A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.320

c5.320

BRAHMA VAIVARTA PURĀNA. “That Purāna which is related by Sāvarni to Nārada, and contains the account of the greatness of Krishna, with the occurrences of the Rathantara-kalpa, where also the story of Brahma-varāha is repeatedly told, is called the Brahma Vaivarta Purāna, and contains 18,000 stanzas.” The copies known rather exceed this number of stanzas, but the contents do not answer to this description. “The character of the work is so decidedly sectarial, and the sect to which it belongs so distinctly marked—that of the worshippers of the juvenile Krishna and Rādhā, a form of belief of known modern origin”—that it must be a production of a comparatively late date. A specimen of the text and translation has been published by Stenzler.