III. Those which are chiefly connected with Siva; viz. the Siva, the Linga, the Skanda, the Agni, the Matsya, the Karma. For the Agni Purana another called the Vayu is sometimes substituted.

These Puranas are the authority for nearly the whole of the popular Hinduism of the present day. They are largely read by the people. Parts of some and the whole of others have been translated into the vernaculars from the Sanskrit; and where the people cannot read, it is a common practice for their Guru or teacher to read a portion to them at his periodic visits. By this means the contents of these books are widely known.

The fact that each Purana is devoted to the praise of some special deity, who, according to its teaching, is supreme, whilst other deities, described in other Puranas in equally extravagant language, are slighted, and in some cases their worship forbidden, seems to prove that these books must have been written at different times and in different places, and probably by those who were ignorant of what others had written. And yet the popular belief is that they were all the work of the great sage Vyasa, the arranger of the Vedas and the Mahabharata.

The ideal Purana--and the Vishnu Purana approaches more nearly to this ideal than any other--should treat of [**] five chief topics:--"I. The creation of the universe; II. Its destruction and re-creation; III. The genealogy of gods and patriarchs; IV. The reigns and periods of the Manus (rulers over long periods of time); and V. The history of the two great races of kings, the Solar and the Lunar." The Puranas, as at present known,

omit some of these great questions and introduce others. Great discrepancies, too, are found in the different genealogies. [**]

The last class of religious books to be mentioned here are the Tantras. The word signifies "a means of faith," and they teach that faith in the revelations they record will save from the greatest sin. They are in the form of a dialogue between Siva and his wife. In answer to her questions, the god gives manifold instructions concerning worship. The date of these works is involved in great obscurity; but as far as can be known they probably are not earlier than the 6th century of our era. They form the authority for the faith and ceremonies of the Saktas, as the worshippers of the wife of Siva are called, and are by them regarded as a fifth Veda. The doctrines, or at least a part of the doctrines, of these sects is kept secret and communicated to those only who receive solemn initiation into the mysteries.