Devta Murtiprakaranam tatha Rupmandanam

Author(s): Upendramohan Sankhyatirtha
Publisher: Metropolitan Printing and Publishing House Limited

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(17) Sukra and (18) Bṛhaspati are the chief eighteen preceptors of the Vastusāstra. Lord Matsya had explained briefly the Vastusastra to the King Vaivasvata Manu; 2-4.
Which I will now relate to you."
The Agni-Puranas list of twenty-five authoritative texts, quoted before is interpreted thus:
"Hayagriva said :-O, Brahman, hear me speak about the consecration of the images of Vishnu and other gods-(1).
I have already dealt with the principles of Pancharatras" and Saptaratra schools of philosophies which are classed by the Munis under twenty-five different heads as discussed in the following books or Tantras, viz. :
84. Agni-Puranam, Engl. prose transl, by Manmathanath Dutt. Cal., 1903. Chapter XXXIX.
In the Introduction Mr. Datta writes :
"The contents of this Purana clearly show that it has no sectarian leaning. It impartially treats of Vaisnava, Saiva and Sakta forms of worship. It is more a compendium of Sanskrit learning than the advocacy of any particular form of religion. It is classed among the Tamasa or the delusive division of the Puranas”.
Professor Wilson thus remarks on the general character of this Purana. ......it is evident that it is a compilation from various works; that consequently it has no claim in itself to any great antiquity, although from the absence of any exotic materials, it might be pronounced earlier, with perhaps a few exceptions, than the Mahomedan invasion. From the absence also of a controversial or sectarian spirit, it is probably anterior to the struggles that took place in 8th and 9th centuries of our era between the followers of Siva and Vişņu'.
85. "The word Ratra signifies knowledge, and the Naradapancharatra, which is one of the standard religious works upholding the principles of the Pancharatra School of Philosophy, defines the term as meaning the sum total of the five distinct sorts of knowledge we have, of the external world through our senses :
रापञ्च ज्ञानवचनं ज्ञानं पञ्चविधं स्मृतम् ।
तेनेदं पञ्चराचञ्च प्रवदन्ति मनीषिणः ॥ अ: १११, नारदपञ्चरात्रम् ।