MAHA PURANAS - INTRODUCTION : 2.
======================================================================= -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18/09/2019 Introduction : 2. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vyasa, the narrator of the Mahabharata, is hagiographically credited as the compiler of the Puranas. The date of the production of the written texts does not define the date of origin of the Puranas. They existed in an oral form before being written down, and were incrementally modified well into the 16th century. An early occurrence of the term 'Purana' is found in the Chandogya Upanishad (7.1.2), translated by Patrick Olivelle as "the corpus of histories and ancient tales" (The Early Upanisads, 1998, p. 259). The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad refers to Purana as the "fifth Veda", itihasapura?a? pañcama? vedana?,