Bhavishya Purana

01Sumantu and King Shatanika

Bhavishya means what is to come. Its opening verses say that Vyasa, having made the other Puranas, looked at the people of the Kali Yuga, short-lived and with little learning, and set down for their good the dharma of the age ahead. The rishis Bhrigu, Atri, Vasishtha, Parashara, Vyasa, Sumantu, Jaimini and many others come to King Shatanika of Arjuna's line, and it is Sumantu, Vyasa's disciple, who answers the king's questions. The Bhagavata counts the Purana at 14,500 shlokas, and households know it best for two things, the worship of Surya and the vratas.

02Four parvas

The Purana is laid out in four parvas. The Brahma Parva opens with creation and the samskaras, then goes tithi by tithi through the vratas from Pratipada to Saptami, where it settles into a long Saptami Kalpa on the worship of the Sun. The Madhyama Parva, in three bhagas, is the book of rites: pratishtha, the dedication of gardens, wells and tanks, and the yajnas that go with them. The Pratisarga Parva, in four khandas, speaks of the Kali Yuga. The Uttara Parva is a book of vratas told by Shri Krishna himself.

03The five marks

Sarga is told at the start of the Brahma Parva, briefly, before the Purana turns to how a life should be lived. Pratisarga gives its name to the third parva, and there the remaking of the world after pralaya flows into the long account of the ages, from the Manus of the past to the kings who were yet to rule. Vamsha and vamshanucharita run through that parva too, line after line of rulers. Manvantara appears in the reckoning of time that opens it. Of all the Mahapuranas this one leans furthest towards the future, as its name promises.

04Samba and the Sun

Samba, son of Shri Krishna and Jambavati, was proud of his beauty and slighted Devarshi Narada. Narada brought the matter before Krishna in such a way that Krishna, angered, cursed his own son with a wasting skin disease. On Narada's counsel Samba went to the bank of the Chandrabhaga and worshipped Surya until he was healed. There he raised a temple to the Sun, and to serve it he brought Maga brahmanas from Shakadvipa, whom the Purana calls Bhojakas. The Brahma Parva tells all this at length, with the twelve forms of Surya and the Sun's chariot and its company.

05Saptami and the Saura way

Sunday and the seventh tithi belong to Surya, and the Saptami Kalpa of the Brahma Parva gives the vratas that follow from it: the Saptamis of each month, the Sun's ratha yatra, the flowers dear to him, the daily worship of the Sun at dawn. Surya is honoured here as the visible form of the Supreme, while the Purana's first verse hails Bhaskara, Murari and the moon-crowned Rudra together. The Saura tradition, whose temples once stood from Multan to Konark and Modhera, looked to these chapters, and the households that keep Ratha Saptami in Magha still do.

06The Pratisarga Parva

The Pratisarga Parva is read as the Purana's account of the Kali Yuga, the kings, dynasties and saints that Vyasa saw coming. It runs in four khandas. The second holds a telling of the Vetala's twenty-five kathas to King Vikramaditya at Mahakaleshvara in Ujjain, and later khandas turn to the bhaktas and acharyas of the age. Manuscripts and printed editions of this parva vary in content much more than those of the other three, and the Venkateshvara text of Bombay is the one most often read. For the vratas and the worship of Surya, readers open the Brahma and Uttara Parvas.

07Krishna answers Yudhishthira

The Uttara Parva, often printed on its own as the Bhavishyottara Purana, is a dialogue in which Shri Krishna answers King Yudhishthira's questions about vratas and dana. Almost every fast a family keeps appears here with its katha and its method: the Ekadashis, Ananta Chaturdashi, Rishi Panchami, Vat Savitri and many more. It defines the fast itself with care. Upavasa, it says, is dwelling with the virtues after turning back from sin, and giving up every enjoyment, so that going without food is only the outer half of the vow.

08Read at the pooja

Priests reading a vrata katha at a household pooja are very often reading from the Bhavishyottara, and most printed vrata-katha books in Hindi draw on it, sometimes without naming it. The Satyanarayana katha, read on Purnima in countless homes, is printed in the Skanda Purana's Reva Khanda in most editions, and the Bhavishya's Pratisarga Parva carries a telling of it too. Gita Press publishes the Bhavishya Purana in Hindi, the Venkateshvara Press of Bombay printed the Sanskrit, and English readers have it in translation from several presses.

What it contains

1. 1
   Brahma Parva ब्राह्मपर्व

   Creation, the samskaras and the vratas of the tithis from Pratipada to Saptami. The long Saptami Kalpa on Surya worship, with Samba's katha, the Bhojakas and the Sun's ratha yatra.

2. 2
   Madhyama Parva मध्यमपर्व

   Three bhagas on rites: pratishtha of images, the planting and dedication of gardens, and the consecration of wells and tanks. The homas and dakshina that belong to each are set out with them.

3. 3
   Pratisarga Parva प्रतिसर्गपर्व

   Four khandas on the Kali Yuga, its kings and saints, told as what is to come. The second khanda tells the Vetala's kathas to Vikramaditya; the content of this parva differs from one edition to another.

4. 4
   Uttara Parva (Bhavishyottara) उत्तरपर्व

   Shri Krishna to Yudhishthira on vratas, festivals and dana through the whole year. It is the source of most vrata kathas read at household poojas.

Famous verses

जयति भुवनदीपो भास्करो लोककर्त्ता जयति च शितिदेहः शार्ङ्गधन्वा मुरारिः। जयति च शशिमौली रुद्रनामाभिधेयो जयति च स तु देवो भानुमांश्चित्रभानुः॥

Victory to Bhaskara, the lamp of the worlds and their maker. Victory to dark-bodied Murari, who bears the Sharnga bow. Victory to the moon-crowned one whose name is Rudra. Victory to that radiant deva, Chitrabhanu.Bhavishya Purana, Brahma Parva 1.1 (sa.wikisource text)

उपावृत्तस्य पापेभ्यो यस्तु वासो गुणैः सह। उपवासः स विज्ञेयः सर्वभोगविवर्जितः॥

When one has turned back from sins and dwells together with the virtues, giving up every enjoyment, that is to be known as upavasa, the fast.Bhavishya Purana, Uttara Parva 55.21 (sa.wikisource text)