ORIENTAL SERIES.

246 PURANA.
classified in three categories, according to the prevalence in them
of the qualities of purity, gloom, and passion. Those in which
the quality of Sattwa or purity prevail are (i.) Vislmu, (2.)
Naradiya, (3.) Bhagavata, (4.) Garu^a, (5.) Padma, (6.) Varaha.
These are Vaishnava Purarcas, in which the god Vishnu holds
the pre-eminence. The Puranas in which Tamas, the quality of
gloom or ignorance, predominates are (i.) Matsya, (2.) Kurma,
(3.) Linga, (4.) Siva, (5.) Skanda, (6.) Agni. These are devoted
to the god $iva. Those in which Rajas or passion prevails
relate chiefly
to the god Brahma. They are
(i.) Brahma, (2.)
Brahmanda, (3.) Brahma-vaivarta, (4.) MarkaraZeya, (5.) Bhavi-
shya, (6.) Vamana. The works themselves do not fully justify
this classification. None of them are devoted exclusively to one
god, but Vishnu and his incarnations fill the largest space. One
called the Yayu Purana is in some of the Puranas substituted
for the Agni, and in others for the /Siva. This Vayu is apparently
the oldest of them, and may date as far back as the sixth
century, and it is considered that some of the others may be as
late as the thirteenth or even the sixteenth century. One fact
appears certain : they must all have received a supplementary
revision, because each one of them enumerates the whole
eighteen. The Markandeya is the least sectarian of the Puranas
; and the Bhagavata, which deals at length with the incar-
nations of Vishnu, and particularly with his form Krishna, is the
most popular. The most perfect and the best known is the
Vishnu, which has been entirely translated into English by
Professor Wilson, and a second edition, with many valuable
notes, has been edited by Dr. F. E. Hall The text of the Agni
and Markan&ya Puranas is in course of publication in the
Billiotheca Indica. The Puranas vary greatly in length. Some
of them specify the number of couplets that each of the eighteen
contains. According to the Bhagavata, the sum total of couplets
in the whole eighteen is 400,000 ; the Skanda is the longest,
with 81,000, the Brahma and the Vamana the shortest, with
10,000 couplets each.
The Upa Puranas are named (i.) Sanat-kumara, (2.) Nara-sinha
or Nn'-sinha, (3.) Naradiya or Vrzhan (old) Naradlya, (4.) $iva,
(5. ) Dur-vasasa, (6. ) Kapila, ( 7. ) Manava, (8. ) Ausanasa, ( 9. ) Varuna,
(10.) Kalika> (n.) /Samba, (12.) Nandi, (13.) Saura, (14.) Parir
jara, (15.) Aditya, (16.) Maheswara, (17.) Bhagavata, (18.)