Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c11.16

c11.16

The Viṣṇu account is mainly in prose, with old verses introduced occasionally. It is generally in agreement with the ‘Vāyu and Harivaṁśa versions’ in the structure of its genealogies, sometimes agreeing rather with the former as in the Aikṣvāku dynasty, and sometimes rather with the latter as in the cases of the Yādavas and Pauravas; but it also has omissions, variations, additions, and ‘embellishments’ of its own. It leaves out some of the incidents in those versions, condenses others (as for instance, the famous story of Satyavrata Triśaṅku of Ayodhyā ¹), and adds others again, which are brahmanical fables (as the story of the rishi Saubhari and king Māndhātṛ's daughters) ² or brahmanized legends (as the story of king Kalmāṣapāda),³ or tales that seem to have some basis of genuine tradition but have been half mythologized (as the story of Purukutsa and Narmadā).⁴ The verses it intersperses are manifestly quotations from older metrical versions, and agree sometimes with the Vāyu and Harivaṃśa versions. It is a late Purana, composed as a single whole upon a consistent plan, and not a collection of materials of various times, as we find in the Vāyu, Brahma and Matsya. From its account of Buddhism and Jainism (p. 68) it appears to have been composed after brahmanism had recovered its supremacy, so that it cannot be earlier than about the fifth century, A.D.⁵ and it is brahmanical.