INTRODUCTION
In the priority of canonical literature of the Hindus, Śruti namely the Vedas occupy the pre-eminent position, since they are revelations free from the defects of human origin. Next come the Smrtis which are the products of human recollection of the implications of Vedic revelation. Next in order come the Puranas which are didactical and historical narratives. meant to substantiate the truth of the first two sources of knowledge.
The Puranas are often considered as un-authentic and a jumbling of religious thoughts; Unauthentic because of their internal contra-dictions; a mixture of fiction and facts and hence unreliable as historical documents and being a combination of poetry and versifica tion, not fit to be called good literature.
Textual veracity of the Puranas are often questioned since the purity of the oral tradition of the Vedic texts has not been observed or maintained in the case of the transmission of the Purāņa literature from one generation to the other. With the development of the prac tice of writing down our scriptures, the Puranic tradition became more corrupted by inter-pola-tions and alterations often caused by the preju-dices and predilictions of the scribes.
In spite of all these, the Indologists have recognised that there are very useful peaces of information in the Puranic texts which if pro perly scanned and re-arranged and assessed in the light of the critical texts of the epics and Sūtra literature, can provide many connecting links in our literary, religious and historical traditions. It is in this context that the publi-cation of the Purāņic texts becomes significant.
The All India Kashi Raj Trust, Varanasi has already started the difficult task of pre-paring critical editions of all the Mahapuranas. Obviously, this is going to be a time consuming exercise since each Purana has got at least half a dozen regional textual traditions to be reconciled before deciding the original texts. During this long period of reconstruc-tion, we cannot afford a complete stoppage of activity as far as research in the Purānas are concerned and hence attempts like the one presented in this volume to reproduce the vulgate text of the Puriņa is essential in the present circumstances.
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