The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c7.s1.13

c7.s1.13

The most systematic record of Indian historical tradition is that preserved in the dynastic lists of the Purāṇas. Five out of the eighteen works of this class, namely, the Vāyu, Matsya, Vishṇu, Brahmāṇḍa, and Bhāgavata contain such lists. The Brahmāṇḍa and the Vāyu, as well as the Matsya, which has large later additions, appear to be the earliest and most authoritative. Theory required that a Purāṇa should deal with 'the five topics of primary creation, secondary creation, genealogies of gods and patriarchs, reigns of various Manus, and the histories of the old dynasties of kings'. The last named of the five topics is the only one which concerns the historian.¹ Modern European writers have been inclined to disparage unduly the authority of the Purāṇic lists, but closer study finds in them much genuine and valuable historical tradition.