VISHNU PURANA: The Vishnu Purana (IAST: Viṣṇu Purāṇa) is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas*, a genre of ancient and medieval texts of Hinduism. It is an important Pancharatra* text in the Vaishnavism* literature corpus. Vyasa, the narrator of the Mahabharata, is credited as the compiler of the Puranas.
*Mahapuranas: Of the many texts designated 'Puranas' the most important are the Mahāpurāṇas or the 18 major Puranas.
*Pancharatra was a religious movement in Hinduism that originated in late 1st millennium BCE around the ideas of Narayana and the various avatars of Vishnu as their central deities.The movement later merged with the ancient Bhagavata tradition and contributed to the development of Vaishnavism.
*Vaishnavism is one of the major Hindu traditions. It is also called Vishnuism, its followers are called Vaishnavas or Vaishnavites, and it considers Vishnu as the Supreme Lord.
