The Uttara Khańd́a of the Bráhma P. bears still more entirely the character of a Máhátmya, or local legend, being intended to celebrate the sanctity of the Balajá river, conjectured to be the same as the Banás in Marwar. There is no clue to its date, but it is clearly modern, grafting personages and fictions of its own invention on a few hints from older authorities 36.

Footnotes

xvi:33

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xvii:34 Col. Vans Kennedy objects to this character of the Bráhma P., and observes that it contains only two short descriptions of pagodas, the one of Konáditya, the other of Jagannáth. In that case, his copy must differ considerably from those I have met with; for in them the description of Purushottama Kshetra, the holy land of Orissa, runs through forty chapters, or one-third of the work. The description, it is true, is interspersed, in the usual rambling strain of the Puráńas, with a variety of legends, some ancient, some modern; but they are intended to illustrate some local circumstance, and are therefore not incompatible with the main design, the celebration of the glories of Purushottama Kshetra. The specification of the temple of Jagannáth, however, is of itself sufficient, in my opinion, to determine the character and era of the compilation.

xvii:35 See Account of Orissa proper, or Cuttack, by A. Stirling, Esq.: Asiatic Res. vol. XV. p. 305.

xvii:36 See Analysis of the Bráhma Puráńa: Journ. Royal As. Soc, vol. V. p. 65.

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