A Few Observations on the overview of Shreemad Bhaagawat MahaapuraaNa

Hari Om!

I have been having with me since long the book of original Sanskrit text of Shreemad Bhaagawat MahaapuraaNa, a Geetaa Press, Gorakhpur publication. Off and on I did glance thru' it.

Just got the kick of an idea of preparing a tabulation, which would give an overview of this most popular of 18 PuraaNaas.

(1) There are 12 Skandhaas, each Skandha having different number of Adhyaayaas, total 335 Adhyaayaas. The tenth Skandha is made into two parts, Poorvaardha and Uttaraardha, but the Adhyaayaas are numbered serially from 1 to 90 - 1 to 49 in Poorvaardha and 50 to 90 in Uttaraardha

(2) Each Adhyaaya has different number of shlokaas, Grand total works out to 14073. This is much less than some 100,000 Shlokaas in Mahaabhaarat-PuraaNa

(3) PuraaNa means a historical account - legendary history. Because of the 'legendary' connotation, it is contended that the events narrated in PuraaNaas are more the myths than facts. Hence PuraaNaas are also called as Indian Mythology. Are they really only myths? For example, in the fifth Adhyaaya of second Skandha of Shreemad Bhaagawat MahaapuraaNa, Brahmadev narrates to Naarada the Genesis of fundamental elements and also the Genesis of the Universe "BrahmaaNda". By the way, the first chapter in Bible also has the title "Genesis". Could there not be some scientific truth in the Genesis narrated in this Adhyaaya?

(4) Shreemad Bhaagawat MahaapuraaNa was understood by me to be focusing mainly on the biography of Lord Shree Krishna. Correspondingly Mahaabhaarat was understood to be focusing on Kuruvansha. Actually, in Shreemad Bhaagawat MahaapuraaNa, biography of Lord Krishna is detailed only in the 90 Adhyaayaas of tenth Skandha. Rest 245 Adhyaayaas detail many other things.

(5) In the third of Adhyaaya of First Skandha, there is a brief account of 24 Avataaraas of Shree Bhagawaan (Mahaa-Vishnoo?) Jainism also considers there having been 24 Teerthankaras. And in "Sandhyaa" to be practiced by every brahmin, there are Namaskaaraas to 24 deities - first four popularly for doing Aachamanam! There could be some corelation in these three sets of 24.

(6) Saint Eakanath composed "Ekanathee Bhaagawat". For a long time, I was under the impression, that it is a commentary on Shreemad Bhaagawat MahaapuraaNa. But it covers only the eleventh Skandha. More on that, sometime later.

MAY HAPPINESS BE FOR ALL!!!