JOURNAL 



OF 



THE ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



JVb. 6.— June, 1832. 



I.— Analysis of the Purdnas. By H. H. Wilson, Sec. As. Soc. 



[Read at the Meetings of the Society.] 



2. The Brahma Vaivertta Purana. 



The Brahma Vaivertta Parana is perhaps the most decidedly sec- 

 tarian work of the whole collection, and has no other object than to 

 recommend faith in Krishna and Radha : subservient to this purpose, 

 it records a great variety of legends, of which no traces can be found, 

 in any of the other Purdnas, and it deals but sparingly in those which 

 are common to all. It is of little value as a collateral authority, 

 therefore, and most of the stories, it contains, are too insipid and 

 absurd to deserve investigation. It contains, however, a few remark- 

 able passages, that bear an ancient character, and it throws more 

 light than any similar work upon the worship of the female principle 

 or Prakriti, as well as of Krishna and Radha. 



The Brahma Vaivertta is supposed to be communicated by Sauti, 

 the son of Su'ta, the original narrator of the Purdnas, to Saunaka, 

 a sage, at an assembly of similar characters, at the forest of Nuimisha, 

 whom he happens to visit, and who ask him to relate the work. This 

 commencement opens several of the Purdnas, and more especially the 

 Mdhdtmyas or chapters, descriptive of the virtues of some place or 

 person, said to be taken from some Purana. In this case, the Rishis 

 state, as the motive of their inquiry, their dread of the evil tendency 

 of the present age, and their desire for emancipation ; and their hope to 

 be secured in the one, and defended from the other, by being imbued 

 with Bhakti, or faith in Hari, through the medium of the Purana, 

 which they style the essence of the Purdnas, the 6ource of faith, feli- 



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