on the character of the legends which some of them contain, such as the Durgá Máhátmya, or celebrated legend on which the worship of Durgá or Kálí is especially founded, which is a principal episode of the Márkańd́eya. The Brahma-vaivartta also devotes the greatest portion of its chapters to the celebration of Rádhá, the mistress of Krishńa, and other female divinities. Col. Vans Kennedy, however, objects to the application of the term Sákta to this last division of the Puráńas, the worship of Śakti being the especial object of a different class of works, the Tantras, and no such form of worship being particularly inculcated in the Bráhma Puráńa 26. This last argument is of weight in regard to the particular instance specified, and the designation of Śakti may not be correctly applicable to the whole class, although it is to some of the series; for there is no incompatibility in the advocacy of a Tántrika modification of the Hindu religion by any Puráńa, and it has unquestionably been practised in works known as Upa-puráńas. The proper appropriation of the third class of the Puráńas, according to the Padma Puráńa, appears to be to the worship of Krishńa, not in the character in which he is represented in the Vishńu and Bhágavata Puráńas, in which the incidents of his boyhood are only a portion of his biography, and in which the human character largely participates, at least in his riper years, but as the infant Krishńa, Govinda, Bála Gopála, the sojourner in Vrindávan, the companion of the cowherds and milkmaids, the lover of Rádhá, or as the juvenile master of the universe, Jagannátha. The term Rájasa, implying the animation of passion, and enjoyment of sensual delights, is applicable, not only to the character of the youthful divinity, but to those with whom his adoration in these forms seems to have originated, the Gosains of Gokul and Bengal, the followers and descendants of Vallabha and Chaitanya, the priests and proprietors of Jagannáth and Śrínáth-dwár, who lead a life of affluence and indulgence, and vindicate, both by precept and practice, the reasonableness of the Rájasa property, and the congruity of temporal enjoyment with the duties of religion 27.

The Puráńas are uniformly stated to be eighteen in number. It is said that there are also eighteen Upa-puráńas, or minor Puráńas; but