The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.10

v1.c24.10

The chief object of the Purāṇas is to glorify Çiva or Vishṇu, the great divinities who, in their manifold forms, share the allegiance of India. They have become sectarian and propagandist, exalting their own particular deity at the expense of all others. In a word, they have become the scriptures of various forms of the later Hinduism, and bear to these the same relation that the Vedas and Brāhmaṇas bore to the older Brāhmanism. But while the scriptures of the ancient sacrificial religion have remained unaltered and have been protected from textual corruption by the elaborate devices of priestly schools, the Purāṇas have adapted themselves to the changes which have taken place in the social and religious life of the people, and their text has been perverted by generations of editors and transcribers.