The text shares a large number of verses with the Brahmanda Purana, and the two texts originated most likely from the same core text. The comparison of the two texts and specifics within the texts suggests, states Hazra, that the split into two texts could not have happened before 400 CE. The chapters which were slipped into the Vayu Purana are missing in many versions of Vayu and in Brahmananda manuscripts. Chapter 18 on penances for those in monastic life, was likely inserted before the 14th century. The travel guide to Gaya, Bihar was likely inserted before the 15th-century, because the "Gaya-mahatmya" was referenced many times by the 15th-century Vacaspatimisra (not to be confused with 9th-century Advaita scholar of the same name).