The Puranas
The period of the Guptas saw the production of the first of the series (traditionally 18) of often voluminous texts—the Puranas—that treat in encyclopaedic manner the myths, legends, and genealogies of gods, heroes, and saints. The usual list of the Puranas is as follows: the Brahma-, Brahmanda-, Brahmavaivarta-, Markandeya-, Bhavisya-, and Vamana-puranas; the Vishnu-, Bhagavata-, Naradiya-, Garuda-, Padma-, and Varaha-puranas; and the Shiva-, Linga-, Skanda-, Agni- (or Vayu-), Matsya-, and Kurma-puranas. Many deal with the same or similar materials.
With the epics, with which they are closely linked in origin, the Puranas became the scriptures of the common people. Unlike the Vedas, which were restricted to initiated men of the three higher orders, the Puranas were available to everybody, including women and members of the lowest order of society (Shudras). The origin of much of their contents may be non-Brahmanic, but they were accepted and adapted by the Brahmans, who thus brought new elements into their orthodox religion.
At first sight the discontinuity between Vedic and Puranic mythology appears to be so sharp that they might be considered two distinct traditions. Little is learned in the Vedas of goddesses, yet they rose steadily in Puranic mythology. It soon becomes clear, however, that the two bodies of texts are in part continuous and that what appears to be discrepancy is merely a difference between the liturgical emphasis of the Vedas and the more eclectic genres of the epics and Puranas. For example, the great god of the Rigveda is Indra, the god of war and monsoon, prototype of the warrior; but, for the population as a whole, he was more important as the rain god than the war god, and it is as such that he survives in early Puranic mythology.
While some traditionally important Vedic gods have only minor roles in the Puranas, some previously less-important figures are quite prominent. This is true, for example, of the two principal gods of Puranic Hinduism, Vishnu and Rudra-Shiva. In the Vedas, Vishnu, with his three strides, established the three worlds (heaven, atmosphere, and earth); Rudra-Shiva is a mysterious god who must be propitiated.
Puranic literature documents the rise of the two gods as they attract to themselves the identities of other popular gods and heroes. Brahma, creator of the world and teacher of the gods, appears in the Puranas primarily to appease over-powerful sages and demons by granting them boons.
In the Puranic literature of 500 to 1000 ce, sectarianism creeps into mythology, and individual Puranas extol one god (usually Shiva, Vishnu, or Devi, the Goddess) over all others. Cosmology, cosmogony, generations of kings of the lunar and solar dynasties, myths of the great ascetics (who in some respects eclipse the old gods), and myths of sacred places—usually rivers and fords—whose powers to reward the pilgrim are often cited and related to local legends, are all important themes in these texts.
Cosmogony
Puranic cosmogony greatly expands upon the complex cosmogonies of the Brahmanas, Upanishads, and epics. According to one of many versions of the story of the origin of the universe, in the beginning the god Narayana (identified with Vishnu) floated on the snake Ananta (“Endless”) on the primeval waters. From Narayana’s navel grew a lotus, in which the god Brahma was born reciting the four Vedas with his four mouths and creating the “Egg of Brahma,” which contains all the worlds. Other accounts refer to other demiurges, or creators, like Manu (the primordial ancestor of humankind).
The Vedas do not seem to conceive of an end to the world, but Puranic cosmogony accounts for the periodic destruction of the world at the close of an eon, when the Fire of Time will put an end to the universe. Elsewhere the destruction is specifically attributed to the god Shiva, who dances the tandava dance of doomsday and destroys the world. Yet this is not an absolute end but a temporary suspension (pralaya), after which creation begins again in the same fashion.
Cosmology
The Puranas present an elaborate mythical cosmography. The old tripartite universe persists, but it is modified. There are three levels—heaven, earth, and the netherworld—but the first and last are further subdivided into vertical layers. Earth consists of seven circular continents, the central one surrounded by the salty ocean and each of the other concentric continents by oceans of other liquids. In the centre of the central mainland stands the cosmic mountain Meru; the southernmost portion of this mainland is Bharatavarsa, the old name for India. Above earth there are seven layers in heaven, at the summit of which is the world of brahman (brahma-loka); there are also seven layers below earth, the location of hells inhabited by serpents and demons.