In this volume, leading American, European, and Indian scholars including John E. Cort, Friedhelm Hardy, Padmanabh S. Jaini, Laurie L. Patton, A. K. Ramanujan, Velcheru Narayana Rao, and David Shulman discuss the subject of the Purāṇas, focusing particularly on the relationship between the "Great Puran'as" of the Sanskrit tradition and the many other sorts of Purāṇas. The Puran'as are essentially collections of stories dealing with all aspects of myth, ritual, science, and history, and the authors of these essays are all superb storytellers.

The present Dictionary is designed to meet the long-felt need of the English knowing reader, who is interested in the study of classical as well as modern Sanskrit. It covers a very large field-epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata, Puranas and Upapuranas, Smrti and Niti literature, Darsanas or Systems of Philosophy, such as Nyaya, Vedanta, Mimamsa, Sankhya and Yoga, Grammar, Rhetoric, Poetry in all its branches, Dramatic and Narrative literature, Mathematics, Medicine, Botany, Astronomy Music and other technical or scientific branches of learning. Thus it embraces all words occurring in the general post-Vedic literature. It includes most of the important terms in Grammar. It gives quotations and references to the peculiar and remarkable meaning of words, especially such as occur in books prescribed for study in the Indian and foreign universities. It also renders explanation of important technical terms occurring in different branches of Sanskrit learning. To add to its usefulness,

Containing more than 300 articles, covering the alphabetical entries P-Sh, this book also includes articles on significant topics ranging from Paul, political theology and the Qur'an, to religious liberty, salvation history and scholasticism.