Sage Jaimini, a disciple of Veda Vyasa, effected branches of Samaveda. Sage Jaimini had a son, Sumantu. Sumantu in turn had a son, Sukarma. Both of them studied a branch of Samaveda each. Sukarma divided his branch of Samaveda into sub-branches and taught them to his two disciples- Kaushalya Hiranyanabh and Paushpinji. Hiranyanabh had five hundred disciples. Upon receiving the knowledge of Samaveda branch from Hiranyanabh, these disciples came to be known as Prachya Samag. Disciples of Paushpinji also effected divisions in Samaveda that they received from their teacher. One more disciple of Hiranyanabh named Kriti taught twenty-four Samhitas of Samaveda to his disciples.
Sage Sumant taught Atharvaveda to his disciple Kabandh. Kabandh divided it into two parts and taught them to Devdarsh and Pathya respectively. A disciple of Pathya named Shaunak divided his Samhita into two parts and gave one of them to his disciple Vabhru and another to Saindhav. Saindhav’s disciple Munjikesh divided his Samhita into three parts. Presently, five Samhitas of Atharvaveda namely Nakshatrakalpa, Vedakalpa, Samhitakalpa, Angiraskalpa and Shantikalpa are considered authentic.
Still unsatisfied by his achievement, sage Veda Vyasa created Purana Samhita and taught them to his famous disciple Romaharshan Suta. The Samhita that was created by Romaharshan was the base of three Samhitas- Akritvrana, Savarni and Shanspayan created by Kashyapagotriya Brahmins. Vishnu Purana is in a way a summation of these four Samhitas. There are in all eighteen Puranas. In chronological order, these are as follows- Brahma Purana, Padma Purana, Vaishnav Purana, Shiva Purana, Bhagvat Purana. Narada Purana, Markandeya Purana, Agni Purana, Bhavishya Purana, Brahmavaivart Purana, Linga Purana, Varaha Purana, Skanda Purana, Vamana Purana, Kurma Purana, Matsya Purana, Garuda Purana and Brahmand Purana.