authority was the original on which the existing Upapurâna is based. And in favour of this view it may be urged that passages, similar to Âpastamba's quotation, actually occur in our Paurânic texts. In the Gyotish- prakâdra section of several of the chief Purânas we find, in connection with the description of the Path of the Manes (pitriyâna)[1], the assertion that the pious sages, who had offspring and performed the Agnihotra, reside there until the general destruction of created things (â bhûtasamplavât), as well as, that in the beginning of each new creation they are the propagators of the world (lokasya samtânakarâh) and, being re-born, re-establish the sacred law. Though the wording differs, these passages fully agree in sense with Âpastamba's Bhavishyat-purâna which says, 'They (the ancestors) live in heaven until the (next) general destruction of created things. At the new creation (of the world) they become the seed.' In other passages of the Purânas, which refer to the successive creations, we find even the identical terms used in the quotation. Thus the Vâyup., Adhy. 8, 23, declares that those beings, which have gone to the Ganaloka, 'become the seed at the new creation ' (punah sarge … bîgârtham tâ bhavanti hi).
These facts prove at all events that Âpastamba took his quotation from a real Purâna, similar to those existing. If it is literal and exact, it shows, also, that the Purânas of his time contained both prose and verse.
Further, it is possible to trace yet another of Âpastamba's quotations from 'a Purâna.' The three Purânas, mentioned above, give, immediately after the passages referred to, enlarged versions of the two verses[2] regarding the sages, who begot offspring and obtained 'burial-grounds,' and
- ↑ Vâyup., Adhy. 50, 208 seqq.; Matsyap., Adhy. 123, 96 seqq.; Vishnup. II, 8. 86–89; H. H. Wilson, Vishnup., vol. ii, pp. 263–268 (ed. Hall).
- ↑ Âp. Dh. II, 9, 23, 4–5.
that the orthodox sects used Purânas as text books for popular readings, the Purânapâthana of our days, and that some, at least, of the now existing Purânas are the latest recensions of those mentioned in Vedic books.
