Sage Vyasa is credited with compilation of Puranas from age Yuga to age, and for the current age, he has been identified and named Krishna Dvaipayana, the son of sage Parashara. According to tradition they were written by Vyasa at the end of Dvapara Yuga, while modern scholarship dates them to the latter half of the first millennium AD.
Objectives
One of the main objectives of the Puranas was to make available the essence of the Vedas to the common man, and the Vedas were basically meant not for the scholars but for the ordinary man. They bring forth the Vedic knowledge and teachings by way of myths; parables, allegories and stories; legends; life stories of kings and other prominent persons; and chronologies of historical events. The Puranas unfolds the principles of Hinduism in a very simple way.
In all these Puranas the goddess Lakshmi is given a laudable place without any sectarian dispute. In the Vaishnavite Puranas, Shiva starts telling the efficacy of Vishnu to the Goddess Parvati. While Shaiva mythology places goddess Parvati, the consort of Shiva, as one half of His body (ardha naareeshvara tattva), Vaishnavites place the Goddess Lakshmi in the heart of Vishnu itself, as if it were a lotus (hridaya kamala). This is to depict the inseparable union of Universal purusha and prakriti, seed and field, or male and female.
