Studies in the Epics and Puranas c8.119

c8.119

Cosmogony in the Purāṇas in the form in which they have come down to us is on the whole a later development of the systems as presented in the *Mahābhārata* and the *Manusmṛti*, which in their turn draw much upon the previous thinkers. Here too the evolutionary theory of Sāṅkhya has been so modified as to agree with the Vedānta doctrine about the oneness of Brahman by assuming that Puruṣa and Prakṛti are but two forms of the Supreme Deity who is identified with one of the popular gods according to the particular sectarian type of the work.⁶⁰