The late Bibek Debroy had translated the Bhagavata, Markandeya, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and the Brahmanda Puranas, with the last one published in 2024.
Bengaluru: This unabridged English translation of the Brahmanda Purana is the sixth that the late Bibek Debroy did, and the last to be published during his lifetime. It brings to the reader his now familiar style of readability, consistency, and abundant explanatory footnotes.
For those unfamiliar with the world of Puranas, they are a huge corpus of religious literature in Hinduism that belongs to the category of smriti texts—composed by sages based on memory. This contrasts with shruti texts—the Vedas (encompassing the Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and the Upanishads), which have a divine origin and were compiled, not composed, also by sages. The word Purana literally means old. While there are many Puranas, there are eighteen that are classified as Maha Puranas. Others are called upa (minor) Puranas, while there are still others that are sthala Puranas that glorify and delve on the geography of sacred teerthas, although such accounts are also found inside Puranas, like Gautami mahatmya from the Brahma Purana, and Ayodhya and Kashi mahatmya from the Skanda Purana.
When it comes to enumerating the eighteen Maha Puranas, there is no debate over Puranas such as the Bhagavata, Skanda, Padma, Markandeya, and so on. However, in some lists, the Bhavishya Purana replaces the Vayu, while in some others, in comes the Vayu and out goes the Agni Purana, and in some the Narasimha and Vayu replace the Brahmanda and Garuda Puranas. Regardless of these taxonomical debates, the Brahmanda Purana is, for all practical purposes, considered a Maha Purana.
The Brahmanda Purana is generally dated to 400-600CE, making it one of the older Puranas. It is possible, as suggested by F.E. Pargiter, that the Brahmanda and Vayu Puranas were not different, since there is a substantial overlap between the two, with most of the first part of the Brahmanda Purana found in the Vayu. As Bibek Debroy tells us in the Introduction, quoting H.H. Wilson, the Lalita Mahatmya section was most likely included into the Brahmanda Purana from a southern Samhita or a Khanda. Its Shakta essence also makes it somewhat incompatible with a traditional Purana, though the Devi Mahatmya is found in the Markandeya Purana.
While traditional accounts (and the Matsya Purana) list the Brahmanda Purana’s length at 12,000 shlokas, this translation has 13,674, also suggestive of later additions. It has two parts: Purva bhaaga with 112 chapters and 9498 verses, and the Lalita Mahatmya, with 44 chapters and 4176 verses. Lalita Mahatmya is a glorification of Lalita devi, a form of Goddess Durga. It also contains the Lalita Sahasranama—thousand names of Devi.
One defining characteristic of a Purana is the presence of five elements (pancha-lakshana) in its account: sarga (primary creation), pratisarga (secondary creation accounts), vamsha (accounts of kings and sages), manvantara (epoch of Manu), and vamshanucharita (account of the solar and lunar dynasties). The Brahmanda Purana checks all five boxes.
While the Puranas are distinct from Itihasa—Mahabharata and Ramayana, they contain several explanatory nuggets about both epics. Like the Vishnu Purana that tells us why Drupada was also known as Panchala. Or the Shiva Purana that has an episode from the Ramayana to explain why Sati and Shiva had to part. While the Mahabharata tells us, repeatedly, that dharma is subtle, the Brahmanda Purana approaches it from a different perspective. In Chapter 32, we are told that “accomplished karma” is dharma and unskilled karma is adharma. Something to ponder. A learned person is called kshetrajna. In Bhagavad Gita (13.1), Arjuna asks Krishna to talk about kshetrajna. Chapter 32 of Brahmanda Purana tells us that for the learned person, intelligence is manifested in four ways—“jnana, non-attachment, prosperity, and dharma.” The kshetrajna knows about all these spheres (kshetra). The first kshetrajna was called Purusha.
Chapter 14 tells us that in Manu’s lineage, Kushala was one of seven sons of Dyutiman. It is after him that the region Kaushal was named. People will recall Kaushalya as Lord Rama’s mother in the Ramayana, from the Kaushal region. A suta is a person born to a brahmana mother and kshatriya father, but who follows the dharma of the mother, earning a living as a kshatriya. The king Prithu granted the region Magadha to the magadhas (sutas, magadhas, and bandis were tasked with reciting the deeds of kings).
The kingdom of Hastinapura was also sometimes also called Nagasahvya and Gajasahv. Why? The etymology is contained in the very long Chapter 45, which recounts, in great detail, sage Kashyapa’s descendants. There we learn about Airavata, the first elephant. Abhramu was Airavata’s wife, and her son, Supratika, is Varun’s mount. An elephant is also called hasti because it “uses its trunk like a hand”; naga because “there is no place that cannot be reached by it.” The same chapter also has an account of the encounter between Vali and Ravana and their subsequent friendship. In the vanara genealogy, we are told that Virajaa was married to Riksha, the king of the vaanars (monkeys). Vali was born to her through Indra, while Sugreeva was born to her via Bhanu (Surya, the Sun God). Hence the two were step-brothers, one fated to kill the other.
