[Advaita-l] Purana-Sharada Sringeri

[jaldhar at braincells.com]

On Thu, 26 Mar 2026, Sangeerth P via Advaita-l wrote:

> This is the sloka which I have heard for remembering the 18 puranas. In the
> above website Vayu purana is not there वचतुष्टयम्-(Vamana, Vayu, Vishnu,
> Varaha). Instead they have given Shiva purana. Is there any reason for this
> twist and tweak (like hatredness towards Madhwa philosophy)? Or is there
> any other sloka which lists 18 puranas were Vayu Purana doesnt come and
> Shiva purana comes?
> मद्वयं भद्वयं चैव ब्रत्रयं वचतुष्टयम्।
> अनापलिङ्गकूस्कानि पुराणानि प्रचक्षते॥

There is complete agreement that there are 18 mahapuranas and that Veda 
Vyasa is their author.  However, if we look carefully, we see there are 
two extant lists of puranas.  One (e.g. in Bhagavata) mentions Shiva but 
not Vayu and the other (e.g. in Padma) mentions Vayu and not 
Shiva. Historians suggest one reason as to why this is.


If we look at the present day Shiva Purana, we see it is a composite work 
consisting of several samhitas.  One of theese (I believe the biggest) is 
called vAyavIya saMhitA.  The thinking is this is the original Shiva 
purana and was known by the name Vayu purana.  Later on it was absorbed 
into the current Shiva Purana and later on than that, someone noticed the 
discrepancy and "fixed" it by introducing the current work known as 
Vayu purana.


Of course this is all speculation; we don't have any evidence for or 
against it.


  -- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>