Vedas were composed 3,000 years ago, while the Puranas were composed 1,500 years ago. In between, came the great epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, after the Vedas, but before the Puranas. The two reflect dramatically different worldviews. Vedas does not factor in monastic ideals; the Puranas do, as do the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

Vedas were composed orally in old Vedic Sanskrit, centuries before the Mauryan Era. Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Puranas were written down in Classical Sanskrit based on Panini’s rules of grammar, around the Gupta Era. The stories were likely to have been transmitted orally for a long time before being written. Evidence for this is found internally: the Ramayana is first recited by Luv and Kush before Ram; the Mahabharata is recited by Vaisampayana before Jamadagni; the Puranas is recited orally at Naimisha forest by the storytellers Romaharshana and Ugrashrava. But when? Most likely after the rise of Buddhism.