Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c10.145

c10.145

Next comes the intermediate class of stories that show both kṣatriya and brahmanical traits and sentiments combined. These are plainly composite. Since the kṣatriya features are older than the brahmanic as pointed out above, such stories must have been of kṣatriya origin and have been touched up afterwards by the Puranic brahmans. The reverse is not credible from what has been explained about the development of the Puranas. These stories display all grades of modification from tales that are mainly kṣatriya to tales that have become essentially brahmanic. Generally it is possible to trace out the modification only when different versions of the same story exist; but in most cases, while it is fairly evident that modification has taken place, it can only be conjectured what the changes have been.