Brahmanda Purana
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The Brahmanda Purana (The history of the universe) (Sanskrit: ब्रह्माण्ड पुराण, Brahmāṇḑa Purāņa) is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts and has been assigned the eighteenth place in almost all the lists of the Puranas.[1]
Brahma in Sanskrit means "the biggest" or "the universe", anda/andam means Egg. So, Brahmanda means the "Biggest Egg" signifying the life from which Universe is born.
The Brahmanda Purana gets its name from the account of Brahmanda (the Biggest cosmic egg ) and the future cosmic ages revealed by Brahma. It deals with the origin of the Universe as told by Brahma. In the beginning, there was a golden egg, and the prapanca (Universe with its activities) was formed out of it. Portions of Adhyatma Ramayana, references to Radha and Krishna and the incarnation of Parasurama are included in this. According to tradition, this text contains twelve thousand verses and it is believed to be uttama (best) to give this book as a dana (gift) to a Brahmin.
Contents |
[edit] Contents
The Venkateshvara Press, Bombay edition of the text, published in 1906 comprises 14,286 verses. It is divided into two distinct parts.
The first part comprises first two sections of the text, the Pūrvabhāga, the Madhyabhāga and the first part of the third section Uttarabhāga (up to chapter 4). The Pūrvabhāga comprises two pādas (sub-sections): Prakriyā (chapters 1–5) and Anuṣaṅga (chapters 6–38). The Madhyabhāga and the Uttarabhāga comprise only one pāda each, Upodghāta (chapters 1–74) and Upasaṃhāra (chapters 1–4). The names of these four pādas of the text are same as the extant Vayu Purana and its contents are also almost same as the latter text.
The second part, which comprises chapters 5–44 of the third section, the Uttarabhāga is styled as the Lalitopākhyāna (narrative of Lalita). It narrates the worship of the Goddess Lalita according to the Tantric rites.[1] This part is written as a dialogue between Hayagriva and sage Agastya. It describes about Goddess Lalita's emergence out of fire during a sacrifice offered by Indra to Devi, her war with Asura Bhanda and her final triumph.[2]
The major sections of this Purana include:
- Detailed description of creation of cosmos, discussion about the time as a dimension and details of Kalpa and Yuga.
- Aspects of religious geography and in this context description of Jambudvipa and Bharata-varsha, and certain other locations identified as islands and landmasses like Anudvipa, Ketumaala-varsha.
- Description of certain dynasties like the houses of Bharata, Prithu, Deva, Rishi, and Agni.
- Describes the vedangas; describes the Adi Kalpa.
The Adhyatma Ramayana, a text consisting about 4500 verses in 65 chapters and divided into seven kandas, the Nasiketopkhyana, a text in 18 chapters, the Pinakinimahatmya, a text in 12 chapters, the Virajakshetramahatmya and the Kanchimahatmya, a text in 32 chapters are considered to be connected with this Purana.[2]
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Hazra, R.C. (1962). The Puranas in S. Radhakrishnan ed. The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol.II, Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, ISBN 81-85843-03-1, p.255
- ^ a b Rocher, Ludo (1986). "The Purāṇas". In Jan Gonda (ed.). A History of Indian Literature. Vol.II, Epics and Sanskrit religious literature, Fasc.3. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 156–60. ISBN 3-447-02522-0.
[edit] Further reading
- Mani, Vettam. Puranic Encyclopedia. 1st English ed. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Brahmanda Purana, Purvabhaga text
- Brahmanda Purana, MadhyaBhaga text
- Brahmanda Purana, Uttarabhaga text
- Brahmanda Purana, summary
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