The extant text comprises six aṃśas (parts) and 126 adhyāyas (chapters).[27] The first part has 22 chapters, the second part consists 16 chapters, the third part comprises 18 chapters and the fourth part has 24 chapters. The fifth and the sixth parts are the longest and the shortest part of the text, comprising 38 and 8 chapters respectively.[28][29]
The textual tradition claims that the original Vishnu Purana had 23,000 verses,[30] but the surviving manuscripts have just a third of these, about 7,000 verses.[13] The text is composed in metric verses or sloka, wherein each verse has exactly 32 syllables, of which 16 syllables in the verse may be free style per ancient literary standards.[31]
The Vishnu Purana is an exception in that it presents its contents in Vishnu worship-related Pancalaksana format – Sarga (cosmogony), Pratisarga (cosmology), Vamśa (mythical genealogy of the gods, sages and kings), Manvañtara (cosmic cycles), and Vamśānucaritam(legends during the times of various kings). just 2% of the known Puranic literature corpus is about these five Pancalaksana items, and about 98% is about diverse range of encyclopedic topics.
to be continued.
to be continued.
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