{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vp/vp022.htm","path":"hin/vp/vp022.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp022.htm","text":"The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840]\n18. The Brahm\u00e1\u0144d\u0301a Pur\u00e1\u0144a\n18. Brahm\u00e1\u0144d\u0301a Pur\u00e1\u0144a. \"That which has declared, in twelve thousand two hundred verses, the magnificence of the egg of Brahm\u00e1, and in which an account of the future Kalpas is contained, is called the Brahm\u00e1\u0144d\u0301a Pur\u00e1\u0144a, and was revealed by Brahm\u00e1 80.\"\nThe Brahm\u00e1\u0144d\u0301a Pur\u00e1\u0144a is usually considered to be in much the same predicament as the Skanda, no longer procurable in a collective body, but represented by a variety of Kha\u0144d\u0301as and M\u00e1h\u00e1tmyas, professing to be derived from it. The facility with which any tract may be thus attached to the non-existent original, and the advantage that has been taken of its absence to compile a variety of unauthentic fragments, have given to the Brahm\u00e1\u0144d\u0301a, Skanda, and Padma, according to Col. Wilford, the character of being the Pur\u00e1\u0144as of thieves or impostors 81. This is not applicable to the Padma, which, as above shewn, occurs entire and the same in various parts of India. The imposition of which the other two are made the vehicles can deceive no one, as the purpose of the particular legend is always too obvious to leave any doubt of its origin.\nCopies of what profess to be the entire Brahm\u00e1\u0144d\u0301a Pur\u00e1\u0144a are sometimes, though rarely, procurable. I met with one in two portions, the former containing, one hundred and twenty-four chapters, the latter seventy-eight; and the whole containing about the number of stanzas assigned to the Pur\u00e1\u0144a. The first and largest portion, however, proved to be the same as the V\u00e1yu Pur\u00e1\u0144a, with a passage occasionally slightly varied, and at the end of each chapter the common phrase 'Iti Brahm\u00e1\u0144d\u0301a Pur\u00e1\u0144e' substituted for 'Iti V\u00e1yu Pur\u00e1\u0144e.' I do not think there was any intended fraud in the substitution. The last section of the first part of the V\u00e1yu Pur\u00e1\u0144a is termed the Brahm\u00e1\u0144d\u0301a section, giving an\naccount of the dissolution of the universe; and a careless or ignorant transcriber might have taken this for the title of the whole. The checks to the identity of the work have been honestly preserved, both in the index and the frequent specification of V\u00e1yu as the teacher or narrator of it.\nThe second portion of this Brahm\u00e1\u0144d\u0301a is not any part of the V\u00e1yu; it is probably current in the Dakhin as a Sanhit\u00e1 or Kha\u0144d\u0301a. Agastya is represented as going to the city K\u00e1nch\u00ed (Conjeveram), where Vish\u0144u, as Hayagr\u00edva, appears to him, and, in answer to his inquiries, imparts to him the means of salvation, the worship of Para\u015bakt\u00ed. In illustration of the efficacy of this form of adoration, the main subject of the work is an account of the exploits of Lalit\u00e1 Dev\u00ed, a form of Durg\u00e1, and her destruction of the demon Bh\u00e1\u0144d\u0301\u00e1sura. Rules for her worship are also given, which are decidedly of a \u015a\u00e1kta or T\u00e1ntrika description; and this work cannot be admitted, therefore, to be part of a genuine Pur\u00e1\u0144a.\nliv:81 As. Res. vol. VIII. p. 252.","title":"The Vishnu Purana: Preface: 18. The Brahm\u00e1n\u0301d...","type":"page"}