This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 edition. Excerpt: ...times, and which was fully propounded in the Bhagavad-gita, a philosophical episode of the Maha-bharata, (see the Appendix p. 206, for a full description of this celebrated episode), and reduced to a system by a writer called Sandilya in his Bhaktisutras, --became in the Puranas and Tantras exaggerated and perverted. The most complete devotion to the personal deities, Krishna and Rama was enjoined by the Vaishnavas, while the Ssaktas claimed the same for Durga. Furthermore, an absolute belief in the most extravagant miracles, alleged to have been worked by these deities, and an unreasoning acceptance of every monstrous detail of their legendary history, were insisted on; while the relationship of the human soul to the divine was described in the language of human love, and illustrated with images and allegories, suggestive of conjugal union, and even of sexual and adulterous passion. The Puranas and Tantras are the true exponents of these two last and most corrupt phases of popular Hinduism, on which account both sets of books are sometimes called a fifth Veda especially designed for the masses of the people and for women. In order to invest the former with a sacred character, a fictitious antiquity was given to them by naming them Purana, 'ancient tradition, ' and assigning their compilation to the ancient sage Vyasa, the supposed ai/anger of theVedas and Maha-bharata, and founder of the Vedanta philosophy. The work called Vayupurana is perhaps one of the oldest of this class of writings; but an earlier date can scarcely be assigned to it than the 6th century of our era. The Puranas, then, must be carefully distinguished from the Itihasas (seep. i11). It is true that the latter furnish the raw material for the composition of the Puranas, but, ...