Note 83 — Chapter I · WHAT IS THE BHAGAVADGITA?
Reading edition
We need not stay to ask whether the Srimadbhāgavat and other Purānas can be trusted as evidence for the life of Krishna; for all scholars agree that, while ancient Purānas existed, all those that have come down to us reflect a later stage of Hinduism than that of the Mahābhārata; and that, while they contain much that is old scattered up and down their pages, the oldest fragments are of the same general date as the Mahābhārata and Manu. Hopkins, R. I., 434-445; Macdonell, 299-302; Dutt, C. A. I., I, 19; II, 211; Müller, A. S. L., 61; Kaegi, 8, 105; Krishnacharitra, Chaps. XIV-XVI.