There are chapters on funeral rites, purification, tests for brahmanas, and so on. One such test in Chapter 58 has injunctions against a dvija (twice-born)—“If a dvija eats like a pig, if he eats from his pam, or if he speaks while eating, the ancestors do not accept the offering.” And later, “The ancestors partake of the food as long as the heat has not left it. The ancestors partake of the good as long as the eating takes place silently.” The correct mantras, when chanted at funeral rites, “convey the food to wherever the being may happen to be. With the name and the gotra mentioned, the mantra conveys the offered food to them.”
While there a thousand names of Shiva, found in the Anushasan Parva of the Mahabharata, the Brahmanda Purana lists eight that Brahma himself gave (remember, the Brahmanda Purana is also considered a rajasic purana, that glorifies Brahma, as opposed to the Shiva Purana, that glorifies Shiva and is a tamasic purana; or the Bhagavata Purana, that glorifies Vishnu, and is a sattvic purana)— Rudra, Bhava, Sharva, Ishana, Pashupati, Bhima, Ugra, and Mahadeva. These are found in Chapter 10 of the first part. Upon hearing this eighth name—Mahadeva, the child Nilalohita stopped crying. Nilalohita is the child that appeared in Brahma’s lap at the end of the God’s penances to create children just like Him. It is to the same Nilalohota that Brahma says that the “sun does not actually rise or set. Externally, that seems to be the case.” That the Sun is also known as Rudra is also due to Brahma declaring that Rudra’s first body would be the sun. Water would be his second body; another reason why there is an injunction against releasing “urine or excrement in water.” As Rudra, Shanaishchara (Venus) is his son. As Bhava, Shukra (Ushanas) is his son.
Chapter 20 tells us about the seven nether regions—Atala, Sutala, Talatala, Vitala, Mahatala, Rasatala, and Patala. What beyond? Is there an equivalent of the ‘dark universe’ in Puranic cosmology? Yes, there are unknowable unknowns! The Purana says that beyond these seven nether regions, “there is a region that lacks illumination, one that virtuous ones and sidhas cannot travel to. Even if they wish to, devas do not know about what is there.” In Chapter 35 we are told the names of the twenty-eight Vyasas, with Krishna Dwaipayan the twenty-eighth. Ashwatthaama, Drona’s son, was cursed by Krishna at the end of the Kurukshetra war. However, he is prophesied to be a Vyasa in a future Dwapara (yuga).
The story of Parashuraama, an avatar of Vishnu, is traditionally found in the Mahabharata where there are at least three upakhyaanas that dwell on him. Additionally, Parashuraama also figures in the Ramayana. In the Brahmanda Purana, there is an elaboration of his account, with several variations. The transition from an account of funeral rites to Parashurama is somewhat abrupt, however. Parashuraama’s father, Jamadagni is not killed, but merely appears to be dead, and revived through mrita-sanjivani by sage Bhrigu. It is Kartavirya’s minister, Chadragupta, who instigates the king into demanding and expropriating Jamadagni’s cow. Once it starts, the account tells us how Raama prayed to Shiva and consequently got an axe (Parashu) and other weapons for his battle with Kartavirya Arjuna. Curiously enough, there is an account of Parashuraama’s short battle with Ganesha which results in Ganesha losing a tusk and becoming known as Ekadanta. There is also the appearance of Krishna and Radha here. The account continues then to King Sagara, the penance to bring Ganga, the Ikshvaku lineage, and ends with an account of the greatness of Vishnu. In between there are several stutis and mantras, including an enumeration of 108 names of Krishna. Then begins Lalita Mahatmya.
The last of the Purana translations to be published while Bibek Debroy was alive, the unabridged translation of Brahmanda Purana serves as a reminder of the towering colossus that we lost, who brought the multi-faceted, sometimes complex, but always fascinating world of the unabridged Puranas to the general reader, balancing the push and pull of doing a faithful translation while adding context and explanations via copious footnotes. For example, footnote 292 tells us that vaitanya (despondency) was corrected to Chaitanya (consciousness). Footnote 1044 tells us that naga is derived from na (no) and gamyam (to be reached).
Bibek Debroy had translated the Bhagavata, Markandeya, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and the Brahmanda Puranas, with the last one published in 2024. The Kurma and Matsya Puranas are expected to be published in 2025. With his untimely demise, the world lost a scholarly voice and a master of the craft, a once in a generation talent.
Disclaimer: views expressed are personal.