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 the MatsyaPurana (a Tamasika Purana itself), the eighteen Puranas are divided into three groups of six according to gunas of people they are primarily meant for.
Puranas are named after the three main forms of Brahman: Brahma, the Creator; Vishnu, the Protector of Life and Humanity; and Shiva, the Destroyer.
Around the time when the puranas first began to be composed, the belief in particular deities had become established as one of the principal marks of the Hindu faith, and to some degree the puranas can be described as a form of sectarian literature.
Among these puranas, the VishnuPurana and the BhagavataPurana (also known as the Bhagavatam) are, with respect to their standing as works of devotional literature, preeminent; and the BhagavataPurana is even the supreme work of Krishna devotional literature.
The Puranas are works that most eminently represent the deep mythic structuring of Indian civilization, and they are properly viewed as expanding upon, modifying, and transforming the orthodox Brahminism of the Vedas, principally by the introduction of the idea of bhakti or devotion.
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