In the third book the interlocutors are changed to Maitreya and Vidura; the former of whom is the disciple in the Vishńu Puráńa, the latter was the half-brother of the Kuru princes. Maitreya, again, gives an account of the Srisht́i-lílá, or sport of creation, in a strain partly common to the Puráńas, partly peculiar; although he declares he learned it from his teacher Paráśara, at the desire of Pulastya 47; referring thus to the fabulous origin of the Vishńu Puráńa, and furnishing evidence of its priority. Again, however, the authority is changed, and the narrative is said to have been that which was communicated by Śesha to the Nágas. The creation of Brahmá is then described, and the divisions of time are explained. A very long and peculiar account is given of the Varáha incarnation of Vishńu, which is followed by the creation of the Prajápatis and Swáyambhuva, whose daughter Devahutí is married to Karddama Rishi; an incident peculiar to this work, as is that which follows of the Avatára of Vishńu as Kapila the son of Karddama and Devahutí, the author of the Sánkhya philosophy, which he expounds, after a Vaishńava fashion, to his mother, in the last nine chapters of this section.

The Manwantara of Swáyambhuva, and the multiplication of the patriarchal families, are next described with some peculiarities of nomenclature, which are pointed out in the notes to the parallel passages of the Vishńu Puráńa. The traditions of Dhruva, Veńa, Prithu, and other princes of this period, are the other subjects of the fourth Skandha, and are continued in the fifth to that of the Bharata who obtained emancipation. The details generally conform to those of the Vishńu Puráńa, and the same words are often employed, so that it would he difficult to determine which work had the best right to them, had not the Bhágavata itself indicated its obligations to the Vishńu. The remainder of the fifth book is occupied with the description of the universe, and the same conformity with the Vishńu continues.

This is only partially the case with the sixth book, which contains a variety of legends of a miscellaneous description, intended to illustrate the merit of worshipping Vishńu: some of them belong to the early

stock, but some are apparently novel. The seventh book is mostly occupied with the legend of Prahláda. In the eighth we have an account of the remaining Manwantaras; in which, as happening in the course of them, a variety of ancient legends are repeated, as the battle between the king of the elephants and an alligator, the churning of the ocean, and the dwarf and fish Avatáras. The ninth book narrates the dynasties of the Vaivaswata Manwantara, or the princes of the solar and lunar races to the time of Krishńa 48. The particulars conform generally with those recorded in the Vishńu.