As the word ‘Purana’ suggests, these texts talk about ‘that which renews the old’. These are ancient Indian mythological texts, which consist of the narrative stories about the creation of the universe and illustrate its history to the supposed destruction of the universe. It contains the stories of the kings, heroes, sages, and demiGods, but it focuses on the divine Hindu Trimurti or trinity/ three Gods: Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh.
There are 18 major Puranas (Mahapuranas) and each gives prominence to a particular deity and expound on the philosophical and religious concepts related to them. Some of the more prominent and well-known Puranas are Bhagavata, Brahma, Vayu, Agni, Garuda, Padma, Vishnu and Matsya. These contain anecdotes about the social, cultural and religious life of post-Vedic India and provide the historians with critical information about the geography, history and the dynastic genealogies.
These Puranas are written in the form of stories, which combine myths, legends and sermons about the deities and this easy form of story-writing made it very popular amongst the masses who did not always understand the complex Vedas.
Hence, the Puranas were translated and distributed in various vernacular languages. The Puranas use parables and fables to spread their message:
Parable - Short stories that in prose or verse, illustrates a spiritual, moral or religious lesson. It usually features a human character
Fable - Short stories that in prose or verse, illustrates a ‘moral’ through a pithy maxim or clever story.
It features animals, inanimate objects, mythical creatures, plants who are given human-like qualities.
All of us have at some point of time heard a story from the Panchtantra written by Vishnu Sharma. This didactic fable comprises of several stories with morals and knowledge about the world through animals. Another well-known work from the same genre is Hitopadesha, written by Narayan Pandit. This also has several non-human and animal elements imparting the wisdom to humans.