Brahma Purana

01First of the eighteen

Every list of the Mahapuranas, in the Bhagavata, the Vishnu and the Narada, puts the Brahma first, and so it is also called the Adi Purana. Maharshi Vyasa gave the Puranas to his disciple Lomaharshana Suta, and it is Lomaharshana who recites this one at Naimisharanya, in a forest the opening verses fill with sal, mango, jambu and banyan trees, where rishis of every ashrama have gathered. The Bhagavata counts it at 10,000 shlokas. It opens with two long verses to Purushottama, the Lord of Puri, which tells you at once where its heart lies.

02The five marks

The rishis ask, and Lomaharshana answers with all five marks of a Purana. Sarga comes first: Brahma arising, the mind-born sons, Daksha and his daughters. Pratisarga follows, the world made again after dissolution. Then vamsha and manvantara, the lineages of devas and rishis and the reigns of the fourteen Manus. Vamshanucharita takes the longest: Prithu milking the earth, Dhruva, the Solar line from Ikshvaku, and the Lunar line from Pururavas down to the Yadavas. Between them sits the bhuvana kosha, the seven dvipas ringed by seven oceans, with Jambudvipa at the centre and Bharata within it.

03Bharata, the land of karma

In the bhuvana kosha the Purana stops to praise Bharata itself. Of all Jambudvipa this land is best, it says, because here deeds bear fruit; the other lands are only for enjoying what was earned. A being wanders through thousands upon thousands of births before it gains a human birth here. Then comes the verse the Vishnu Purana also carries, that the devas themselves sing of Bharata and call those born in it blessed. Pandits still quote these lines when they explain why the sankalpa names Bharatavarsha and Jambudvipa before any rite begins.

04Indradyumna and Purushottama

The Purana now turns to Purushottama Kshetra, the land of Shri Jagannath on the Odisha shore. King Indradyumna of Avanti travels there, performs a great Ashvamedha, and longs to see Bhagwan in visible form. A log of divine wood comes floating on the sea. From it, by Bhagwan's grace, the images of Krishna, Balarama and Subhadra are made, and the king raises the temple. The lake where his yajna was held is still called Indradyumna Sarovar. Puri's ratha festival and the darshan of the three deities stand on this katha.

05Markandeya on the banyan leaf

The Puri chapters hold one of the most loved kathas in all the Puranas. At the end of a kalpa the waters rise over everything, and Maharshi Markandeya, who cannot die, swims alone in the dark flood. He sees a banyan, and on one of its leaves a small child lying at ease. The child is Bhagwan Vishnu. Markandeya enters his body and sees all the worlds inside, then comes out again into the flood. Pilgrims at Puri bathe in Markandeya's tank, at the banyan, at Indradyumna's lake, at the Rohini well and in the sea, the five tirthas the Purana names.

06Konarka and Ekamra

The Purana's love for Odisha does not stop at Puri. It praises Konarka on the same coast as a seat of Surya, where the Sun is worshipped at dawn, and it gives a long account of Ekamra Kshetra, the forest of the single mango tree, which is Bhubaneswar, dear to Bhagwan Shiva. Viraja Kshetra at Jajpur is praised too. Read together, these chapters make a pilgrim's map of Utkala: Vishnu at Puri, Shiva at Ekamra, Surya at Konarka, Devi at Viraja, each honoured in its own place by the same Purana.

07Gautami, the southern Ganga

More than a hundred adhyayas form the Gautami Mahatmya, which Brahma speaks to Narada. Maharshi Gautama did tapas on Brahmagiri above Trimbak and brought down Ganga from Shiva's jata to free himself from a fault that was never really his, and the river that came is the Godavari. South of the Vindhyas, the Purana says, she is Gautami; north of them, the same Ganga is Bhagirathi. Then it walks the river tirtha by tirtha to the sea, from Kushavarta at Trimbak past Janasthana and on through the Deccan, telling a katha at each ghat.

