[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924) › c8 # The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c8: Appendix A. The Age of the Purāṇas The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c8 - **Language:** English ### Appendix A. The Age of the Purāṇas ### [c8.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.2) H. H. Wilson, misunderstanding certain passages in the Purāṇas as referring to the Muhammadans, enunciated the opinion that the \*Vishṇu Purāṇa\* was composed in or about a. d. 1045. The error, excusable in Wilson's time, unfortunately continued to be repeated frequently, although refuted by patent facts many years ago.¹ The persistent repetition of Wilson's mistake renders it desirable to bring together a few easily intelligible and decisive proofs that the Purāṇas are very much older than he supposed. ### [c8.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.3) ¹ \*e. g.\*, it recurs in the latest, 22nd, edition of Sir W. Hunter's book, \*A Brief History of the Indian People\*, 1897, p. 103. ### [c8.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.4) Albērūnī, who wrote his scientific account of India in a. d. 1030, gives a list of the eighteen Purāṇas 'composed by the so-called Rishis', and had actually seen three of them, namely parts of the \*Matsya\*, \*Āditya\*, and \*Vāyu\*. He also gives a variant list of the eighteen works, as named in the \*Vishṇu Purāṇa\*.¹ It is, therefore, certain that in A. D. 1030 the Purāṇas were, as now, eighteen in number, and were regarded as coming down from immemorial antiquity when the mythical Ṛishis lived. ### [c8.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.5) ¹ Sachau's translation, vol. i, pp. 130, 131, 264. ### [c8.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.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 ### [c8.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.7) ² Cowell and Thomas, trans., p. 72. ### [c8.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.8) ³ \*Trans. VIth Or. Congress\*, vol. iii, p. 205. ### [c8.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.9) Independent proof of the existence of the \*Skanda Purāṇa\* at the same period is afforded by a Bengal manuscript of that work, 'written in Gupta hand, to which as early a date as the middle of the seventh century can be assigned on palaeographical grounds.'⁴ ### [c8.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.10) ⁴ \*J. R. A. S.\*, 1903, p. 193. ### [c8.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.11) The Purāṇas in some form were well known to the author of the 'Questions of Milinda' (\*Milindapanha\*) as ancient sacred writings grouped with the Vēdas and epic poems. Book I of that work, in which the first reference occurs, is undoubtedly part of the original composition, and was almost certainly composed earlier than A. D. 300.⁵ ### [c8.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.12) ⁵ \*S. B. E.\*, vol. xxxv, pp. 6, 247. ### [c8.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.13) Many other early quotations from, or references to, the Purāṇas have been collected by Bühler, who points out that 'the account of the future kings in the \*Vāyupurāṇa\*, \*Vishṇupurāṇa\*, \*Matsyapurāṇa\*, and \*Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa\* seems to stop with the imperial Guptas and their contemporaries'.⁶ Bühler speaks of 'future kings', because all the historical statements of the Purāṇas are given in the form of prophecy, in order to maintain the appearance of great antiquity in the books, which in their oldest forms were undoubtedly very ancient. ### [c8.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.14) ⁶ \*Ind. Ant.\*, vol. xxv (1896), p. 323. ### [c8.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.15) Mr. F. E. Pargiter in his valuable work, \*The Dynasties of the Kali Age\* (Clarendon Press, 1913), has succeeded in obtaining more definite results. He suggests that the \*Bhavishya Purāṇa\* in its early form was the original authority from which the \*Matsya\*, \*Vāyu\*, and \*Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇas\* derived their dynastic lists. The \*Vāyu\* and \*Brahmāṇḍa\* were originally one, and have become differentiated. The versions of the lists as now found in the \*Matsya\*, \*Vāyu\*, and \*Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇas\* 'grew out of one and the same original text.' But the \*Matsya\* version is in some respects the best of those three, notwithstanding that it includes additions of later date. The \*Vishṇu\* and \*Bhāgavata Purāṇas\* are later condensed redactions, and the \*Bhavishya\* in its existing form, which has been freely corrupted and interpolated, is worthless for historical purposes. Those purposes are served chiefly by the \*Matsya\*, \*Vāyu\*, and \*Brahmāṇḍa\*. There are clear indications that the Sanskrit account of the dynasties as it now stands in these three works is an adaptation of older Prākrit \*ślokas\*, or verses ; and there is some reason for suspecting that the most ancient text was originally written in the Kharoshṭhī script. ### [c8.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.16) Mr. Pargiter holds that the first compilation of the historical matter may have been made in the reign of the Āndhra king, Yajñaśrī, about the end of the second century after Christ ; that the first certain compilation was made in the original \*Bhavishya Purāṇa\* about A. D. 260 ; that the \*Bhavishya\* account was revised about A. D. 315–20 and inserted in MS. \*e Vāyu\* ; that the same account was again revised a few years later, about A. D. 325–30, and inserted in the other \*Vāyu\* MSS. as well as in the \*Brahmāṇḍa\*, so that those \*Purāṇas\* have preserved the contents of the \*Bhavishya\* at the date last named. The \*Matsya\* version seems to preserve the \*Bhavishya\* text in a slightly earlier stage, dating from about the last quarter of the third century. ### [c8.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.17) Keith traverses all Pargiter's theories, and holds that \*bhavishya\* simply means 'in the future'.¹ Pargiter maintains his view as to the interpretation of the word in a reply to Keith.² J. Kennedy discusses the historical value of the Puranic tradition, and gives Pargiter credit for weaving it into a 'consecutive and intelligible whole'.³ ### [c8.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.18) ¹ \*J. R. A. S.\*, 1914, pp. 1021–31. ### [c8.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.19) ² Ibid., 1915, pp. 516–21, and pp. 141–7, 328. ### [c8.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.20) ³ Ibid., 1915, pp. 507–16. ### [c8.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.21) Mr. Pargiter's treatise is based on the collation of sixty-three MSS., and deserves careful study. It cites other authorities fully. ### [c8.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8.22) I may add that \*Purāṇas\* in some shape were already authoritative in the fourth century B. C. The author of the \*Arthaśāstra\* ranks the \*Atharvaveda\* and \*Itihāsa\* as the fourth and fifth Vedas (Bk. I, ch. 3) ; and directs the king to spend his afternoons in the study of \*Itihāsa\*, which is defined as comprising six factors, namely, (1) \*Purāṇa\*, (2) \*Itivṛitta\* (history), (3) \*Ākhyāyika\* (tales), (4) \*Udāharaṇa\* (illustrative stories), (5) \*Dharmaśāstra\*, and (6) \*Arthaśāstra\* (Bk. I, ch. 5). ## Linked texts (16) - [Agnipurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.agni) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Bhāgavatapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.bhagavata) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.brahmanda) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Vāyupurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.vayu) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Matsyapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.matsya) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Milindapañha](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.milindapanha) — Pāli - [Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.artha.kautilya) — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit - [Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.markandeya) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Bhaviṣyapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.bhavisya) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Harṣacarita](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.historical.harsacarita) — Bāṇabhaṭṭa, Sanskrit - [Ādityapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.upa.aditya) — Sanskrit - [Dharmaśāstra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.dharma) - [Purāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana) — Sanskrit - [Viṣṇupurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.visnu) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Atharvavedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.atharva) — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit - [Skandapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c8) · Pramāṇa