536 Analysis of the Purdnas. [Dec. 



others. The legend of the Vdyu Purdna is quoted in the commenta- 

 ry of NlLAKANTHA on the M AHABHARAT. 



The mixed character of the Su'ta is, however, more rationally ex- 

 plained in the works of Law. He is the son of a Kshetriya father 

 and Brahmani mother, and is consequently one of the Verna San- 

 kara, or mixed castes. His occupations are properly of a martial 

 character, as driving chariots and tending horses and elephants, but as 

 partaking of the Brahmanical order, he is also the encomiast, the 

 herald or bard of chieftains and princes ; such duty being assigned to 

 him and the Magadha, by Prithu, the son of Vena, and it is in this 

 latter capacity that the Suta is the appropriate narrator of the Purd- 

 nas. 



The origin of the Suta, whether legendary or rational, the duties 

 which are assigned to him, and the right conceded to him of teaching 

 the Purdnas, seem to throw some light on the early history of these 

 works. In all probability, they were at first the traditionary tales of 

 a race of family poets, who corresponded precisely in character with 

 the scalds and bards of the north, and were at once the eulogists of 

 the chief and chroniclers of the family. In this manner some his- 

 torical traditions were preserved before they were formed into any 

 systematic account, but of course imperfectly and rudely. With the 

 genealogies the poets blended, no doubt, fanciful and mythological 

 fictions, and these were the materials which later writers wove into a. 

 connected form, and from which they constructed the primitive Purdnas. 

 The character of the compilers, that of religious men, gave, however, 

 a new complexion to the competition, and the mythological and mar- 

 vellous portions came to usurp an undue importance, to the neglect 

 of the historical records. The genealogies were, however, probably 

 preserved with some more care, as they were connected with the worship 

 of certain deities or deified princes, particularly Rama and Krishna. 

 To the mythology also systems of cosmogony, geography, and astro- 

 nomy were added, and the five divisions of the Purdnas were then 

 complete. . They were not long however suffered to continue in this 

 condition. Contending sects arose, and each desirous of enlisting 

 the Purdnas on his side, foisted into them absurd and tasteless fictions, 

 or metaphysical subtleties, calculated to inculcate the worship of some 

 individual manifestation of the Supreme. This began, there is reason 

 to think, about the 7th and 8th centuries with the Yogis. The fol- 

 lowers of Saiva doctrines carried it to a great extent between the 8th 

 and 10th centuries, and in the 11th and 12th, or after the date of Ra- 

 MANUJAand Madhwacharya the Vaishnava Purdnas were, there is 



