The power of ascetic penances is highly extolled in the Puranas, as also in the epics.  In the Bhagavat it is said that Brahma, by a penitence of sixteen thousand years, created the universe.  It is even told in the Ramayana, that a sage of a lower caste became a Brahman by dint of austerities, in spite of the gods who considered such a confusion of castes a breach of Hindoo etiquette.[90] To prevent him from continuing his devotions, they sent a beautiful nymph to tempt him, and their daughter was the famous Sakuntala.  But in the end, the obstinate old ascetic conquered the gods, and when they still refused to Brahmanize him, he began to create new heavens and new gods, and had already made a few stars, when the deities thought it prudent to yield, and allowed him to become a Brahman.  It is also mentioned that the Ganges, the sacred river, in the course of her wanderings, overflowed the sacrificial ground of another powerful ascetic, who incontinently drank up, in his anger, all its waters, but was finally induced by the persuasions of the gods to set the river free again by discharging it from his ears.  Such were the freaks of sages in the times of the Puranas.

Never was there a more complete example of piety divorced from morality than in these theories.  The most wicked demons acquire power over gods and men, by devout asceticism.  This principle is already fully developed in the epic poems.  The plot of the Ramayana turns around this idea.  A Rajah, Ravana, had become so powerful by sacrifice and devotion, that he oppressed the gods; compelled Yama (or Death) to retire from his dominions; compelled the sun to shine there all the year, and the moon to be always full above his Raj.  Agni (Fire) must not burn in his presence; the Maruts (Winds) must blow only as he wishes.  He cannot be hurt by gods or demons.  So Vischnu becomes incarnate as Rama and the gods become incarnate as Monkeys, in order to destroy him.  Such vast power was supposed to be attained by piety without morality.

The Puranas are derived from the same system as the epic poems, and carry out further the same ideas.  Siva and Vischnu are almost the only gods who are worshipped, and they are worshipped with a sectarian zeal unknown to the epics.  Most of the Puranas contain these five topics,—­Creation, Destruction and Renovation, the Genealogy of the gods, Reigns of the Manus, and History of the Solar and Lunar races.  Their philosophy of creation is derived from the Sanknya philosophy.  Pantheism is one of their invariable characteristics, as they always identify God and Nature; and herein they differ from the system of Kapila.  The form of the Puranas is always that of a dialogue.  The Puranas are eighteen in number, and the contents of the whole are stated to be one million six hundred thousand lines.[91]