{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vp/vp009.htm","path":"hin/vp/vp009.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp009.htm","text":"The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840]\n5. The Bh\u00e1gavata Pur\u00e1\u0144a\n5. \u015ar\u00ed Bh\u00e1gavata. \"That in which ample details of duty are described, and which opens with (an extract from) the G\u00e1yatri; that in which the death of the Asura Vritra is told, and in which the mortals and immortals of the S\u00e1raswata Kalpa, with the events that then happened\nto them in the world, are related; that, is celebrated as the Bh\u00e1gavata, and consists of eighteen thousand verses 46.\" The Bh\u00e1gavata is a work of great celebrity in India, and exercises a more direct and powerful influence upon the opinions and feelings of the people than perhaps any other of the Pur\u00e1\u0144as. It is placed the fifth in all the lists; but the Padma Pur\u00e1\u0144a ranks it as the eighteenth, as the extracted substance of all the rest. According to the usual specification, it consists of eighteen thousand \u015blokas, distributed amongst three hundred and thirty-two chapters, divided into twelve Skandhas or books. It is named Bh\u00e1gavata from its being dedicated to the glorification of Bhagavat or Vish\u0144u.\nThe Bh\u00e1gavata is communicated to the Rishis at Naimish\u00e1ra\u0144ya by S\u00fata, as usual; but he only repeats what was narrated by \u015auka, the son of Vy\u00e1sa, to Par\u00edkshit, the king of Hastin\u00e1pura, the grandson of Arjuna. Having incurred the imprecation of a hermit, by which he was sentenced to die of the bite of a venomous snake, at the expiration of seven days; the king, in preparation for . this event, repairs to the banks of the Ganges; whither also come the gods and sages, to witness his death. Amongst the latter is \u015auka; and it is in reply to Par\u00edkshit's question, what a man should do who is about to die, that he narrates the Bh\u00e1gavata, as he had heard it from Vy\u00e1sa; for nothing secures final happiness so certainly, as to die whilst the thoughts are wholly engrossed by Vish\u0144u.\nThe course of the narration opens with a cosmogony, which, although in most respects similar to that of other Pur\u00e1\u0144as, is more largely intermixed with allegory and mysticism, and derives its tone more from the Vedanta than the S\u00e1nkhya philosophy. The doctrine of active creation by the Supreme, as one with V\u00e1sudeva, is more distinctly asserted, with a more decided enunciation of the effects being resolvable into M\u00e1y\u00e1, or illusion. There are also doctrinal peculiarities, highly characteristic of this Pur\u00e1\u0144a; amongst which is the assertion that it was originally communicated by Brahm\u00e1 to N\u00e1rada, that all men whatsoever, Hindus of every caste, and even Mlechchhas, outcastes or barbarians, might learn to have faith in V\u00e1sudeva.\nIn the third book the interlocutors are changed to Maitreya and Vidura; the former of whom is the disciple in the Vish\u0144u Pur\u00e1\u0144a, the latter was the half-brother of the Kuru princes. Maitreya, again, gives an account of the Srisht\u0301i-l\u00edl\u00e1, or sport of creation, in a strain partly common to the Pur\u00e1\u0144as, partly peculiar; although he declares he learned it from his teacher Par\u00e1\u015bara, at the desire of Pulastya 47; referring thus to the fabulous origin of the Vish\u0144u Pur\u00e1\u0144a, and furnishing evidence of its priority. Again, however, the authority is changed, and the narrative is said to have been that which was communicated by \u015aesha to the N\u00e1gas. The creation of Brahm\u00e1 is then described, and the divisions of time are explained. A very long and peculiar account is given of the Var\u00e1ha incarnation of Vish\u0144u, which is followed by the creation of the Praj\u00e1patis and Sw\u00e1yambhuva, whose daughter Devahut\u00ed is married to Karddama Rishi; an incident peculiar to this work, as is that which follows of the Avat\u00e1ra of Vish\u0144u as Kapila the son of Karddama and Devahut\u00ed, the author of the S\u00e1nkhya philosophy, which he expounds, after a Vaish\u0144ava fashion, to his mother, in the last nine chapters of this section.