Brahmanda Purana

01The cosmic egg

Brahmanda means the egg of Brahma, the golden egg from which the worlds unfold, and this Purana takes its name from it. It stands last of the eighteen in the usual order. Its own colophons call it vayu-prokta, spoken by Vayu: Suta tells the rishis of Naimisharanya what Vayu once declared, as Maharshi Vyasa arranged it. The Bhagavata counts it at 12,000 shlokas, and the colophons repeat that figure. Many adhyayas run parallel to the Vayu Purana, and the two are often read side by side.

02Four padas, three bhagas

In its first adhyaya the Purana names the five marks and then its own plan: four padas, quarters, told in order. The Purva Bhaga holds the Prakriya Pada and the Anushanga Pada. The Madhyama Bhaga is the Upodghata Pada, the longest of the four. The Uttara Bhaga holds the Upasamhara Pada and, after it, the forty-four adhyayas of the Lalitopakhyana, told in a different voice, by Bhagwan Hayagriva to Maharshi Agastya. Few Puranas lay out their structure so plainly at the start, and the colophons of every adhyaya keep to it.

03Creation and the shape of the worlds

The Prakriya Pada begins with the golden egg and Brahma's creation, the births of the mind-born sons and the Prajapatis. The Anushanga Pada counts the kalpas and Manvantaras, follows the line of Priyavrata, and lays out the bhuvanakosha: the seven continents and seas, Jambudvipa with Meru at its centre, Bharatavarsha with its mountains and rivers, the movements of the sun, moon and planets. It tells how Shiva entered the Daruvana and taught the rishis the rite of bathing in bhasma, and how Vyasa divided the one Veda among his disciples Paila, Vaishampayana, Jaimini and Sumantu.

04Parashurama and the Ganga

The Upodghata Pada carries the lineages of rishis and kings and two great kathas. The first is the Bhargava charita. Kartavirya Arjuna, the thousand-armed king, takes Jamadagni's cow; Parashurama kills him; the king's sons kill Jamadagni; and Parashurama, after tapas and the grace of Shiva, clears the earth of tyrant kings twenty-one times. The Brahmanda tells this at greater length than any other Purana. The second is the line of Sagara, his sixty thousand sons burned by Kapila's gaze, and Bhagiratha's tapas that brings the Ganga down to raise them.

05Shraddha, music and the end of the kalpa

Between the kathas the Upodghata gives a Shraddha Kalpa: the pitris and their worlds, the times for shraddha, the shraddha for each nakshatra, and the merit of offering at Gaya and other tirthas. It also has a short treatise on music, the gandharva vidya, describing the svaras and the murchhanas, the scales built on them. The Upasamhara Pada closes the Purana proper. Its four adhyayas describe the dissolution of all beings at the end of the kalpa, Shivapura, the city of Shiva, and the re-creation that follows. The colophon here calls the whole a samhita of twelve thousand.

06Lalitopakhyana

Agastya, grieving for the people of the Kali age, goes on pilgrimage, and Janardana appears to him as Hayagriva. From Hayagriva he hears of the Devi Lalita. Shiva's fire had burned Kamadeva to ash; a gana named Chitrakarma shaped a figure from that ash, and it rose as Bhandasura. To defeat him the devas offered their own bodies into a great fire, and from it rose a wheel of light, and within it the Devi, red as the hibiscus, holding the noose, the goad, the sugarcane bow and five flower arrows. She weds Kameshvara and rides out with her generals Dandanatha and Shyamala.

07The war with Bhanda and Shripura

The war is told adhyaya by adhyaya, each with its own name: the march of the armies, the chariots Chakraraja, Geyachakra and Kirichakra, the fall of Bhanda's generals one after another. Bala, the young Devi, kills Bhanda's sons. Ganesha shatters the yantra of obstacles that Bhanda's brother had set up. At last Lalita kills Bhanda with the Kameshvara astra, and at the devas' prayer she brings Kamadeva back to life. The closing adhyayas describe her city, Shripura, with its enclosures of jewels, the Chintamani palace at its centre, and the practice of her mantra, the Shri Vidya.

