1832.] . Analysis of the Purdnas. 8.5 



these variations; will be best noticed when we come to the respective 

 Purdnas to which they relate. 



The list of the Purdnas is followed by the genealogical chapters 

 detailing the families of the Sun and Moon, but more particularly the 

 latter, and especially the houses of Yddu and Puru to the time of 

 Krishna and the Pdnddvas. These chapters agree generally with the 

 dynasties usually detailed, but the lists are for the greater part very dry 

 and abrupt, whilst few of the ordinary legends are preserved, and those 

 so concisely as to be very obscure. There are some details relating 

 to Krishna of a rather remarkable character. The time at which these 

 chapters close leaves us no inference regarding the age of the compilation. 



The next subject is medicine, taken avowedly from the instruction 

 given by Dhanwantarito Susruta, or from the medical work attributed 

 to the latter ; the extracts are, however, very injudiciously made, with 

 an utter disregard of method ; and with a perverse selection of every 

 thing least important : it also alludes to the classification of medicaments 

 as hot and cold, and although it does not attach the same importance to 

 the system as is given to it in Mohammedan medicine, yet its introduc- 

 tion at all, is rather in favour of its being derived from such a source, 

 for it is not certain that the ancient writers Charaka and Susruta laid 

 any greater stress upon these particular properties, than they are enti- 

 tled to, without reference to a theoretical system. The part of the 

 Parana likewise includes much mystic medicine or curing by charms. 



Another set of chapters on mystic rites and formulae follows, and on 

 the worship of different forms of Siva and Devi. The whole so incom- 

 patible with a Vaishndva work that it is difficult not to suppose them 

 additions by other and perhaps later hands. 



Poetry and rhetoric form the next subjects, and conform to the 

 systems usually received : the authority of Pingula is specified. The 

 work concludes with a grammar, omitting the verbs : the system is 

 that of Panini and Kdtydyana : the commentator on Paninivs cited by 

 name. The compilation is therefore posterior to the existence of the 

 great body of Hindu poetical compositions, and to the consummation 

 of the grammatical construction of the Sanscrit language. 



From this general sketch of the Agneya Purdna, it is evident that it 

 is a compilation from various works ; that consequently it has no claim 

 in itself to any great antiquity, although from the absence of any 

 exotic materials, it might be pronounced earlier, with perhaps a few 

 exceptions, than the Mohammedan invasion. From the absence also 

 of a controversial or sectarial spirit, it is probably anterior to the strug- 

 gles that took place in the 8th and 9th centuries of our era, between 



