Puranas present a rich collection of materials for the study of Hindus rites and customs, during the period ranging approximately from 200 to 1000 A.D. This study is an attempt to determine the chronology of the Puranas.
The nagging riddle of the Vedic Rudra-Siva as a divine figurehead, who has both the benevolent as well as the malevolent aspects at the same time, persists on. Assignment of contradictory epithets and attributes to divine beings is nothing unusual in the Indian pattern of thought. The two other supposedly more benign gods of the holy trinity of the Indian pantheon, namely Brahma and Visnu in their various forms, appearances and incarnations can, for the well ...