Question

What is the difference between itihasa and purana?

Answer 1

Puranas are by definition, the narrations of incidents that occurred in the remote past. The Itihasas (the epics) on the other hand, are by definition, the narrations of incidents that occurred during the life time of the narrator. Thus Mahabharata and Ramayana are records of contemporary history where as all the Puranas like the Bhagavata_Purana, Matsya-Purana, Vishnu-Purana etc are records of pre-history. But this doesn't in any way mean that the Puranas are older than the Itihasas. For example some one in 12th century can author an Itihasa about an incident happened in 12th century and somebody else can author a Purana about an incident happened in 15th century, in 21st century.