Ithihasas and Puranas are the major mythological treasures of Hindu Philosophy and thought. They are considered to be real and actual historical events and not to be treated as "myths". These are factual narration of the manifestation of the Divine to uplift the Human Soul. "Ithi- ha- asam" really means "It happened thus". They are mainly stories of remote times and some travels through space and remote parts of the universe in different time period. They establish one aspect of the religious faith through the Agamic teachings of manifest Brahmam and prayers through devotional paths of Hinduism, to establish the faith for the devotee to one particular form of Deity 'Ishta -Devata'. They were written for ordinary people, who do not study the Vedas, to understand the inner meanings of the principles and philosophy through mythological stories and chronicles of narration of historical events as concrete examples. Many of the incidents and stories discussed borders on from narrative texts of reality to imaginative stories of fictional characters. Even if one considers them as stories, they do convey the Truth and Philosophy of Vedic teachings to the masses.

The Puranas glorify various aspects of Siva, Brahma, Vishnu and Shakthi and were written by many sages. The Puranas are of the same class as the Ithihasas. They illustrate the philosophical principles, through various manifestations and incarnations, with God in the manifest forms of Saguna Brahmam. The aim of every Avathara is to save the World from great danger, to destroy the wicked and to protect the virtuous ones and to establish Dharma. The Puranas were compiled by Sri (Krishna Dvaipayana) Vyasa. Sasthras say that he gave us the Puranas 5000 years back. There are Eighteen Puranas and an equal number of Upa-puranas. Of all these, the most popular ones are Siva Purana, Skanda Purana, Srimad Bhagavada Purana and Vishnu Purana. The popular portion of Markandeya Purana is the Chandi or Devi Mahatmiyam. It is usually read during the ten days of Dusserrah or Navarathri Pooja. It has worship of God as the Divine Mother as its theme. Srimad Bhagavatha Purana deals with the Ten Great Avathara of Sri Vishnu.