Ludo Rocher was a scholar of Sanskrit literature, and this Otto Harrassowitz volume, part of the History of Indian Literature series, is his standard academic survey of the Puranas as a literary genre within Sanskrit literature, covering the major texts including the Bhagavata Purana and the scholarly debates over their composition and dating. Its strength is comprehensive literary historical treatment of an enormous and textually complicated genre, addressing questions of authorship, dating and textual transmission that a general reader of any single Purana in translation would not otherwise encounter. Its limit is that it is a survey of the Puranas as literature and genre, so a claim needing narrative detail from one specific Purana's own account of a particular deity or story needs that Purana's own text or a source focused specifically on it, not this genre level survey.
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Ludo Rocher's standard scholarly survey of the Puranic literature genre within Sanskrit literary history, covering the major Puranas; a literary-historical survey, so narrative detail on one specific deity's Puranic account may need that Purana's own text or a source focused on it. NotesLudo Rocher's standard scholarly survey of the Puranic literature genre within Sanskrit literary history, covering the major Puranas including the Bhagavata Purana. Use for established scholarly facts about the Puranas as a literary corpus and their content; a literary-historical survey, so a claim requiring narrative detail on one specific deity's Puranic account may need that Purana's own text or a source focused on it.
Citation
AuthorLudo Rocher
PublisherOtto Harrassowitz
Publication Year1986
URLhttps://archive.org/details/rocher-ludo-1986.-the-puranas
Source Typeacademic monograph
Claims Backed By This Source (60 claims)
This source backs 60 claims across the atlas. As facts: 49 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate. Plus 10 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Deities, 40 claims: 31 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 8 general references.
- Sources, 8 claims: 8 well-attested.
- Scriptures & Texts, 6 claims: 5 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Doctrines, 4 claims: 3 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Articles, 2 claims: 2 well-attested.
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