Studies in the Epics and Puranas c8.2

c8.2

It is a sign of good times that of late there seems to have been some revival of interest in Purāṇic Studies, as would appear from references to the importance of the Purāṇas in the Presidential Addresses of scholars, whose views are entitled to command respect. At the Ninth All-India Oriental Conference at Trivandrum, Dr. G. S. Ghurye, as the President of the Ethnology Section, drew pointed attention to Pargiter's observations on different racial "stocks" in India, and ably controverted the views of the veteran Purāṇic scholar.¹ Pargiter and Purāṇas again figured prominently in the Presidential Address of Dr. A. S. Altekar at the Archaic Section of the Third Indian History Congress at Calcutta, where pre-Bhārata war history was considered and the Purāṇas evaluated.² Later on, the late Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, the General President of the Tenth All-India Oriental Conference at Tirupati, stressed the importance of the Purāṇas and made a strong plea for starting afresh their critical study.³ In the same session, Dr. B. L. Atreya, as the President of the Religion and Philosophy Section, rightly observed: "We have still no authentic work dealing with the religion and philosophy of the Purāṇas."⁴ Indian scholars have recognised the importance of the Purāṇas in their writings on historical subjects, and quite recently the University of Madras has published two volumes of *Purāṇa Index*.