The Classical Period

Puranas and Tantras.

The Puranas are partly legendary, partly speculative histories of the universe, compiled for the purpose of promoting some special, locally prevalent form of Brahmanical belief. They deal with cosmogony, stories of gods, sages and heroes, Vishnu's avatars, the solar and lunar lines of kings and other pseudo-historical matter. They are sometimes styled a fifth Veda, and may indeed in a certain sense be looked upon as the scriptures of Brahmanical India. The term purcitia, signifying "old," applied originally to prehistoric, especially cosmogonic, legends, and then to collections of ancient traditions generally. They are popular encyclopaedias of useful knowledge mostly with a Vaishnava tendency. They are connected in sub ject matter with the Maheibharata and have some relationship to the law books and go back to a common source.

They are almost entirely composed in the epic couplet, and indeed in much the same easy flowing style as the epic poems, to which they are, however, as a rule greatly inferior in poetic value.

According to the traditional classification of these works, there are said to be eighteen (Maha-, or great) Puranas, and as many Upa-pureiyas, or subordinate Puranas. The former are by some authorities divided into three groups of six, according as one or other of the three primary qualities of external existence—good ness, darkness (ignorance), and passion—is supposed to prevail in them, viz. the Vishnu, Neiradiya, Bhagavata, Garuda, Padma, Varaha—Matsya, Kfirma, Lifiga, .Siva, Skanda, Agni—Brah meinda, Bra/imavaivarta, Meirkandeya, Bhavishya, Vcimana and Brahma-Puranas. The eighteen principal Puranas are said to con sist of together 400,000 couplets. In northern India the Vaishnava Puranas, especially the Bhagavata and Vishnu, are by far the most popular. The former is held in the highest estimation, and, especially through the vernacular versions of its tenth book, treat ing of the story of Krishna, has powerfully influenced the religious belief of India.

From the little we know regarding the Upa-puranas, their char acter does not seem to differ very much from that of the principal sectarian Puranas. Besides these two classes of works there is a large number of so-called Sthala-purdijas, or chronicles recounting the history and merits of some holy "place" or shrine, where their recitation usually forms an important part of the daily service.

The Tantras have to be considered as partly a collateral and partly a later development of the sectarian Puranas ; though, unlike these, they can hardly lay claim to any intrinsic poetic value. These works are looked upon as their sacred writings by the numerous gdktas, or worshippers of the female energy (Sakti) of some god, especially the wife of Siva, in one of her many forms (Parvati, Devi, Kali, Bhavani, Durga). This worship of a female

representation of the divine power appears already in some of the Puranas ; but in the Tantras it assumes quite a peculiar character, being largely intermixed with magic performances and mystic rites, partly, indeed, of a grossly immoral nature. (See HINDU ISM.) See the series of Tantric works edited by A. Avalon.

Artificial Epics and Romances.

About the beginning of the Christian era a new class of epic poems begins to make its appearance, differing widely in character from those that had preceded it. These later productions are of a decidedly artificial character, and must necessarily have been beyond the reach of any but the highly cultivated. They are, on the whole, singularly deficient in incident and invention, their subject matter being almost entirely derived from the old epics. Nevertheless, these works are by no means devoid of merit and interest; and a num ber of them display considerable descriptive power and a wealth of genuine poetic sentiment. The simple heroic couplet has been largely discarded for various more or less elaborate metres ; and in accordance with this change of form the diction becomes gradually more complicated.

The generic appellation of such works is kdvya, which, meaning "poem," or the work of an individual poet (kavi), is, as we have seen, already applied to the Ramayaya. Six poems of this kind are singled out by native rhetoricians as standard works, under the title of Mahakavya, or great poems. Two of these are ascribed to the famous dramatist Kalidasa, the most prominent figure of this period of Indian literature and truly a master of the poetic art. In a comparatively modern couplet he is represented as having been one of nine literary "gems" at the court of a king Vikramaditya. Whether this name refers to Chandragupta II. Vikramaditya or not, Kalidasa must have flourished about this time, c. A.D. 400. Of the principal poets of this class, whose works have come down to us, he appears to be one of the earliest ; but there can be little doubt that he was preceded in this as in other de partments of poetic composition by many lesser lights, eclipsed by the sun of his fame, and forgotten. Thus the Buddhacharita, a Sanskrit poem on the life of the reformer, which was translated into Chinese about A.D. 420, and the author of which, Agvaghosha, is placed by Buddhist tradition as early as the time of Kanishka (who began to reign in A.D. 78), calls itself, not without reason, a "mah5.kavya"; and the panegyrics contained in some of the inscriptions of the 4th century likewise display, both in verse and ornate prose, many of the characteristic features of the kavya style of composition.