[Footnote 445:  See for a summary of them Winternitz, Gesch.  Ind.  Lit. I. pp. 450-483.  For the dates see Pargiter Dynasties of the Kali age.  He holds that the historical portions of the older Puranas were compiled in Prakrit about 250 A.D. and re-edited in Sanskrit about 350.  See also Vincent Smith, Early History, p. 21 and, against Pargiter, Keith in J.R.A.S. 1914, p. 1021.  Alberuni (who wrote in 1030) mentions eighteen Puranas and gives two lists of them.  Bana (c. 620 A.D.) mentions the recitation of the Vayu Purana.  The commentary on the Svetasvatara Upan. ascribed to Sankara quotes the Brahma P., Linga P. and Vishnu P. as authorities as well as Puranic texts described as Vishnudharma and Sivadharmottara.  But the authorship of this commentary is doubtful.  The Puranic literature as we know it probably began with the Gupta dynasty or a century before it, but the word Purana in the sense of an ancient legend which ought to be learnt occurs as early as the Satapatha Brahmana (XI. 5. 6. 8) and even in A.V.  XI. 7. 24.]

[Footnote 446:  See Dinesh Chandra Sen, Hist.  Bengali Language and Lit. pp. 220-225.]

[Footnote 447:  Pargiter, l.c. pp. xvii, xxviii.  It does not belong to the latest class of Puranas for it seems to contemplate the performance of Smarta rites not temple ceremonial, but it is not quoted by Ramanuja (twelfth century) though he cites the Vishnu Purana.  Probably he disapproved of it.]

[Footnote 448:  It was made as late as 1803 by Lallu Ji Lal, but is a rendering into Hindi of a version in the Braj dialect, probably made in the sixteenth century.]

[Footnote 449:  Another Vishnuite work is cited indifferently as Padma-tantra or Padma-samhita, and the Bhagavata Purana (I. 3. 8) speaks of the Sattvatam Tantram, which is apparently the Sattvata-samhita.  The work edited by Schrader is described as the Ahirbudhnya Samhita of the Pancaratra Agama.]

[Footnote 450:  See for some notices of these works A. Avalon’s various publications about Tantra.  Srinivasa Iyengar, Outlines of Indian Philosophy, 118-191.  Govindacarya Svami on the Vaishnava Samhitas, J.R.A.S. 1911, pp. 935 ff.  Schomerus, Caiva-Siddhanta, pp. 7 ff. and Schrader’s Introduction to the Pancaratra.  Whereas these works claim to be independent of the Veda, the Sectarian Upanishads (see vol.  I. p. 76) are an attempt to connect post-Vedic sects with the Veda.]

[Footnote 451:  Jnana, Yoga, Carya, Kriya.  The same names are used of Buddhist Tantras, except that Anuttara replaces Jnana.]

[Footnote 452:  See Schrader, Introd. to the Pancaratra, p. 98.  In the Raghuvamsa, X. 27.  Agamas are not only mentioned but said to be extremely numerous.  But in such passages it is hard to say whether Agama means the books now so-called or merely tradition.  Alberuni seems not to have known of this literature and a Tantra for him is merely a minor treatise on astronomy.  He evidently regards the Vedas, Puranas, philosophical Darsanas and Epics as constituting the religious literature of India.]