The Brahma Purana is one of the major eighteen Mahapurana

Mahapurana

Mahapurana may refer to:* one of the 18 major Hindu Puranas*Mahapurana , a well-known 9th century Jain text by Jinasena...

s, a genre of Hindu

Hindu

Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

 religious texts. The extant text comprises 246 chapters. It is divided into two parts, namely the Purvabhaga (former part) and the Uttarabhaga (later part). The first part narrates the story behind the creation of the cosmos

Religious cosmology

A Religious cosmology is a way of explaining the origin, the history and the evolution of the universe based on the religious mythology of a specific tradition...

, details the life and deeds of Rama

Rama

Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...

 and Krishna

Krishna

Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...

. Chapters 70–175 deal with Gautami Mahatmya (Glorification of the Godavari River

Godavari River

The Godavari is a river that runs from western to southern India and is considered to be one of the big river basins in India. With a length of 1465 km, it is the second longest river in India , that runs within the country and also the longest river in South India...

). The second part contains the details about the Purushottama Tirtha, which is one of the holy places.

Brahma Purana is a Mahapurana in which the Rajas guna

Guna

' means 'string' or 'a single thread or strand of a cord or twine'. In more abstract uses, it may mean 'a subdivision, species, kind, quality', or an operational principle or tendency....

 prevails. It is the first of the eighteen Puranas in all the lists, except that of the Padma Purana

Padma Purana

Padma Purana , one of the major eighteen Puranas, a Hindu religious text, is divided into five parts.In the first part of the text, sage Pulastya explains to Bhishma about religion and the essence of the religion. The second part describes in detail Prithvi...

.

Further reading

• Mani, Vettam. Puranic Encyclopedia. 1st English ed. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975.
• Vyāsa [1982], Peter Schreiner and Renate Söhnen, editor(s), Brahmapurāṇa – Tübingen Purâna Project Version, (Tübingen: Tübingen Purâna Project, Seminar for Indology and Comparative History of Religions of the University of Tübingen, 1982–1988), full text available at http://sarit.indology.info/newphilo/navigate.pl?indologica.1