[paragraph continues] Vishńu: and in a chapter on gifts we have a description of the Puráńas, which is precisely the same, and in the same situation, as the similar subject in the Matsya Puráńa. The genealogical chapters are meagre lists, differing in a few respects from those commonly received, as hereafter noticed, but unaccompanied by any particulars, such as those recorded or invented in the Márkańd́eya. The next subject is medicine, compiled avowedly, but injudiciously, from the Sauśruta. A series of chapters on the mystic worship of Śiva and Deví follows; and the work winds up with treatises on rhetoric, prosody, and grammar, according to the Sutras of Pingala and Pánini.

The cyclopædical character of the Agni Puráńa, as it is now described, excludes it from any legitimate claims to be regarded as a Puráńa, and proves that its origin cannot be very remote. It is subsequent to the Itihásas; to the chief works on grammar, rhetoric, and medicine; and to the introduction of the Tántrika worship of Deví. When this latter took place is yet far from determined, but there is every probability that it dates long after the beginning of our era. The materials of the Agni, Puráńa are, however, no doubt of some antiquity. The medicine of Suśruta is considerably older than the ninth century; and the grammar of Pánini probably precedes Christianity. The chapters on archery and arms, and on regal administration, are also distinguished by an entirely Hindu character, and must have been written long anterior to the Mohammedan invasion. So far the Agni Puráńa is valuable, as embodying and preserving relics of antiquity, although compiled at a more' recent date.

Col. Wilford 61 has made great use of a list of kings derived from an appendix to the Agni Puráńa, which professes to be the sixty-third or last section. As he observes, it is seldom found annexed to the Puráńa. I have never met with it, and doubt its ever having formed any part of the original compilation. It would appear from Col. Wilford's remarks, that this list notices Mohammed as the institutor of an era; but his account of this is not very distinct. He mentions explicitly, however, that the list speaks of Sáliváhana and Vikramáditya; and this is quite

sufficient to establish its character. The compilers of the Puráńas were not such bunglers as to bring within their chronology so well known a personage as Vikramáditya. There are in all parts of India various compilations ascribed to the Puráńas, which never formed any portion of their contents, and which, although offering sometimes useful local information, and valuable as preserving popular traditions, are not in justice to be confounded with the Puráńas, so as to cause them to be charged with even more serious errors and anachronisms than those of which they are guilty.