Agni Purana

[7] The Agni Purana is a medieval era encyclopedia that covers a diverse range of topics, and its "382 or 383 chapters actually deal with anything and everything", remark scholars such as Moriz Winternitz and Ludo Rocher.

[8][9] Its encyclopedic secular style led some 19th-century Indologists such as Horace Hayman Wilson to question if it even qualifies as what is assumed to be a Purana.

[10][11] The range of topics covered by this text include cosmology, mythology, genealogy, politics, education system, iconography, taxation theories, organization of army, theories on proper causes for war, martial arts,[5] diplomacy, local laws, building public projects, water distribution methods, trees and plants, medicine,[12] design and architecture,[13][14] gemology, grammar, metrics, poetry, food and agriculture,[15] rituals, geography and travel guide to Mithila (Bihar and neighboring states), cultural history, and numerous other topics.

[4] Charity The man who gratuitously teaches another, a craft or a trade or settles upon him a property, whereby he earns a livelihood, acquires infinite merit.

[19] These inconsistencies, considered together, have led scholars such as Rajendra Hazra to conclude that the extant manuscripts are different from the text Skanda and Matsya Puranas are referring to.

[24] The Agni Purana exists in many versions and it exemplifies the complex chronology of the Puranic genre of Indian literature that has survived into modern times.