Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c32.97

c32.97

Here notice of historical tradition on the religious side closes, for the Puranas and epic contain nothing noteworthy about later teachers. Their account stops with Āsurāyaṇa, who has been assigned to about the end of the eighth century B. C. It was drawn up by the Puranic brahmans as mentioned above, and the fact that they continued the lines of religious teachers, beyond the stage where their secular tradition closed (p. 57), down to about 700 B. C. with precise statements, and allude to nothing later personal except to Buddha curtly or vaguely, indicates that those additions were made then as a second stage while personal knowledge was fresh. Not long afterwards Jainism and Buddhism challenged the supremacy of the brahmans, and no traditions about later teachers were added. Secular chronicles preserved knowledge of the dynasties and kings who reigned in the chief countries, and were incorporated in the Bhaviṣya Purana, and copied later into the Matsya¹ and other Puranas in the third century A. D. and afterwards (p. 50). Religious tradition about the same period would seem to have become too scanty, uncertain or confused amid the religious conflicts to gain admittance into the Puranas.