\nThe Manwantara of Sw\u00e1yambhuva, and the multiplication of the patriarchal families, are next described with some peculiarities of nomenclature, which are pointed out in the notes to the parallel passages of the Vish\u0144u Pur\u00e1\u0144a. The traditions of Dhruva, Ve\u0144a, Prithu, and other princes of this period, are the other subjects of the fourth Skandha, and are continued in the fifth to that of the Bharata who obtained emancipation. The details generally conform to those of the Vish\u0144u Pur\u00e1\u0144a, and the same words are often employed, so that it would he difficult to determine which work had the best right to them, had not the Bh\u00e1gavata itself indicated its obligations to the Vish\u0144u. The remainder of the fifth book is occupied with the description of the universe, and the same conformity with the Vish\u0144u continues.\nThis is only partially the case with the sixth book, which contains a variety of legends of a miscellaneous description, intended to illustrate the merit of worshipping Vish\u0144u: some of them belong to the early\nstock, but some are apparently novel. The seventh book is mostly occupied with the legend of Prahl\u00e1da. In the eighth we have an account of the remaining Manwantaras; in which, as happening in the course of them, a variety of ancient legends are repeated, as the battle between the king of the elephants and an alligator, the churning of the ocean, and the dwarf and fish Avat\u00e1ras. The ninth book narrates the dynasties of the Vaivaswata Manwantara, or the princes of the solar and lunar races to the time of Krish\u0144a 48. The particulars conform generally with those recorded in the Vish\u0144u.\nThe tenth book is the characteristic part of this Pur\u00e1\u0144a, and the portion upon which its popularity is founded. It is appropriated entirely to the history of Krish\u0144a, which it narrates much in the same manner as the Vish\u0144u, but in more detail; holding a middle place, however, between it and the extravagant prolixity with which the Hari Van\u015ba repeats the story. It is not necessary to particularize it farther. It has been translated into perhaps all the languages of India, and is a favourite work with all descriptions of people.\nThe eleventh book describes the destruction of the Y\u00e1davas, and death of Krish\u0144a. Previous to the latter event, Krish\u0144a instructs Uddhava in the performance of the Yoga; a subject consigned by the Vish\u0144u to the concluding passages. The narrative is much the same, but something more summary than that of the Vish\u0144u. The twelfth book continues the lines of the kings of the K\u00e1l\u00ed age prophetically to a similar period as the Vish\u0144u, and gives a like account of the deterioration of all things, and their final dissolution. Consistently with the subject of the Pur\u00e1\u0144a, the serpent Takshaka bites Par\u00edkshit, and he expires, and the work should terminate; or the close might be extended to the subsequent sacrifice of Janamejaya for the destruction of the whole serpent race. There is a rather awkwardly introduced description, however, of the arrangement of the Vedas and Pur\u00e1\u0144as by Vy\u00e1sa,\nand the legend of M\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301eya's interview with the infant Krish\u0144a, during a period of worldly dissolution. We then come to the end of the Bh\u00e1gavata, in a series of encomiastic commendations of its own sanctity, and efficacy to salvation.\nMr. Colebrooke observes of the Bh\u00e1gavata Pur\u00e1\u0144a, \"I am inclined to adopt an opinion supported by many learned Hindus, who consider the celebrated \u015ar\u00ed Bh\u00e1gavata as the work of a grammarian (Vopadeva), supposed to have lived six hundred years ago 49.\" Col. Vans Kennedy considers this an incautious admission, because \"it is unquestionable that the number of the Pur\u00e1\u0144as has been always held to be eighteen; but in most of the Pur\u00e1\u0144as the names of the eighteen are enumerated, amongst which the Bh\u00e1gavata is invariably included; and consequently if it were composed only six hundred years ago, the others must be of an equally modern date 50.\" Some of them are no doubt more recent; but, as already remarked, no weight can be attached to the specification of the eighteen names, for they are always complete; each Pur\u00e1\u0144a enumerates all. Which is the last? which had the opportunity of naming its seventeen predecessors, and adding itself? The argument proves too much. There can be little doubt that the list has been inserted upon the authority of tradition, either by some improving transcriber, or by the compiler of a work more recent than the eighteen genuine Pur\u00e1\u0144as. The objection is also rebutted by the assertion, that there was another Pur\u00e1\u0144a to which the name applies, and which is still to be met with, the Dev\u00ed Bh\u00e1gavata.