Puranas and Acculturation

by Vijay Nath

The present work is an attempt to provide a completely convincing and wholly viable rationale for Puranas composition and subsequent proliferation and establishing the purposive nature of the Puranic texts. It also seeks to underline the dialectical nature of relationship that existed between the processes of their composition and the forces of acculturation that became activated and more visible during Gupta/post-Gupta times due to the mounting demands and pressures of an emergent socio-economic order based on agricultural expansion.

About the Author:

DR. VIJAY NATH is a Reader in Jankidevi College, Delhi University. Her articles focusing on socio-economic and religious history of ancient India have appeared in a number of well-known journals. She has been elected president of Ancient Indian History section of the sixty-first session of India History Congress.