3. The Vishńu Puráńa

The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840], at sacred-texts.com

3. The Vishńu Puráńa

3. Vishńu Puráńa. "That in which Paráśara, beginning with the events of the Varáha Kalpa, expounds all duties, is called the Vaishńava; and the learned know its extent to be twenty-three thousand stanzas 41." The third Puráńa of the lists is that which has been selected for translation, the Vishńu. It is unnecessary therefore to offer any general summary of its contents, and it will be convenient to reserve any remarks upon its character and probable antiquity for a subsequent page. It may here be observed, however, that the actual number of verses contained in it falls far short of the enumeration of the Matsya, with which the Bhágavata concurs. Its actual contents are not seven thousand stanzas. All the copies, and in this instance they are not fewer than seven in number, procured both in the east and in the west of India, agree; and there is no appearance of any part being wanting. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end, in both text and comment; and the work as it stands is incontestably entire. How is the discrepancy to be explained?