33
€s an adulterated one, occasioned by causes incidental to the mode of preservation and the volurninousness of the works themselves. Later accretions and interpolations there might have been and these in themselves cannot make the whole body of works modern. The language of the prose of the Vishnu Purana is quite in keeping with this view. We shall glean out a particular instance : —
fttwrf*R?I«5ftort
|| Vishnu IV.— ii— 91.
These lines speak for themselves. Not the slightest artificiality is noticeable in them. The idea flows and the later figurative embellishments are seen in their embryo. This style certainly deserves to precede the period ofSudraka's. The very sources of Dandin's style are discernible here* The refined wording, the musical choice of words and the naturalness of the flow of expression are the chief characteristics of this prose and therefore the Puranas not undeservedly mark a transition from the Sutras to the Artificial Romance.
According to the traditional classification, the number of the Puranas is eighteen. They are subdivided into three classes based on the predominance of one of the three principles of external existence—goodness, darkness and passion :— i. The Satvika puranas—Vishnu, Narada, Bhagavata,
Garuda, Padma and Varaha.
ii. The Tamasa puranas—Matsya, Kurma, Linga, Satva, Skanda and Agnu
3 fning a correct description of the doctrines and institutions of the Hindu religion, which were prevalent in India three centuries before the Christian era ? For it is probable more that the present Pmranasare the same works as were than extant, than that eighteen persons should have each conceived 1300 years afterwards the design of writing a Purana and should have been able to compile or compose so accurately 18 different works *£