JOURNAL 



OF 



THE ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



JVo. 10.— October, 1832. 



I. — Analysts of the Vishnu Pur ana. ByU. H. Wilson, Sec. As. Soc. 



The Vishnu Purdna, as may be inferred from its appellation, is 

 eminently Vaishnava, and considers Vishnu one with the Supreme 

 Being, Parama Brahma, and Parama'tma'. 



It is supposed to be related by Parasara, the grandson of Vasis- 

 ht'ha, to his disciple Maitreya, and dispenses with the usual machinery 

 of Suta and the Rishis : it is said in the first chapter, indeed, in the form 

 of a prophetic enunciation by Vasisht'ha, that Parasara is the au- 

 thor of the Sanhitd and the Purdnas. 



In other chapters, however, it is again asserted, that Dwaipa yana 

 Vyasa is the author of all the Puranas, and to reconcile these two 

 statements recourse is had to a statement in the 3rd chapter of the 3rd 

 section. It is said, that there is a Vyasa or Veda Vyasa in every 

 Dwdpar Yuga of the Vaivaswat Manwantara ; of this Manwantara we 

 are now in the 28th Kali: accordingly, 28 Dwdpar Yugas have elapsed, 

 and 28 Veda Vydsas have existed; the last is Krishna Dwaipa yana, 

 or the person usually designated as Vyasa. Parasara was the 26th 

 Vyasa, and this Purdna is consequently the work of a preceding 

 Mahdyuga, or aggregate of four ages. The Agni Purdna states 

 Parasara to be the author of the Vishnu Purdna. In the classifica- 

 tion adopted by itself, (book 3rd, chapter 6,) it is placed the third ; 

 after the Brahma and Padma. 



This Purdna is divided into six Ansas, books or sections, each 

 being sub-divided into a varying number of Adhydyas or chapters : 

 it does not follow the order prescribed by the usual definition of a 

 Purdna, but deviates less widely than most of these compositions ; 

 according to the Agni Purdna, it contains 25,000 slokas. A com- 



2i 



