The Purana Index v1.c3.s4: The Brahmanda Purana
The Purāṇa Index v1.c3.s4
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The Brahmanda Purana
v1.c3.s4.1
Already the suggestion has been made that the Vayu Purana is sometimes identified with the Brahmanda Purana. There is still a further suggestion that the Vayu Purana and the Brahmanda Purana were originally one Purana and later on became separate into two Puranas. No doubt passages there are common to both the Puranas. It is reasonable to conjecture therefore that one is indebted to the other by borrowing many a passage from several sections. But tradition persists and includes Brahmanda Purana as a Mahapurana in the lists of all the eighteen Puranas. It is only the Vayu Purana that is omitted in some but this is not the case with Brahmanda. It may be that the Vayu Purana was composed later than the Brahmanda and vice versa.
v1.c3.s4.2
But the Brahmāṇḍa has been reckoned as also the Vāyu as the oldest Purāṇas now available. Perhaps the Brahmāṇḍa was a contemporary of the Vāyu Purāṇa.
v1.c3.s4.3
The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa contains almost the same accounts as given in the Vāyu Purāṇa. It is divided into four books and furnishes the impression that it is one of the oldest Purāṇas. But what interests us is the Lalitopakhyānam portion of the Purāṇa which forms the fourth book and consists of more then forty chapters. At this time the popular practices and beliefs about the Śakti cult were crude and strictly local. In introducing the Lalitopakhyāna portion in the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, the compiler of the Purāṇa must have felt that what may be regarded as the most debased side of Hinduism must be put an end to, and literature dealing with Her immanence was a crying necessity. The term Lalitā means lovely, elegant, or charming.*
v1.c3.s4.4
The Devī worship in India can be traced to remote antiquity, and in Vedic literature the Devī who is named Umā is no other than Brahmavidyā. In other words Devī has pleasing aspects and evokes not awe or dread, but lofty spiritualism and philosophic calm. In this book of the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa the Devī is elevated to a very high place, a place even worshipped by Trimūrtis. In this section we have a description of the origin of the goddess, of the construction of Śrīpuram on which was modelled the Śrichakra, the war with Bhaṇḍāsura and the final triumph of Lalitā. The Lalitā worship or Devī worship is not anything new but one accepted and approved by the Vedas. The Devī for one purpose or other manifested herself in different ways and with different names, and the manifestation of Lalitā was to get rid of Bhaṇḍāsura who was even a match for gods like Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva. Her glory and greatness are celebrated in the extant work entitled the Lalitā Sahasranāmam but this seems to be a composition later than the celebrated Śankara, who is commonly placed in the early years of the eighth century.
v1.c3.s4.5
∗ Valmiki speaks of apsaras Rambhā as Lalitā and the commentator comments the term as Sundarī i.e. charming. But this has nothing to do with the cult. Rāmā 1.64.8.
v1.c3.s4.6
There is a well-known tradition that the great Śankarācārya wrote a commentary on the Lalitā-Triśatī. He thus attached a special significance to the worship of Lalitā by addressing her with three hundred names of the Triśatī. It has since then become a recognised mode of worship of the Devī by the orthodox Hindus for the advancement of their moral and material welfare It would thus seem that the Lalitā cult was popular in the days of Śankarācārya himself Even Kālidāsa who perhaps lived in the 1st century B C. refers to the worship of Devī and though he mentions her by the name Caṇḍikā, still he lays emphasis upon the saumya form of Devī worship This is perhaps due to the Lalitā Upākhyānam of the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa. So we have to conclude that whatever be the purpose of the manifestation of Lalitā, the Devī worship or worship of the world mother (Jagatām Mātā) was prevalent from Vedic times, and the Purāṇa compiler was particularly interested in narrating the story of Lalitā and thus laid stress upon its importance.
v1.c3.s4.7
According to the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa the Lalitā cult was the most efficacious. The principal centres of Śakti worship as referred to in this Purāṇa are Śrīnagar, perhaps in the present Kashmir and Kāñcī in South India. From the foregoing study the conclusion is inevitable that the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa can come under the category of some of the oldest Purāṇas. As the major portions of the Purāṇa are indebted to the Vāyu Purāṇa, we may safely venture the guess that the Brahmāṇḍa may be the immediate successor to the Vāyu Purāṇa, and the date for the Brahmāṇḍa would almost be the same as that for Vāyu. In other words, the composition of this Purāṇa may be roughly assigned to about the 4th century B.C. though we cannot be positive that the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa in its present form came into existence even then.
Linked texts (1)
- Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa — Vālmīki, Sanskrit