{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vp/vp005.htm","path":"hin/vp/vp005.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp005.htm","text":"The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840]\n1. The Brahm\u00e1 Pur\u00e1\u0144a\n1. Brahm\u00e1 Pur\u00e1\u0144a. \"That, the whole of which was formerly repeated by Brahm\u00e1 to Mar\u00edchi, is called the Br\u00e1hma Pur\u00e1\u0144a, and contains ten thousand stanzas 33.\" In all the lists of the Pur\u00e1\u0144as, the Br\u00e1hma is placed at the head of the series, and is thence sometimes also entitled the \u00c1di or 'first' Pur\u00e1\u0144a. It is also designated as the Saura, as it is in great part appropriated to the worship of S\u00farya, 'the sun.' There are, however, works bearing these names which belong to the class of Upa-pur\u00e1\u0144as, and which are not to be confounded with the Br\u00e1hma. It is usually said, as above, to contain ten thousand slokas; but the number actually occurring is between seven and eight thousand. There is a supplementary or concluding section called the Brahmottara Pur\u00e1\u0144a, and which is different from a portion of the Sk\u00e1nda called the Brahmottara Kha\u0144d\u0301a, which contains about three thousand stanzas more; but there is every reason to conclude that this is a distinct and unconnected work.\nThe immediate narrator of the Brahm\u00e1 Pur\u00e1\u0144a is Lomaharsha\u0144a, who communicates it to the Rishis or sages assembled at Naimish\u00e1ra\u0144ya, as it was originally revealed by Brahm\u00e1, not to Mar\u00edchi, as the Matsya affirms, but to Daksha, another of the patriarchs: hence its denomination of the Brahm\u00e1 Pur\u00e1\u0144a.\nThe early chapters of this work give a description of the creation, an account of the Manwantaras, and the history of the solar and lunar dynasties to the time of Krish\u0144a, in a summary manner, and in words which are common to it and several other Pur\u00e1\u0144as: a brief description of the universe succeeds; and then come a number of chapters relating to the holiness of Orissa, with its temples and sacred groves dedicated to the sun, to \u015aiva, and Jagann\u00e1th, the latter especially. These chapters are characteristic of this Pur\u00e1\u0144a, and shew its main object to be the promotion of the worship of Krish\u0144a as Jagann\u00e1th 34. To these particulars succeeds a life of Krish\u0144a, which is word for word the same as that of the Vish\u0144u Pur\u00e1\u0144a; and the compilation terminates with a particular detail of the mode in which Yoga, or contemplative devotion, the object of which is still Vish\u0144u, is to be performed. There is little in this which corresponds with the definition of a Pancha-laksha\u0144a Pur\u00e1\u0144a; and the mention of the temples of Orissa, the date of the original construction of which is recorded 35, shews that it could not have been compiled earlier than the thirteenth or fourteenth century.\nThe Uttara Kha\u0144d\u0301a of the Br\u00e1hma P. bears still more entirely the character of a M\u00e1h\u00e1tmya, or local legend, being intended to celebrate the sanctity of the Balaj\u00e1 river, conjectured to be the same as the Ban\u00e1s in Marwar. There is no clue to its date, but it is clearly modern, grafting personages and fictions of its own invention on a few hints from older authorities 36.\nxvii:34 Col. Vans Kennedy objects to this character of the Br\u00e1hma P., and observes that it contains only two short descriptions of pagodas, the one of Kon\u00e1ditya, the other of Jagann\u00e1th. In that case, his copy must differ considerably from those I have met with; for in them the description of Purushottama Kshetra, the holy land of Orissa, runs through forty chapters, or one-third of the work. The description, it is true, is interspersed, in the usual rambling strain of the Pur\u00e1\u0144as, with a variety of legends, some ancient, some modern; but they are intended to illustrate some local circumstance, and are therefore not incompatible with the main design, the celebration of the glories of Purushottama Kshetra. The specification of the temple of Jagann\u00e1th, however, is of itself sufficient, in my opinion, to determine the character and era of the compilation.\nxvii:35 See Account of Orissa proper, or Cuttack, by A. Stirling, Esq.: Asiatic Res. vol. XV. p. 305.\nxvii:36 See Analysis of the Br\u00e1hma Pur\u00e1\u0144a: Journ. Royal As. Soc, vol. V. p. 65.","title":"The Vishnu Purana: Preface: 1. The Brahm\u00e1 Pur&aacu...","type":"page"}