Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c8.39

c8.39

Dharma in all its branches bulks very large in the present Puranas, but is not alluded to nor even implied in any of those five subjects. Hence it was no ingredient of the earliest Puranas, except probably such simple lessons as might be conveyed incidentally in those five subjects.³ It has been explained how the original Purana was soon developed into four separate versions (p. 23), and thenceforward the Puranic brahmans developed the Puranas. The multifarious other matters now found were thus later additions, such augmentations gradually nullified the ancient fivefold division, and it was then possible that Puranas could be composed which diverged from that character, *pañca-lakṣaṇa*. The Puranas naturally lent themselves to augmentation, and the Puranic brahmans used their opportunities to the full, partly with further genuine traditions, but mostly with additions of brahmanic stories and fables and doctrinal and ritual matter.