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PREFACE It is with a feeling of much relief, though not without some amount of diffidence, that I present before the scholarly world the second volume of my 'Studies in the Upapuranas', in which I have dealt with the Sakta and the non-sectarian Upapuranas now available in printed forms and also a number of extinct ones of these two classes. As the Sakta Upapuranas still lying in Manuscripts have been preserved at places beyond my easy reach, they have been reserved for future treatment. They are only a few in number, and most of them are of minor importance and come from comparatively late dates. Although it was my intention to make all the volumes of my 'Studies in the Upapuranas' approximately equal in length, the extent of the present volume has far exceeded that of the first, and for this, I think, I should offer an explanation. When, about two years back, the manuscript copy of the present volume was sent to the press, it contained chapters on the Sakta and the Ganapatya Upapuranas, but a little before the beginning of its printing I was told by our Publication Department that the matter, sent to the press, might be too insufficient for a volume of 400 pages. So, I felt extremely nervous. After much thought I recalled my manuscript from the press, replaced the Chapter on the Ganapatya Upapuranas with two more extensive ones on the non-sectarian Upapuranas which were meant for the third volume, and wrote in great hurry pp. 94-188 on the linguistic study of the Devi-purana, which I had kept off for more detailed and elaborate treatment in a separate and independent work. I do not know how my ideas put forth in these pages will be received by scholars, but I crave their indulgence for any slips that may, in their opinion, have occurred in the arrangement of materials in these pages. As a matter of fact, some of the grammatical forms occurring in the Devi-purana were highly confusing to me. For

[ x ] instance, in the expression 'ketumucchrayam', used in Devipurana 11.57, I could not be sure whether the 'm' immediately following the word 'ketu' was an intervening Samdhiconsonant (or hiatus-bridger) or it was due to the second case-ending used irregularly in connection with the Krd-anta noun 'ucchraya' (cf. the expressions 'tvam-kamaya', 'mam kamena', 'ksiram pane', etc. used in the Vedic works). As to my use of a Manuscript of the Ekamra-purana instead of the Cuttack edition of this work printed in Odiya script, I should like to say that although I could procure a copy of this edition not very long after the manuscript copy of the present volume had been sent to the press, I was compelled to set it aside due to my complete unfamiliarity with the Odiya alphabet. For my use of the Vangavasi Press editions of certain Puranic texts I have already stated the reasons in my Preface to Volume I of the present work. As regards certain names the varied spellings given at different places in a particular Upapurana (such as 'jalpisa' and 'jalpisa' in Kalika-purana, chapters 60 and 80 respectively, and 'varnasa" and 'varnasa" in Kalika-purana, chap. 81) have been retained in the summaries of the relevant chapters from linguistic and other considerations. I shall be failing in my duty if I do not take this opportunity to express my gratitude to our Principal Dr. Gaurinath Sastri for his keen interest in the speedy publication of this volume. But for his sympathetic help and encouragement it would not be possible for me to have it published so soon. I should also thank Pandit Dinesh Chandra Sastri and more particularly Pandit Nanigopal Tarkatirtha of the Publication Department for their kind service in times of need. Some portions of this work appeared as isolated articles in different oriental journals. But I have tried my best to improve considerably upon these published portions with much interesting material collected by more recent studies. Sanskrit College, Calcutta. March, 1963. RAJENDRA CHANDRA HAZRA