ABSTRACT
“I Know the Rig Veda, sir,” says Nârada ia the Chhândogya Upanishad (VII, 1, 2), “the Yajur Veda, the Sâma Veda, as the fourth the Atharvana, as the fifth the Itihâsa-Purâna,” &c. This and other similar passages in the literature of the Epic Period would lead to the conclusion that some kind of annals of kings and dynasties existed, even in that ancient period, which were known as Itihâsa-Purânas. If such annals existed, beyond what we find in the Brâhmanas themselves, they have long since been lost. Probably such annals were preserved in the traditions of the people, and were altered and re-cast, and mixed up with legends from century to century, and from age to age, until, after about two thousand years, tliey finally assumed the shape in which we find them now,—the modern Purânas. For the Purânas which exist now were compiled in the Puranic Period, and have since been altered and considerably enlarged during many centuries after the Mahommedan conquest of India.
