As correctly pointed out by critic William Emmette Coleman, the Vishnu Purana is the single major Eastern source for H. P. Blavatsky’s 1888 book, The Secret Doctrine. This text is therefore of great importance for the study of The Secret Doctrine and its basis, the “Book of Dzyan.” In one of the major publishing events in modern India, a critical edition of the Sanskrit text of the Viṣṇu-purāṇa was published in two large volumes, 1997 and 1999. A critical edition is prepared by comparing a number of different manuscripts, recording their variant readings in notes, and choosing the best readings to constitute the text of the critical edition. This is a real, large-scale critical edition, in which 43 Sanskrit manuscripts were gathered and collated, and 27 were chosen from which to prepare the Sanskrit edition. It is:
The Critical Edition of the Viṣṇupurāṇam, edited by M. M. Pathak, 2 vols., Vadodara: Oriental Institute, 1997, 1999.
This critical edition followed upon two previous critical editions of Sanskrit texts produced in India, that of the Mahābhārata, published by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona, and that of the Rāmāyaṇa, published by the Oriental Institute, Vadodara (Baroda). In fact, it was the preparation of the critical edition of the Rāmāyaṇa by this same institute that developed the skills and expertise to undertake the critical edition of the Viṣṇu-purāṇa. At present, this book is still in print, and it is not expensive. It was about $15.00 when I got my copy, although the shipping will be twice this much for these heavy volumes. It can be ordered from Indian booksellers such as BibliaImpex.com.
All scholars citing translations of Sanskrit texts are expected to refer to the Sanskrit original, because translations are inexact. From 1999 onward, anyone citing the Viṣṇu-purāṇa will be expected to refer to this Sanskrit critical edition. Students of Theosophy will need it for use in research on the Book of Dzyan. Our task is difficult enough in working with secret books whose originals have not yet been discovered. We do not need to give our critics any more reason to consider us uninformed and our work unreliable.
Three other critical editions of purāṇas have been published: The Vāmana Purāṇa (1967), The Kūrma Purāṇa (1971), and The Varāha Purāṇa (1981). All three were critically edited by Anand Swarup Gupta, and all three were published by the All-India Kashiraj Trust, Varanasi. As critical editions, they are similarly noteworthy achievements. Separate volumes were then published giving the Sanskrit text as established in the critical edition (without the variant readings) along with a Hindi translation, and along with an English translation. Horace Hayman Wilson, after surveying the purāṇas in the early 1800s, had chosen the Viṣṇu-purāṇa as being most representative of the five subjects that characterize a purāṇa. So he chose the Viṣṇu-purāṇa to translate, being the first purāṇa to be translated into English, and long the only one. That is why the Viṣṇu-purāṇa was so heavily quoted by HPB.