08Krishna, Kali and moksha

After the rivers, Vyasa himself takes up the telling. He gives the whole life of Shri Krishna, from the prison in Mathura to the end of the Yadavas, in the same order as the Vishnu Purana's fifth amsha. Then come the paths after death, the worlds of Yama, the rules of shraddha and the duties of each varna and ashrama, the signs of the Kali Yuga and the four kinds of pralaya. The last adhyayas turn to Sankhya and yoga, and the Purana ends where its opening verses began, with Purushottama, the one who is known by those who still the mind.

09Where it is heard

The Brahma Purana is less often read cover to cover than heard in parts, at the place it praises. At Puri the pandas recite the Purushottama chapters to the families they guide. At Trimbakeshwar, Nashik and on the ghats down to Rajahmundry, the Gautami Mahatmya is read during the Godavari Pushkaram, which comes every twelve years when Brihaspati enters Simha, and during the Simhastha Kumbh at Nashik. Gita Press publishes it in Hindi; the Anandashrama press of Pune printed the Sanskrit, and Motilal Banarsidass gave it in English in four volumes.

What it contains

1. 1
   Sarga and the lineages

   Creation from Brahma, the mind-born sons and Daksha's daughters, then the fourteen Manus. Prithu and Dhruva lead into the Solar line of Ikshvaku and the Lunar line of Pururavas and the Yadavas.

2. 2
   Bhuvana kosha

   The seven dvipas and seven oceans, the netherworlds below and the lokas above. Here Bharata is praised as the karmabhumi, the land where deeds bear fruit, sung of by the devas themselves.

3. 3
   Tirthas of Utkala

   Konarka of Surya, Ekamra Kshetra of Shiva at Bhubaneswar, and Viraja at Jajpur. These chapters lead the pilgrim up the coast of Odisha towards Puri.

4. 4
   Purushottama Kshetra Mahatmya

   King Indradyumna, the divine log and the images of Shri Jagannath, Balarama and Subhadra. Markandeya's vision of the child on the banyan leaf, and the five tirthas of Puri where pilgrims bathe.

5. 5
   Gautami Mahatmya

   Brahma tells Narada how Gautama brought the Godavari down at Brahmagiri. More than a hundred adhyayas follow the river from Trimbak to the sea, one tirtha and one katha at a time.

6. 6
   Krishna charita

   Vyasa tells the life of Shri Krishna, from his birth in Kamsa's prison to the departure from Dvaraka. The order follows the fifth amsha of the Vishnu Purana closely.

7. 7
   Dharma, pralaya and moksha

   The paths after death, shraddha, the duties of varna and ashrama, and the Kali Yuga. The Purana closes with pralaya and with teachings on Sankhya and yoga that lead back to Purushottama.

Famous verses

अत्रापि भारतं श्रेष्ठं जम्बूद्वीपे महामुने। यतो हि कर्मभूरेषा यतोऽन्या भोगभूमयः॥

Here too, great muni, Bharata is the best in Jambudvipa, for this is the land of karma, while the other lands are lands of enjoyment.Brahma Purana 19.23 (Tübingen text, GRETIL)

गायन्ति देवाः किल गीतकानि धन्यास्तु ये भारतभूमिभागे। स्वर्गापवर्गास्पदहेतुभूते भवन्ति भूयः पुरुषा मनुष्याः॥

The devas sing songs, it is said: blessed are those who are born again as human beings in the land of Bharata, the ground from which both svarga and liberation are reached.Brahma Purana 19.25 (Tübingen text, GRETIL)

विन्ध्यस्य दक्षिणे गङ्गा गौतमी सा निगद्यते। उत्तरे सापि विन्ध्यस्य भागीरथ्यभिधीयते॥

South of the Vindhya, Ganga is called Gautami; north of the Vindhya, the same river is named Bhagirathi.Brahma Purana 78.77 (Tübingen text, GRETIL)