The Purana is recited by Souti to the sages at Naimisharanya.
The Brahmavaivarta Purana is one of the six Mahapuranas that glorify Brahma and hence it is a Rajasika Purana. Actually the Purana glorifies Krishna as the Supreme God and the Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva function under him as mentioned in this Purana.
The Brahmavaivarta Purana was recited by Souti, the son of Lomaharshana, to the sages in Naimisharanya. He recounted that this Purana was first recited by Krishna to Brahma, who then recited it to his son Dharma at the holy place of Pushkar. Dharma recited it to the sage Narayan, who recited it to Narada and who in turn recited it to Veda Vyasa. Souti’s father, Lomaharshana, was a disciple of Veda Vyasa and learnt the Purana from him. He in turn taught it to Souti.
The Brahmavaivarta Purana has 18,000 couplets and is divided into four sections. The first section is named Brahma Khanda and deals extensively with creation. This section has been summarized in the article Creation According to the Brahmavaivarta Purana. The next section is named Prakriti Khanda and deals with the goddesses who are manifestations of Prakriti or the life giving force. The third section is Ganesh Khanda and is about Ganesh the elephant headed son of Shiva and Parvati. The last section describes the Krishna Avatar and is called Sri Krishna Janma Khanda.
Prakriti Khanda
Prakriti translates as that which excels in creation. It is the female aspect of the divine. Though in manifest form the male and the female are shown separate, Prakriti is not distinct from the divine. The Brahmavaivarta Purana names five main manifestations of Prakriti, or goddesses. These are Saraswati, Durga, Lakshmi, Radha and Savitri.
Saraswati is worshipped on the fifth day of the waxing fortnight (shukla paksha) of the month of Magh. This day is known as Vasant Panchami. She is the Goddess of Wisdom and is also worshipped by children on the day they begin their formal education. Once Saraswati was cursed by Ganga to become a river on earth. She therefore descended and the Vedic civilization was nurtured on the banks of the Saraswati River. When the time specified in the curse was completed she left the earth and went back. This is the mythology behind the disappearance of the Saraswati River.
The Prakriti Khanda details the stories and customs about other female deities as well. One of them is Svaha, the wife of Agni the demigod of Fire. Brahma has ordained that without Svaha Agni will not have the power to burn. Hence when oblations are offered to the fire one has to utter the incantation “Svaha”.
Ganesh Khanda
This section narrates the episodes in the life of Ganesh. The interesting aspect is that many of them are different from the prevalent popular versions. They include how Ganesh got an elephant head.
When Ganesh was born several deities, including Shani, came to visit him. Shani was under a curse that anyone he looked at would immediately wither away. Hence he blessed the child but kept his eyes averted. Ganesh’s mother Parvati told Shani to ignore the curse and look at Ganesh. Shani from the corner of his eye glanced at the head of the child, which immediately disappeared. Then Krishna cut off Airavata’s head and fixed it on Ganesh. Airavata was Indra’s elephant and under a curse that at the appropriate time he would have his head cut off. The more common version can be read at Ganesh – The Elephant God.
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