\nFor, the authenticity of the Bh\u00e1gavata is one of the few questions affecting their sacred literature which Hindu writers have ventured to discuss. The occasion is furnished by the text itself. In the fourth chapter of the first book it is said that Vy\u00e1sa arranged the Vedas, and divided them into four; and that he then compiled the Itih\u00e1sa and Pur\u00e1\u0144as, as a fifth Veda. The Vedas he gave to Paila and the rest; the Itih\u00e1sa and Pur\u00e1\u0144as to Lomaharsha\u0144a, the father of S\u00fata 51. Then reflecting that these works may not be accessible to women, \u015a\u00fadras, and\nmixed castes, he composed the Bh\u00e1rata, for the purpose of placing religious knowledge within their reach. Still he felt dissatisfied, and wandered in much perplexity along the banks of the Saraswat\u00ed, where his hermitage was situated, when N\u00e1rada paid him a visit. Having confided to him his secret and seemingly causeless dissatisfaction, N\u00e1rada suggested that it arose from his not having sufficiently dwelt, in the works he had finished, upon the merit of worshipping V\u00e1sudeva. Vy\u00e1sa at once admitted its truth, and found a remedy for his uneasiness in the composition of the Bh\u00e1gavata, which he taught to \u015auka his son 52. Here therefore is the most positive assertion that the Bh\u00e1gavata was composed subsequently to the Pur\u00e1\u0144as, and given to a different pupil, and was not therefore one of the eighteen of which Romaharsha\u0144a the Seta was, according to all concurrent testimonies, the depositary. Still the Bh\u00e1gavata is named amongst the eighteen Pur\u00e1\u0144as by the inspired authorities; and how can these incongruities be reconciled?\nThe principal point in dispute seems to have been started by an expression of \u015ar\u00eddhara Sw\u00e1min, a commentator on the Bh\u00e1gavata, who somewhat incautiously made the remark that there was no reason to suspect that by the term Bh\u00e1gavata any other work than the subject of his labours was intended. This was therefore an admission that some suspicions had been entertained of the correctness of the nomenclature, and that an opinion had been expressed that the term belonged, not to the \u015ar\u00ed Bh\u00e1gavata, but to the Dev\u00ed Bh\u00e1gavata; to a \u015aaiva, not a Vaish\u0144ava, composition. With whom doubts prevailed prior to \u015ar\u00eddhara Sw\u00e1min, or by whom they were urged, does not appear; for, as far as we are aware, no works, anterior to his date, in which they are advanced have been met with. Subsequently, various tracts have been written on the subject. There are three in the library of the East India Company; the Durjana Mukha Chapet\u0301ik\u00e1, 'A slap of the face for the vile,' by R\u00e1m\u00e1\u015brama; the Durjana Mukha Mah\u00e1 Chapet\u0301ik\u00e1, 'A great slap of the face for the wicked,' by K\u00e1\u015bin\u00e1th Bhat\u0301t\u0301a; and the Durjana Mukha Padma Pad\u0301uk\u00e1, 'A slipper' for the same part of the same persons, by a\nnameless disputant. The first maintains the authenticity of the Bh\u00e1gavata; the second asserts that the Dev\u00ed Bh\u00e1gavata is the genuine Pur\u00e1\u0144a; and the third replies to the arguments of the first. There is also a work by Purushottama, entitled 'Thirteen arguments for dispelling all doubts of the character of the Bh\u00e1gavata' (Bh\u00e1gavata swar\u00fapa vihsaya \u015bank\u00e1 nir\u00e1sa trayodasa); whilst B\u00e1lambhat\u0301t\u0301a, a commentator on the Mit\u00e1kshara, indulging in a dissertation on the meaning of the word Pur\u00e1\u0144a, adduces reasons for questioning the inspired origin of this Pur\u00e1\u0144a.