The Mauryan Polity c5.s1.5

c5.s1.5

If this position be granted, the Purāṇas are to be treated as the most systematic records which transmit ancient Indian historical tradition. No doubt the accounts are in certain places embellished unduly and sometimes unnaturally. Omitting such embellishments, the fact remains that any scientific historian of India can have ample materials which, if properly investigated, would go a long way to fill in the gaps left here and there in the various epochs of ancient history. The researches of Bühler have led him to conclude that inasmuch as Vāyu, Viṣṇu, Matsya, and Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇas refer to royal dynasties including that of the Guptas, they may be styled as historical Purāṇas.¹ The Bhāgavata Purāṇa takes us a little further and deals with post-Gupta dynasties also. These purāṇas above mentioned are invaluable to our study, for they transmit the Kauṭalīyan tradition, namely, Kauṭalya helped Candragupta, the first Mauryan King in establishing his rule by defeating the reigning king of the Nanda dynasty. Further these purāṇas enable us to add much to the history of the pre-Mauryan India by way of information.