Upa-puranas is the lower corpus of the puranas. The Upa-puranas are not clearly defined. Some Upa-puranas are: Sanat-kumara, Narasimha, Brihan-naradiya, Siva-rahasya, Durvasa, Kapila, Vamana, Bhargava, Varuna, Kalika, Samba, Nandi, Surya, Parasara, Vasishtha, Devi-Bhagavata, Ganesa, Mudgala, and Hamsa. The Ganesa and Mudgala Puranas are sectarian Upa-puranas devoted to Ganesha.
Most of these have not been critically edited yet, and are available mostly through devotional publications, in multiple versions. The Devi-Bhagavata Purana extols the virtues of the goddess Durga as the Supreme Being. It has become (along with the Devi Mahatmya of the Markandeya Purana) a basic text for Devi worshipers.
The number of the Mahapuranas, the sacred text was eighteen. But the expansion of purana literature went on unabated. For this reasons those of the puranas, which did not find a place in the traditionally listed Puranas, were conciliated under the title `Upapuranas`. The incongruity in this regard is that in due course of time the numbers of these Upapuranas were also got fixed at eighteen. They were considered as supplementary material that is collected and appended at the back of a book to the Mahapuranas and hence of lesser importance.
Though the Upapuranas are more sectarian in disposition concerned in propagating their own cults but the general content of these Upapuranas is indistinguishable with those of the Mahapuranas.
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