The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c8.6

c8.6

Bāṇa, the author of the *Harsha-Charita*, or panegyric on King Harsha, who wrote about A. D. 620, carries the proof of the antiquity of the Purāṇas four centuries further back. When he went home to his village on the Sōn river, in the country now known as the Shāhābād District, he listened to Sudṛishṭi, who read 'with a chant' the *Purāṇa* described as *pavanaprokta* which may be identified with either the *Vāyu* or the *Brahmāṇḍa*.² Dr. Führer believed that he could prove the use by Bāṇa of the *Agni*, *Bhāgavata*, and *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇas*, as well as the *Vāyu*.³