Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus c7.s2.36

c7.s2.36

The followers of the *Tantras* profess to consider them as a fifth *Veda*, and attribute to them equal antiquity, and superior authority.* The observances they prescribe have, indeed, in Bengal, almost superseded the original ritual. The question of there date is involved in considerable obscurity. From the practices described in some of the *Puránas*, particularly that of the *Dikshá* or rite of initiation, in the *Agni Puránas*, from the specification of formulæ, comprising the mystical monosyllables of the *Tantras* in that and other similar compilations, and from the citation of some of them by name in different *Pauránic* works,† we must conclude that some of the *Tantras* are prior to those authorities. But the date of the *Puránas* themselves is far from determined, and whilst some parts of them may be of considerable antiquity, other portions of most, if not of all, are undoubtedly subsequent to the tenth century of the Christian era. It is not unlikely, however, that several of the *Tan-*