And the rituals are very much part and parcel of the Vedic tradition. The stories were already there in the other Puranas, what was missing in them were the rituals. It was a supplement to the other Puranas. This is no doubt partly due to the fact that the Agni Purana was written much after many of the other Puranas. But that again is because you are familiar with the story of the Mahabharata. And you will also wonder why so much has been missed out about the Kauravas and the Pandavas. But that is because you are familiar with the story of the Ramayana. For example, you will wonder why so much has been missed out about Rama. They can be obtained in far more fascinating detail in the other Puranas. And even when the stories are given, they are in greatly summarized form. Its chapters are generally not long, they are very brief. Thus, this supreme knowledge of brahmajnana was summarised for the general population through the Puranas. Anyone could read them or listen to their recitations. These holy texts were difficult to understand, there were restrictions on who might read them and who might not. The sections in the Agni Purana are nothing but a summary of the teachings of the Vedas and the Upanishadas. Advaita brahmajnana teaches of the union of the individual human soul (atman) with the brahman. The brahman is the divine spirit and brahmajnana means the knowledge of the brahman. It gives in capsule form the essence of advaita brahmajnana. One of these chapters, chapter number 380, is rather interesting. It is simply split up into three hundred and eighty-three adhyayas (chapters). The Agni Purana has no separate sections as such. And that is how Suta came to relate the Purana.
All these holy men wished to hear what the Agni Purana had to say. The most important of these sages was Shounaka.
Many sages had assembled in the forest naimisharanya. Vyasadevas disciple Suta learnt the Purana from his teacher. Agni related the subject matter of the Purana to the sage Vashishtha, who in turn, passed on the knowledge to Vyasadeva. The narrator of the Agni Purana is the fire-god Agni. The others in this group are the Matsya, Kurma, Linga, Shiva and Skanda Puranas. There are about fifteen and a half thousand shlokas in the Agni Purana. It usually figures eighth in the list of eighteen. Agni PuranaThe Agni Purana is a mahapurana.