The early mediaeval Puranas were composed to disseminate religious mainstream ideology among the pre-literate tribal societies undergoing acculturation. With the breakdown of the Gupta empire, gifts of virgin waste-land were heaped on brahmanas, to ensure profitable agrarian exploitation of land owned by the kings, but also to provide status to the new ruling classes. Brahmanas spread further over India, interacting with local clans with different religions and ideologies. The Brahmanas used the Puranas to incorporate those clans into the agrarian society and its accompanying religion and ideology. According to Flood, "he Brahmans who followed the puranic religion became known as "smarta", those whose worship was based on the "smriti", or "pauranika", those based on the Puranas." Local chiefs and peasants were absorbed into the varna, which was used to keep "control over the new "kshatriyas" and "shudras"."