Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c9.42

c9.42

Kauṭilya enjoins that a prince should spend the afternoon in listening to the Itihāsa;¹ and in order to hear the Puranas the prince would need some one to recite them. Hence among the officials whom a king should retain with salaries are mentioned ‘the Paurāṇika, the sūta and the māgadha’.² The Paurāṇika here is manifestly one specially conversant with the Puranas; and he is distinguished from the sūta and māgadha. He is also referred to in another passage in a similar setting, apart from them,³ and separate. Kauṭilya uses the word Paurāṇika also to distinguish the Puranic sūta and māgadha from the two castes of mixed origin who were so named, but the former had ceased to exist then (p. 18). Hence the Puranas were old in his time. The three first mentioned, the Paurāṇika, the sūta and the māgadha, were quite different. Of these the latter two mean the mixed castes of sūtas and māgadhas who had succeeded to some at least of the functions of the ancient sūtas and māgadhas;⁴ and the Paurāṇika was the person, whether brahman or other, who made the Puranas his speciality. His office proves that the Puranas were well known and established compositions in the fourth century B. C.; and the fact that the original sūta and māgadha were only known then from them shows also that the Puranas went back a considerable time before that century.