakta streams, though most include material drawn from multiple traditions.

Prominent examples include the Bhagavata Purāṇa, Vishnu Purāṇa, Padma Purāṇa, Narada Purāṇa, Markandeya Purāṇa, Brahma Purāṇa, Shiva Purāṇa, Skanda Purāṇa, and Garuda Purāṇa. The Bhagavata Purāṇa is especially influential for bhakti devotion to Krishna. The Purāṇas have historically guided temple iconography, liturgical calendars, pilgrim circuits, and moral instruction.

Authorship is traditional but not historical: sages and redactors contributed across centuries, and modern scholars date core layers from roughly the 4th to 16th centuries CE, with later interpolations. They are regarded as religious literature rather than uniform doctrinal histories.

Scholars view the Purāṇas as a dynamic corpus that reflects diverse regional and sectarian traditions, integrating myth, theology, and social values. They remain important sources for Hindu mythic narrative, pilgrimage, and ritual practice.