The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.20

v1.c24.20

A very striking analogy to the mutual relations of the various Purāṇas is to be found in the case of our own Saxon chronicle, which, as is well known, continued to be written up in various monasteries down to the reign of Stephen, though the additions made after the Roman conquest were independent of each other. Similarly the copies of the original verse Purāṇa that were possessed by the priests of the great centres of pilgrimage were altered and added to chiefly by the insertion of local events after the fall of a central Hindu government had made communication between the different groups of Brāhmans relatively difficult. In this way the Brahmā Purāṇa may represent the Orissa version of the original work, just as the Padma may give that of Pushkara, the Agni that of Gayā, the Varāha that of Mathurā, the Vāmana that of Thānesar, the Kūrma that of Benares, and the Matsya that of the Brāhmans on the Narmadā.