The 'Bhavishya Purana' (Bhaviṣya Purāṇa) is one of the eighteen major works in thePurana genre ofHinduism, written inSanskrit.^[1][2] The titleBhavishya means "future" and implies it is a work that contains prophecies regarding the future.^[3][4]

TheBhavishya Purana exists in many inconsistent versions, wherein the content as well as their subdivisions vary, and five major versions are known.^[4] Some manuscripts have fourParvam (parts), some two, others don't have any parts.^[1][3] The text as it exists today is a composite of material ranging from medieval era to the modern era. Those sections of the surviving manuscripts that are dated to be older, are partly borrowed from other Indian texts such asBrihat Samhita andShamba Purana.^[3][5] The veracity and authenticity of much of theBhavishya Purana has been questioned by modern scholars and historians, and the text is considered an example of "constant revisions and living nature" of Puranic genre ofHindu literature.^[6][7]

The first 16 chapters of the first part of theBhavisya Purana is calledBrahmaparvam. It shows similarities to, and likely borrowed verses from some version of theManusmriti.^[3][8] However, some of thecaste-related and women's rights related discussion in theBhavishya Purana isegalitarian and challenge those found in the 19th century published manuscripts of the Manusmriti.^[9][10][11] The second part of the text, calledMadhyamaparvam, is aTantra-related work.^[6] The "prophecy"-related third partPratisargaparvan includes sections onChristianity,Islam,Bhakti movement,Sikhism, Sultanate history,Mughal history, British rule, and others.^[12][5][13] The fourth part of the text calledUttaraparvam, is also known asBhavishyottara Purana. This last part describes festivals related to variousHindu gods and goddesses and theirTithis (dates onlunar calendar), as well as mythology and a discussion ofDharma particularlyvrata (vow) anddana (charity).^[12][5] The text also has manyMahatmya chapters on geography, travel guide and pilgrimage to holy sites such asUthiramerur,^[14][15] and is one of theTirtha-focussed Puranas.^[16]

The Bombay edition contains:

• Brahma Parva which has 215 chapters.
• Madhyama Parva which has three sections with a cumulative total of 62 chapters,
• Pratisarga Parva which has four sections with 7, 35, 32 and 26 chapters respectively, and
• Uttara Parva which has 208 chapters.

Some manuscripts of the text do not have theseParvans and have different number of chapters.^[3] A few manuscripts assert that it has five parts (Sanskrit:parvans), but all extant editions contain only the above four parts.^[17] The text is sometimes titledBhaviṣyat Purāṇa.^[2]

In records of land grants of the fifth century CE, verses are quoted which occur only in thePadma,Bhavishya, andBrahma Puranas. On this basis Pargiter in 1912 assigned these particular Puranas to the early centuries CE. However,Moriz Winternitz considers it more probable that these verses, both in the inscriptions and in the puranas, were taken as quotations from now nonextantdharmaśāstras.^[18] According to Winternitz, the text which has come down to us in manuscript form is certainly not the ancient work which is quoted in theĀpastambīya Dharmasūtra ; a quotation attributed to theBhaviṣyat Purāṇa cannot be found anymore in extant editions.^[19][20]

It is now accepted that the four parts have different dates. However, Puranic scholars have increasingly arrived at a consensus that it is impossible to meaningfully date most of the Puranic corpus due to their extremely fluid nature. Gustav Glaesser reiterates this argument to highlight how the surviving manuscripts ofBhavishya Purana are neither the ancient nor a medieval version of some original Bhavishya Purana.

Despite being labelled a purana or "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.^[21]

The first 16 chapters of the first part of theBhavisya Purana is calledBrahmaparvam. The second part of the text, calledMadhyamaparvan, is a Tantra-related work.^[6] The "prophecy"-related third partPratisargaparvan includes sections on comparing Upanishadic ideas to those found in non-Indic religions, as well as a history through the 18th century. It is considered by scholars as an 18th or 19th century creation.^[12][5] The fourth part of the text calledUttaraparvam, is also known asBhavisyottara Purana. This last part describes festivals,vrata (vow),dana (charity) and pilgrimage sites.^[22][5]

In thePadma Purana,^[23] it is classified in therajas category, which contains puranas related toBrahma.^[24][25][26] Scholars consider theSattva-Rajas-Tamas classification as "entirely fanciful" and there is nothing in this text that actually justifies this classification.^[27]

This part of the text has 215 chapters.^[3] It covers topics such as rites of passage, ceremonies and feasts.^[28] It also covers the duties and rights of women, a discussion on the nature of people and how to identify good and bad characters, and a caste-related discussion. According to Arora, and other scholars,^[29][11] thecaste-related and women's rights related discussion in theBhavishya Purana is egalitarian, similar to those found inBrahma Purana andVajrasuchi Upanishad, thus challenging Manusmriti.^{[9][10][30][29]}

The Brahma Parva also includes sections on festival dates and methods for worshippingBrahma,Ganesha,Skanda, and theNāga.^[3][31] A considerable section deals with Sun worship in a place called "Śākadvīpa" which may be a reference toScythia.^[32][33] This overlaps with Zoroastrianism-related views,^[5] and may be related to ancient migration or interaction between Persia and central Asia with Indian subcontinent.^[34][35] These chapters are the most comprehensive and important source of sun-worship tradition in India, and may be related to the escape and resettlement of people from Persia into western India during the mid to late medieval era.^[36]

