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Posted by Rama Mohan

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(is a Hindu religious text and one of the eighteen major Puranas. It is
written in Sanskrit and attributed to Rishi Vyasa, the compiler of the Vedas. The title
"Bhavishya Purana" signifies a work that contains prophecies regarding the future (Sanskrit:
bhavi ya). Despite being labelled a purana (Sanskrit: purā a, meaning "tales of
ancient times"), the work relates only a few legends. It is one of several Puranas in which a
list of royal dynasties of the "past" are followed by lists of kings predicted to rule in the
future.

The text as it exists today is a composite of material ranging from very old to very recent.
Portions of the extant text are drawn from the law book of Manu, including the account of
Creation which it contains. The Bhavishya Purana is classified as one of the ten Shaiva
puranas in the classification system used in the Śivarahasya-kha a of the Śa kara
Sa hitā. In the traditional system of classification according to the three gunas given in the
Padma Purana, it is classified in the rajas category, which contains Puranas whose central
deity is Brahma.





 
Dating of the work is problematic. In records of land grants of the fifth century BCE verses
are quoted which occur only in the Padma, Bhavishya, and Brahma Puranas, and on this basis
Pargiter in 1912 assigned these particular Puranas to an even earlier period. Maurice
Winternitz considers it more probable that these verses, both in the inscriptions and in the
puranas, were taken as quotations from earlier Dharmashastras, and thus argues that
chronological deductions cannot be made on that basis.

According to Maurice Winternitz, the text which has come down to us in manuscript under
this title is certainly not the ancient work which is quoted in the Āpastambīya Dharmasūtra. A
quotation appearing in the Āpastambīya Dharmasūtra attributed to the Bhavi yat Purā a
cannot be found in the extant text of the Purana.

The Bhavishya Purana itself tells us that it consists of five parts (Sanskrit: parvans), but the
extant printed edition of the work contains only four parts (Brāhma, Madhyama, Pratisarga,
and Uttara). These four parts have distinctive content and dating.

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Rajendra Hazra says that the major portion of the Brāhmaparvan must have been written
between CE 500 and 900.

The greater part of the work deals with brahmanical ceremonies and feasts, the duties of
castes, some accounts of snake myths, and other matters. It also covers the duties of women,
good and bad signs of people, and methods of worshipping Brahma, Ganesha, Skanda, and
the Snakes. A considerable section deals with Sun worship in a place called "Śākadvīpa"
which may be a reference to Scythia.

 




Of the four existing parts of the text, the Madhyamaparvan, which is not mentioned anywhere
else as having formed a part of the Bhavishya Purana, is characterized by Rajendra Hazra as
"a late appendage abounding in Tantric elements."







Hazra has the following to say regarding the Pratisargaparvan:

The Pratisargaparvan, though nominally mentioned in the Bhavi ya (I.1.2-3), is practically a

new work containing stories about Adam, Noah, Yākuta, Taimurlong, Nadir Shah, Akbar (the
emperor of Delhi), Jayacandra, ... and many others. It even knows the British rule in India
and names Calcutta and the Parliament.

A. K. Ramanujan mentions finding references to Christ, Moses, and Queen Victoria in the
"appropriately up-to-date Bhavi ya Purā a" and cites this as an example of the fact that:

"In spite of repeated efforts to impose schemes and canons on them from time to time,
Purā as are open systems."

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The Uttaraparvan, though nominally attached to the Bhavishya Purana, is usually considered
to be an independent work, also known as the Bhavi yottara Purā a, and as such is included
among the Upapuranas (Lesser Puranas). The Bhavi yottara Purana is primarily a handbook
of religious rites with a few legends and myths. Rajendra Hazra characterizes it as "a loose
collection of materials taken from various sources" that is lacking in many of the traditional
five characteristics of a purana, but which offers an interesting study of vows, festivals, and
donations from sociological and religious points of view.

Internal and external evidences show that it was composed between CE 700 and 800