Brahmanda Purana Pt. 2 (AITM Vol. 23): Ancient Indian Tradition And Mythology

The present volume contains the Brahmanda Purana, Part II (Chapters 1-43) of the third section, Upodghatapada, of the text in English Translation. This is the Twenty-third volume in the Series which we have planned on Ancient Indian Tradition and Mythology.

The project of the Series was envisaged and financed in 1970 by Lala Sundar Lal Jain of Messrs Motilal Banarsidass. Hitherto twenty-two volumes of the Series (comprising English translations of Siva, Linga, Bhagavata Garuda, Narada, Kurma, and Brahmanda Puranas) have been published and released for sale.

The text of this Purana is divided into 3 parts The preliminary (Purva), the middle (Madhya), and the concluding (Uttara). The preliminary part consists of two sections namely Prakriya and Anutanga. The former consists of 5 chapters, the latter contains 33. Chapter Nos. of the 2 sections run serially. The middle part consists of section 3 named Upodghata. The serial nos. of chs. in this section starts afresh with the nun- her I and ends with the number 74. The final part (Uttarabhaga) consists of Section 4 named Upasamhara consisting of 4 chapters and an appendix named Lalitamshatmya (the Glorification of the Goddess Lalita) in 40 chapters. In this part too, the serial order of chapters begins with the fresh number. The division into parts—Pürva, Madhyama, and Uttara—seems to be arbitrary. For instance, the middle part, though it start€ with a fresh number of chapters, continues the topic of the previous part right up to chapter 8 of this pada.

The present volume contains the third section Upodghata (Chs. 1 to 43). The remaining (chs. 44-74) of this section are treated in the next volume. Thus the third section Upodghdta has been split into 2 volumes. Chapters 1-10 of this section deal with the groups of sages such as Bhrgu, Angiras, Atri, and their progeny as well as the creation of Prajapati and the race of Danu and others. Ch. 10 takes up additionally, the Dynasties of Pitrs, and their propitiation by performing Sraddha. The Sraddha Kalpa consists of 11 chapters beginning with the 10th chapter and ending with chapter 20. It states why Brahmanas are to be worshipped fed and gifted at the time of Sraddha and endorses the belief that pitrs enter the bodies of Brahmins in gaseous form. It describes the sraddha ritual in detail and provides the philosophical background thereof. Ch. 21 onwards deals with the narrative of Bhargava Parasurama and depict the history of Haihaya king Karittavirya known as Sahasrarjuna Chs. 32, 33 are very important as they depict the religious condition of the period when different sects of Indian religion had reached a compromise Brahma’s sending Parasurama to Siva to receive the knowledge of weaponry Siva’s granting parasurama the perfect missile effective of world conquest as well as the protective armor and 108 names o lord Krsna are the instances in point. Another remarkable feature of this section is the reference to Mrtasamjivani lore that revives the dead to life and which Bhrgu is said to possess.

We have included abbreviations in this part. They will be repeated in the succeeding parts too with such additions as are made in the notes of those parts. The General index will be appended to the last part.