08The Sahasranama in daily worship

The Lalita Sahasranama, the thousand names of the Devi in the form of a dialogue of Hayagriva and Agastya, is handed down as belonging to the Uttara Khanda of the Brahmanda, with the Trishati of three hundred names beside it. Across south India it is chanted in homes on Fridays and through Navaratri, often by groups of women sitting together, and in Shri Vidya worship it is recited daily before the Shri Chakra. Its opening names, Shri Mata, Shri Maharajni, rise straight out of the katha: the Devi born from the fire-altar of consciousness for the work of the devas.

09The Adhyatma Ramayana and the commentaries

The Adhyatma Ramayana, a dialogue of Shiva and Parvati that tells the life of Shri Rama as the Supreme Self, presents itself as part of the Uttara Khanda of the Brahmanda. Its Rama Gita and its vision of Rama as Brahman are loved in many lands. Thunchath Ezhuthachan's Malayalam Adhyatma Ramayanam is read in Kerala homes through the month of Karkidakam. Bhaskararaya's Saubhagya Bhaskara on the Lalita Sahasranama is the classic commentary of Shri Vidya. The full Purana is printed by the Venkateshvara Press and translated into English in five volumes by Motilal Banarsidass.

What it contains

1. 1
   Prakriya Pada प्रक्रियापादः

   The first quarter, in the Purva Bhaga. Creation from the golden egg, Brahma's mind-born sons and the Prajapatis. It opens with the Purana's own statement of its five marks and four padas.

2. 2
   Anushanga Pada अनुषङ्गपादः

   The second quarter, also in the Purva Bhaga. Kalpas and Manvantaras, the line of Priyavrata, the continents, Bharatavarsha and the heavens. Shiva in the Daruvana and Vyasa's division of the Veda are told here.

3. 3
   Upodghata Pada उपोद्घातपादः

   The third quarter, forming the whole Madhyama Bhaga. Lineages of rishis and kings, the Shraddha Kalpa, the Bhargava charita of Parashurama, Sagara and the descent of the Ganga, and a section on music. It is the longest of the four.

4. 4
   Upasamhara Pada उपसंहारपादः

   The fourth quarter, in the Uttara Bhaga. Four adhyayas: the great dissolution, Shivapura, pratisarga and the turning of the cosmic egg. It closes the Purana as Vayu told it.

5. 5
   Lalitopakhyana ललितोपाख्यानम्

   Forty-four adhyayas of Hayagriva's teaching to Agastya: the rise of Bhandasura, the appearance of Lalita from the fire, her marriage to Kameshvara, the war, Shripura and the Shri Vidya mantra. The Lalita Sahasranama and Trishati are handed down with it. It is the scripture of Shri Vidya worship.

Famous verses

सर्गश्च प्रतिसर्गश्च वंशो मन्वन्तराणि च। वंश्यानुचरितं चैव पुराणं पञ्चलक्षणम्॥

Creation, re-creation, lineage, the Manvantaras, and the deeds of those in the lineages: a Purana has these five marks.Brahmanda Purana 1.1.37cd–38ab (GRETIL, Venkateshvara ed.); the same verse is in the Matsya (53.65)

तन्मध्ये तु महादेवीमुदयार्कसमप्रभाम्। जगदुज्जीवनकरीं ब्रह्मविष्णुशिवात्मिकाम्॥

Within that wheel of light, the great Devi, radiant as the rising sun, who gives life to the world, whose being is Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.Brahmanda Purana 3.12.70cd–71ab (Lalitopakhyana; GRETIL, Venkateshvara ed.)

कृपातरङ्गितापाङ्गनयनालोककौमुदीम्। पाशाङ्कुशेक्षुकोदण्डपञ्चबाणलसत्कराम्॥

Her sidelong glance is moonlight rippling with compassion; her hands shine with the noose, the goad, the sugarcane bow and the five arrows.Brahmanda Purana 3.12.73 (Lalitopakhyana; GRETIL, Venkateshvara ed.)

श्रीमाता श्रीमहाराज्ञी श्रीमत्सिंहासनेश्वरी। चिदग्निकुण्डसम्भूता देवकार्यसमुद्यता॥

The auspicious Mother, the great Queen, the Sovereign of the lion throne; born from the fire-altar of pure consciousness, risen to accomplish the work of the devas.Lalita Sahasranama, shloka 1 (handed down as part of the Brahmanda Purana, Uttara Khanda; checked against sa.wikisource, which misprints 'चिदग्रि')