Purāṇa / The purāṇas / Bhāgavata

Bhāgavata Purāṇa (भागवतपुराण)

The Śrīmad Bhāgavata (श्रीमद्भागवत), twelve skandhas (स्कन्ध). The frame is a man who will die in seven days. Parīkṣit sits on the bank of the Gaṅgā, and Śuka speaks. What he speaks is the purāṇa Vyāsa composed when the Mahābhārata was not enough for him, after Nārada told him so. The book is cosmology, the avatāras, and bhakti, in that order of weight: the tenth skandha, Kṛṣṇa's life, is the long one the others lead toward and leave. This page is the map of the twelve. It is not a verse-by-verse shelf. The narrative profile, among the eighteen, is the Bhāgavata profile. Two summits are opened beside it. The four seed verses are sat in full. The Uddhava Gītā is the map of the last talk.

The twelve skandhas

• One. The sages at Naimiṣa ask. Parīkṣit is born. Vyāsa is unsatisfied, and Nārada sends him to this purāṇa. The curse is pronounced: seven days, and the snake Takṣaka.
• Two. Śuka begins. The ten topics of a purāṇa are named. Brahmā, at the start of a creation, cannot see how to build, and the Lord speaks the four verses. The cosmic person is described.
• Three. Vidura hears creation from Maitreya. Kapila teaches Devahūti. That teaching is the Kapila Gītā, a Sāṅkhya of devotion. It is not the Sāṅkhya Kārikā. Cousins, not the same book.
• Four. Dakṣa's sacrifice, Dhruva, King Vena and Pṛthu, and the Pracetas.
• Five. Priyavrata and the geography of the world, the continents and the rivers, Ṛṣabha, and the regions the book calls hells, as consequence rather than as a tour.
• Six. Ajāmila, who is saved at the moment of death by the name he meant for his son. Indra and Vṛtra. Citraketu.
• Seven. Hiraṇyakaśipu and Prahlāda. The man-lion. The same boy the Holi page tells from the household side.
• Eight. The elephant Gajendra. The churning of the ocean. Vāmana. Matsya.
• Nine. The solar line and the lunar line. Rāma's story in brief, which is not Vālmīki's poem. The line runs down toward the birth the tenth will tell.
• Ten. Kṛṣṇa's life. Birth, the foster parents, the flute. The rāsa is the dance of this book, and the commentaries argue what kind of love it is. This page names the dance and does not stage it. The flute verses of chapter 21 are the Veṇu Gītā, already sat, from the music side, on the flute. Chapter 31 is the Gopī Gītā, the song after he has left the circle.
• Eleven. The Yadus begin to end. Kṛṣṇa teaches Uddhava, and then leaves the city. That teaching is the Uddhava Gītā. Inside it, the Haṃsa Gītā and the Bhikṣu Gītā are two doors.
• Twelve. The kings of the Kali age, the four ages, the dissolution, and Parīkṣit's death by Takṣaka, as the curse of the first skandha said. The poem praises itself and stops.

नेपालीमा

श्रीमद्भागवतमा बाह्र स्कन्ध छन्। यसको चौखट सात दिनमा मर्ने एक मानिसको कथा हो। परीक्षित गङ्गाको किनारमा बस्छन्, र शुक बोल्छन्। व्यासले महाभारतले नपुगेपछि, नारदले भनेपछि, यो पुराण रचे। यसमा सृष्टि, अवतार र भक्ति छन्, यही भारको क्रममा। दशौँ स्कन्ध, कृष्णको जीवन, लामो हो। यो पृष्ठ बाह्र स्कन्धको नक्सा हो। श्लोक-श्लोक पढ्ने तह होइन। चार बीज श्लोक पूरा प्रस्तुत गरिएका छन्। उद्धवगीता अन्तिम कुराकानीको नक्सा हो।

पहिलो स्कन्धमा नारद र श्राप आउँछन्। दोस्रोमा ब्रह्मा र चार श्लोक आउँछन्। तेस्रोमा कपिलगीता आउँछ, जो सांख्यकारिका होइन। चौथोमा ध्रुव र पृथु आउँछन्। पाँचौंमा भूगोल छ। छैटौंमा अजामिल र वृत्र छन्। सातौंमा प्रह्लाद छन्। आठौंमा गजेन्द्र, मन्थन, वामन र मत्स्य छन्। नवौंमा सूर्यवंश र चन्द्रवंश छन्, र छोटो रामकथा पनि छ। दशौंमा कृष्ण छन्। रास यस पुस्तकको नृत्य हो। यो पृष्ठले नृत्यको नाम लिन्छ, नृत्य मञ्चन गर्दैन। वेणुगीता र गोपीगीता त्यही स्कन्धका गीत हुन्। एघारौंमा उद्धव छन्, र त्यसभित्र हंसगीता र भिक्षुगीता छन्। बाह्रौंमा कलि, प्रलय र तक्षक आउँछन्।

Where it sits

The Mahābhārata is the poem of the Bhāratas, with the Gītā on the field. This purāṇa is the poem of Kṛṣṇa told to a man who has a week to live. The Nārada Bhakti Sūtras are the short śāstra of the love this book narrates. The Viṣṇu Purāṇa tells a great deal of the same matter in six aṃśas, and is the cleaner map of the five topics.