\nThe chief arguments in favour of the authenticity of this Pur\u00e1\u0144a are the absence of any reason why Vopadeva, to whom it is attributed, should not have put his own name to it; its being included in all lists of the Pur\u00e1\u0144as, sometimes with circumstances that belong to no other Pur\u00e1\u0144a; and its being admitted to be a Pur\u00e1\u0144a, and cited as authority, or made the subject of comment, by writers of established reputation, of whom \u015aankara \u00c1ch\u00e1rya is one, and he lived long before Vopadeva. The reply to the first argument is rather feeble, the controversialists being unwilling perhaps to admit the real object, the promotion of new doctrines. It is therefore said that Vy\u00e1sa was an incarnation of N\u00e1r\u00e1ya\u0144a, and the purpose was to propitiate his favour. The insertion of a Bh\u00e1gavata amongst the eighteen Pur\u00e1\u0144as is acknowledged; but this, it is said, can be the Dev\u00ed Bh\u00e1gavata alone, for the circumstances apply more correctly to it than to the Vaish\u0144ava Bh\u00e1gavata. Thus a text is quoted by K\u00e1\u015bin\u00e1th from a Pur\u00e1\u0144a--he does not state which--that says of the Bh\u00e1gavata that it contains eighteen thousand verses, twelve books, and three hundred and thirty-two chapters. K\u00e1\u015bin\u00e1th asserts that the chapters of the \u015ar\u00ed Bh\u00e1gavata are three hundred and thirty-five, and that the numbers apply throughout only to the Dev\u00ed Bh\u00e1gavata. It is also said that the Bh\u00e1gavata contains an account of the acquirement of holy knowledge by Hayagr\u00edva; the particulars of the S\u00e1raswata Kalpa; a dialogue between Ambar\u00edsha and \u015auka; and that it commences with the Gayatr\u00ed, or at least a citation of it. These all apply to the Dev\u00ed Bh\u00e1gavata alone, except the last; but it also is more true of the \u015aaiva than of the Vaish\u0144ava work, for the latter has only one word of the Gayatr\u00ed, dh\u00edmahi, 'we meditate;' whilst the former to dh\u00edmahi adds, Y\u00e1 nah prachoday\u00e1t,\n[paragraph continues] 'who may enlighten us.' To the third argument it is in the first place objected, that the citation of the Bh\u00e1gavata by modern writers is no test of its authenticity; and with regard to the more ancient commentary of \u015aankara \u00c1ch\u00e1rya, it is asked, \"Where is it?\" Those who advocate the sanctity of the Bh\u00e1gavata reply, \"It was written in a difficult style, and became obsolete, and is lost.\" \"A very unsatisfactory plea,\" retort their opponents, \"for we still have the works of \u015aankara, several of which are quite as difficult as any in the Sanscrit language.\" The existence of this comment, too, rests upon the authority of M\u00e1dhwa or M\u00e1dhava, who in a commentary of his own asserts that he has consulted eight others. Now amongst these is one by the monkey Hanum\u00e1n; and although a Hindu disputant may believe in the reality of such a composition, yet we may receive its citation as a proof that M\u00e1dhwa was not very scrupulous in the verification of his authorities.\nThere are other topics urged in this controversy on both sides, some of which are simple enough, some are ingenious: but the statement of the text is of itself sufficient to shew that according to the received opinion of all the authorities of the priority of the eighteen Pur\u00e1\u0144as to the Bh\u00e1rata, it is impossible that the \u015ar\u00ed Bh\u00e1gavata, which is subsequent to the Bh\u00e1rata, should be of the number; and the evidence of style, the superiority of which to that of the Pur\u00e1\u0144as in general is admitted by the disputants, is also proof that it is the work of a different hand. Whether the Dev\u00ed Bh\u00e1gavata have a better title to be considered as an original composition of Vy\u00e1sa, is equally questionable; but it cannot be doubted that the \u015ar\u00ed Bh\u00e1gavata is the product of uninspired erudition. There does not seem to be any other ground than tradition for ascribing it to Vopadeva the grammarian; but there is no reason to call the tradition in question. Vopadeva flourished at the court of Hem\u00e1dri, R\u00e1j\u00e1 of Devagiri, Deogur or Dowlutabad, and must consequently have lived prior to the conquest of that principality by the Mohammedans in the fourteenth century. The date of the twelfth century, commonly assigned to him, is probably correct, and is that of the Bh\u00e1gavata Pur\u00e1\u0144a.\nxxvi:47 See p. 5.\nxxvii:48 A translation of the ninth, by Capt. Fell, was published in Calcutta in different numbers of the Monthly and Quarterly Magazine, in 1823 and 1824. The second volume of Maurice's Ancient History of Hindustan contains a translation, by Mr. Halhed, of the tenth book, made through the medium of a Persian version.\nxxviii:49 As. Res. vol. VII. p.467.\nxxviii:50 Ancient and Hindu Mythology, p.155, note.\nxxviii:51 Book I. chap. iv. 20-22.\nxxix:52 Book I. 7,8.","title":"The Vishnu Purana: Preface: 5. The Bh\u00e1gavata Pur\u00e1n\u0301a","type":"page"}