ABSTRACT
The key argument of this chapter enunciates that the Purāṇas were composed for the purpose of negotiating social and religious norms. The emergence and development of the Purāṇic tradition was a slow and gradual process. The process was distinguished by a remarkable continuity of appeal to past traditions, including the Vedic, accompanied by significant changes in religious ideas and practices. Sacrifice was central to the Vedic tradition, and retains a certain importance in the epics and Purāṇas. But the emphasis in these later texts decisively shifts towards bhakti (devotion) to the gods, expressed in pūjā in the temple context, along with new cultural norms such as saṁskāra (sacraments), śrāddha (ancestral rites), pratiṣṭhā (consecration of images), devapūjā (worship of deities), vāstu-vidyā (architecture), prāyaścitta (expiation of sins), and japa (chanting). While dealing with these themes, the Purāṇas engaged with a variety of traditions, creating a syncretic religious framework which was able to reach out to different social segments, which in turn accentuated their popular appeal. Composed over a long period of time, the appeal of the Purāṇas cut across varṇa and gender boundaries, for it was believed that reading them, or listening to them being narrated, or devotion to their deities could lead to the atonement of sins and to salvation.
