They repeat the cosmogony of the poems, and they relate more fully their mythological legends.

Siva and Vischnu are almost the sole objects of worship in the Puranas.

There is a sectarian element in their devotion to these deities which shows their partiality, and prevents them from being authorities for Hindoo belief as a whole.[86] The Puranas, in their original form, belong to a period, says Mr.Wilson, a century before the Christian era.

They grew out of the conflict between Buddhism and Brahmanism.

The latter system had offered no personal gods to the people and given them no outward worship, and the masses had been uninterested in the abstract view of Deity held by the Brahmans.[87] According to Mr.Wilson,[88] there are eighteen Puranas which are now read by the common people.