{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vp/vp014.htm","path":"hin/vp/vp014.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp014.htm","text":"The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840]\n10. The Brahma-vaivartta Pur\u00e1\u0144a\n10. Brahma-vaivartta Pur\u00e1\u0144a. \"That Pur\u00e1\u0144a which is related by S\u00e1var\u0144i to N\u00e1rada, and contains the account of the greatness of Krish\u0144a, with the occurrences of the Rathantara Kalpa, where also the story of Brahma-var\u00e1ha is repeatedly told, is called the Brahma-vaivartta, and contains eighteen thousand stanzas 64.\" The account here given of the Brahma-vaivartta Pur\u00e1\u0144a agrees with its present state as to its extent. The copies rather exceed than fall short of eighteen thousand stanzas. It also correctly represents its comprising a M\u00e1h\u00e1tmya or legend of Krish\u0144a; but it is very doubtful, nevertheless, if the same work is intended.\nThe Brahma-vaivartta, as it now exists, is narrated, not by S\u00e1var\u0144i, but the Rishi N\u00e1r\u00e1ya\u0144a to N\u00e1rada, by whom it is communicated to Vy\u00e1sa: he teaches it to S\u00fata, and the latter repeats it to the Rishis at Naimish\u00e1ra\u0144ya. It is divided into four Kha\u0144d\u0301as, or books; the Br\u00e1hma, Prakriti, Gane\u015ba, and Krish\u0144a Janma Kha\u0144d\u0301as; dedicated severally to describe the acts of Brahm\u00e1, Dev\u00ed, Gane\u015ba, and Krish\u0144a; the latter, however, throughout absorbing the interest and importance of the work. In none of these is there any account of the Var\u00e1ha Avat\u00e1ra of Vish\u0144u, which seems to be intended by the Matsya; nor any reference to a Rathantara Kalpa. It may also be observed, that, in describing the merit of presenting a copy of this Pur\u00e1\u0144a, the Matsya adds, \"Whoever makes such gift, is honoured in the Brahma-loka;\" a sphere which is of very inferior dignity to that to which a worshipper of Krish\u0144a is taught to aspire by this Pur\u00e1\u0144a. The character of the work is in truth so decidedly sectarial, and the sect to which it belongs so distinctly marked,\nthat of the worshippers of the juvenile Krish\u0144a and R\u00e1dh\u00e1, a form of belief of known modern origin, that it can scarcely have found a notice in a work to which, like the Matsya, a much more remote date seems to belong. Although therefore the Matsya may be received in proof of there having been a Brahma-vaivartta Pur\u00e1\u0144a at the date of its compilation, dedicated especially to the honour of Krish\u0144a, yet we cannot credit the possibility of its being the same we now possess.\nAlthough some of the legends believed to be ancient are scattered through the different portions of this Pur\u00e1\u0144a, yet the great mass of it is taken up with tiresome descriptions of Vrindavan and Goloka, the dwellings of Krish\u0144a on earth and in heaven; with endless repetitions of prayers and invocations addressed to him; and with insipid descriptions of his person and sports, and the love of the Gop\u00eds and of R\u00e1dh\u00e1 towards him. There are some particulars of the origin of the artificer castes, which is of value because it is cited as authority in matters affecting them, contained in the Br\u00e1hma Kha\u0144d\u0301a; and in the Pr\u00e1krita and Gane\u015ba Kha\u0144d\u0301as are legends of those divinities, not wholly, perhaps, modern inventions, but of which the source has not been traced. In the life of Krish\u0144a the incidents recorded are the same as those narrated in the Vish\u0144u and the Bh\u00e1gavata; but the stories, absurd as they are, are much compressed to make room for original matter, still more puerile and tiresome. The Brahma-vaivartta has not the slightest title to be regarded as a Pur\u00e1\u0144a 65.\nxlii:65 Analysis of the Brahma-vaivartta Pur\u00e1\u0144a: Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, June 1832.","title":"The Vishnu Purana: Preface: 10. The Brahma-vaivartta Pur&...","type":"page"}