What are the Puranas?

Puranas form the backbone of Indian culture and is the platform on which Sanatan Dharm which is popularly known as Hinduism was built upon. If you ask Indians the source behind their religious beliefs, customs and practices most of them will be linked back to the Puranas.

Puranas cover a wide range of topics including origin and creation of the universe, creation of gods, demi-gods, humans & demons. It includes guidelines for ritual practices to appease the gods and has many references to mythological stories related to the different gods under the pantheon of Hinduism.

Purana literally translates to old or ancient and it is difficult to identify during which time period were they created. Most literary researchers estimate the Puranas to be created about 2,000 to 3,000 years ago.

How are Puranas linked to the Vedas?

Vedas are classified as Shruti category of scriptures which basically means that they do not have a defined author and were said to have been passed from the gods to humans. Puranas on the other hand belong to Smriti category of scriptures which means they were created by humans and passed on from generation to generation. Smriti means memory in Sanskrit and it reflects that when Puranas were created written script did not exist and these texts were passed on across generations by memory.