these and subsequent sects being composed in the
centuries succeeding the latter term. These sects again divide into
many subdivisions, of which we shall speak below. At present we take
up the character of the Pur[=a]nas and their most important points of
difference as compared with the sectarian parts of the earlier
pseudo-epic, examining especially the trinitarian doctrine, which they
inculcate, and its history.

Save in details, even the special 'faith-scriptures' called Tantras go
no further than go the Pur[=a]nas in advocating the cult of their
particular divinities. And to this advocacy of special gods all else
in this class of writings is subordinated. The ideal Pur[=a]na is
divided into five parts, cosmogony, new creations, genealogies of gods
and heroes, _manvantaras_ (descriptions of periodic 'ages,' past and
future), and dynasties of kings. But no extant Pur[=a]na is divided
thus. In the epic the doctrine of trinitarianism is barely formulated.
Even in the Harivanca, or Genealogy, _va[.n]ca_, of Vishnu, there is
no more than an inverted triunity, 'one form, three gods,' where, in
reality, all that is insisted upon is the identity of Vishnu and Civa,
Brahm[=a] being, as it were, perfunctorily added.[10] In the
Pur[=a]nas, on the other hand, while the trinity is acknowledged,
religion is resolved again into a sort of sectarian monotheism, where
the devotee seems to be in the midst of a squabbling horde of
temple-priests, each fighting for his own idol. In the calmer aspects
of religion, apart from sectarian schism, these writings offer,
indeed, much that is of second-rate interest, but little that is of
real value. The idle speculations in regard to former divinities are
here made cobweb thin. The philosophy is not new, nor is the spirit of
religion raised, even in the most inspired passages, to the level
which it has reached in the Divine Song. Some of these Pur[=a]nas, of
which eighteen chief are cited, but with an unknown number of
subordinate works,[11] may claim a respectable age; many of them are
the most wretched stuff imaginable, bearing about the same literary
and historical relation to earlier models as do the later legal
Smritis. In fact, save for their religious (sectarian) purport, the
Pur[=a]nas for sections together do not differ much in content from
legal Smritis, out of which some may have been evolved, though,
probably, they were from their inception legendary rather than
didactic. It is mor