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iii. The Raj am puranas—Brahmanda, Vaivarta, Markan-deya, Bhavishyat and Brahma.
The first two groups chiefly devote themselves to the commendation of Vishnu and Siva, while the third promotes-the claims of individual forms as Krishna, Devi and Ganesa. The present Puranas are numbered at 400,000 couplets.
papurar^as have the same characteristics as the-One of them contains the episode of Adhyatma Ramayana, supposed to be a spiritual version of Valmiki's poein. TheTantras are a later development of the doctrines-of the Puranic creed. They are the writings oif saktas or votaries of the female energies of some divinity, mostly the wife of Siva. Such ideas are not altogether absent in the Puranic works. But in the Tantras they assume a peculiar character owing to the admixture of magic performances and mystic rites of perhaps an indelicate nature. Amarasirnha knows not of them. Among these are the Kularnava^ Syamalarahasya and Ralikatantra.
CHAPTER IV. THE KAVYAS OR ARTIFICIAL EPICS.
The Ramayana stands at the head of the Kavya branch of Sanskrit literature. In its composition it answers in every minute detail to the description of a Mahakavya as defined by Poetics. In perfection ojr in spontaneity the later poems can in no w^y compare themselves favourably with the work of Vatmiki. The Mahabhashya of Patanjali has literary evidence- Satva, Skanda and Agnu