Encyclopaedia of Puranic Beliefs and Practices, vol. 5.

• Author: Rocher, Ludo

This is the final installment of a five-volume enterprise undertaken with the support of the University Grants Commission from 1975 till 1980. The first volume (A-C, pp. 1-370) appeared in 1986; it was followed, in remarkably rapid succession, by vol. 2 (1987; D-G, pp. 371-746), vol. 3 (1987; H-N, pp. 747-1069), vol. 4 (1989; O-S, pp. 1071-1426), and now vol. 5 (1990; T-Z, pp. 1427-1729). As far as I know, none of the earlier volumes was reviewed in the Journal. I will, therefore, extend my comments to them as well.

The author was aware of the existence of two earlier "encyclopedias" dealing with puranic materials: V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar's three-volume The Purana Index, published by the University of Madras between 1951 and 1955, and the more recent (1975) Puranic Encyclopaedia of Vettam Mani, published in Delhi by Motilal Banarsidass. As the original title of the project, A Motif Index of the Puranas, suggested, the new encyclopedia was to be different from its two predecessors. First, whereas the entries in both earlier works primarily consist of proper names, "|t~he present work has tried to present information from the socio-mythological angle. Here individual names do occur, but only when they have some belief attached to them, or when there is some custom, or practice associated with them. Mere dynastic or personal details are discarded". Second, Ramachandra Dikshitar carefully excerpted Mahapuranas, but he did so for no more than five; Vettam Mani's book, subtitled A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Epic and Puranic Literature, on the other hand, went far beyond the Puranas and, as a result, amounts to "a collection of all sorts of information". The present encyclopedia restricts itself to the Mahapuranas, but it covers all of them, nineteen in fact, since it includes both the Sivapurana and the Vayupurana.

The 1729 pages of the Encyclopaedia of Puranic Beliefs and Practices is not the kind of book which even a reviewer can read from cover to cover; its merits and shortcomings can only be proven when it is consulted repeatedly and for specific purposes. The remarks that follow are, therefore, based on sample readings and first impressions only.

Some articles are long, such as Holy Places, Vow (Vrata), Rivers, or Woman. Others are unexpectedly short...