The second part of theBhavisya Purana has 62 chapters onTantra.^[3]

This is not mentioned in other Indian text, states Hazra, to have been a part of theBhavishya Purana, and therefore might be "a late appendage" abounding in Tantric theories of the 2nd millennium.^[37] However, states Rocher, these sections were likely integrated by about 1500 CE.^[38]

The Pratisarga Parva has 100 chapters,^[3] which deal with topics such as the genealogy of the kings and sages, and prophecies.^[6] It is written as a universal history with the first and the second chapters (called Khandas) dealing with old time, the third part with the medieval, and the fourth with the new age.^[13] The text includes the plundering of regions and major massacres in India after the 12th century, including those of Timur-Tamburlaine in section 3.4.6 (the text calls him Timiralinga, or "linga of darkness").^[39] It compares "Upanishadic" religion with the religions of themlecchas in a way "comparative religions" studies do, statesAlf Hiltebeitel, along with historical characters whose ideas and actions impacted India between the 11th and 14th centuries. It includes critical comments about the Mughal history (the texts calls them "Mukula") and refers to aMahamada who is a Last Prophet of the "mlecchas".^[39] This suggests this section was written well after the 14th century. The author of thisparvan of theBhavisya Purana seems to know both English Biblical and Arabic Islamic texts, but virtually all terms used here are derived from Arabic words and names, not the English sources. Thus, this part of the text must have been composed after the start of the Mughal empire and after Arabic sources were available in India.^[39] This section has led numerous scholars to question the authenticity of much of theBhavishya Purana, and as evidence that these Puranas were not scriptures, but rather a document of history that was constantly revised and thus of a living nature, both over time and over geography.^[40][41][13]

According to Alf Hiltebeitel,^[13] the second quarter of the eighteenth century marks theterminus a quo for the text's history of theMughals because it mentions Nadir Shah (calling him Daitya Nadira) and Muhammad Shah in section 3.4.22. Thisc. mid-18th centuryterminus a quo would also apply to Pratisargaparvan's first khanda Genesis-Exodus sequence where its author is aware of both Arabic and English sources.^[42] Further, mention ofQueen Victoria's palaces,Calcutta and several 18th century historic events place theterminus ad quem (completed before a year) at mid to late 19th Century.^[43][44] Hiltebeitel states that this part of theBhavisya Purana was mostly likely composed in the 19th century.^[45][46]

TheUttara Parva is large with 208 chapters.^[3] Though nominally attached to theBhavishya Purana, is usually considered to be an independent work, also known as theBhaviṣyottara Purāṇa, and as such is included among theUpapuranas (Lesser Puranas).^[47] TheBhaviṣyottara Purana is primarily a handbook of religious rites with a few legends and myths.^[48] 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 point of view.^[49]

TheBhavishya Purana also includesMahatmya (travel guides) to pilgrimage sites such asUthiramerur.^[14][15]

IndologistTheodor Aufrecht had noted the Bombay manuscript edition to be a modern era "literary fraud" that plagiarized excerpts from thePentateuch (Bible) brought to India by early missionaries. According to Gustav Glaesser, this should not be considered "fraud" because such borrowing from all sorts of sources, interpolations and additions are common in thePuranas genre.^[50][a] In the same way, theBhavishya Purana takes ideas from Semitic, Mesopotamian, Persian, Christian and other sources. This is evidenced by the use of words inBhavishya Purana that are neither Sanskrit nor Prakrit, such as,Falgun (for February),shashtihi (for sixty) and others.^[50]

• Bhagavata Purana
• Shiva Purana
• Markandeya Purana
• Upanishads

• Gregory Bailey (2003). Arvind Sharma (ed.).The Study of Hinduism. University of South Carolina Press.ISBN 978-1-57003-449-7.
• Dalal, Rosen (2014).Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide. Penguin.ISBN 978-8184752779.
• Dimmitt, Cornelia; van Buitenen, J. A. B. (2012).Classical Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Puranas. Temple University Press (1st Edition: 1977).ISBN 978-1-4399-0464-0.
• Doniger, Wendy, ed. (1993).Purāṇa Perennis: Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts. Albany, New York: State University of New York.ISBN 0-7914-1382-9.
• Flood, Gavin (1996).An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 0-521-43878-0.
• Flood, Gavin, ed. (2003).The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.ISBN 1-4051-3251-5.
• K P Gietz; et al. (1992).Epic and Puranic Bibliography (Up to 1985) Annoted and with Indexes: Part I: A - R, Part II: S - Z, Indexes. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.ISBN 978-3-447-03028-1.
• Ariel Glucklich (2008).The Strides of Vishnu : Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective: Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective. Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-971825-2.
• Bhaviṣyapurāna, Pratisargaparvan. Bombay: Venkateshwar Press. 1959.
• Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli (Editorial Chairman) (1962).The Cultural Heritage of India. Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture. Second edition, four volumes, revised and enlarged, 1962 (volume II).
• Rocher, Ludo (1986).The Puranas. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.ISBN 978-3447025225.
• Wilson, H. H. (1864).The Vishnu Purana: A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition (Volume 1: Introduction, Book I). Read Country Books (reprinted in 2006).ISBN 1-84664-664-2.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Winternitz, Maurice (1922).History of Indian Literature Vol 1 (Original in German, translated into English by VS Sarma, 1981). New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass (Reprint 2010).ISBN 978-8120802643.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

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