Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c9.8

c9.8

Further the Matsya, Vāyu and Brahmāṇḍa say in their accounts of the dynasties of the Kali age that they borrowed their accounts from the Bhaviṣya;¹ and the internal evidence therein shows that the Bhaviṣya existed in the middle of the third century A. D., the Matsya borrowed before the end of that century, and the Vāyu and Brahmāṇḍa borrowed in the next century.² The present Bhaviṣya, as presented in the Śrī-Veṅkaṭeśvara edition, does not contain that account, but another altogether corrupt and false, and the reason is that the Bhaviṣya has been freely tampered with in order to bring its prophecies up to date and the ancient matter utterly vitiated: but those three Puranas show what it contained in the third century, as regards the dynasties of the Kali age.