BHUVANESWARA A ruined city in Orissa, sacred to the worship of Siva, and containing the remains of severe temples. It was formerly called Ekamra-kanana. 

BHUVAR See Vyahriti. 

BHUVAR-LOKA See Loka.

BIBHATSU `Loathing.’ An appellation of Arjuna.

BINDUSARA The son and successor of Chandra-gupta. 

BRAHMA, BRAHMAN (neuter). The supreme soul of this universe, self-existent, absolute, and eternal, from which all things, emanate, and to which all return. This divine essence is incorporeal, immaterial, invisible, unborn, uncreated, without beginning and without end, illimitable, and inappreciable by the sense until the film of mortal blindness is removed. It is all pervading and infinite in its manifestations, in all nature, animate and in animate, in the highest god and in the meanest creature. This supreme soul receives no worship, but it is the object of that abstract meditation which Hindu sages practise in order to obtain absorption into it. It is sometimes called Kala-hansa.

There is a passage in the Satapatha Brahmana which represents Brahma (neut.) as the active creator. See Brahma.

The Veda is sometimes called Brahma. 

BRAHMA masculine). The first member of the Hindu triad; the supreme spirit manifested as the active creator of the universe. He sprang from the mundane egg deposited by the supreme first cause, and is the Prajapati, or lord and father of all creatures, and in the first place of the Rishis or Prajapatis.

When Brahma has created the world it remains unaltered for one of his days, a period of 2,160,000,000 years. The world and all that is therein is then consumed by fire, but the sages, gods, and elements survive. When he awakes he again restores creation, and this process is repeated until his existence of a hundred years is brought to a close, a period which it requires fifteen figures to express. When this period is ended he himself expires, and he and all the gods and sages, and the whole universe are resolved into their constituent elements. His name is invoked in religious services, but Pushkara (hodie Pokhar), near Ajmir, is the only place where he receives worship, though Professor Williams states that he has heard of homage being paid to him at Idar.

Brahma is said to be of a red colour. He has four heads; originally he had five, but one was burnt off by the fire of Siva’s central eye because he had spoken disrespectfully. Hence he is called Chatur-anana or Chatur-mukha, `four-faced,’ and Ashta-karna, `eight-cared.’ He has four arms; and in his hands he holds his sceptre, or a spoon, or a string of beads, or his bow Parivita, or a water-jug, and the Veda. His consort is Saraswati, goddess of learning, also called Brahma. His vehicle is a swan or goose, from which he is called Hansa-vahana. His residence is called Brahma-vrinda.

The name Brahma is not found in the Vedas and Brahmanas, in which the active creator is known as Hiranya-garbha, Prajapati, &c.; but there is a curious passage in the Satapatha Brahmana which says: “He (Brahma, neuter) created the gods. Having created the gods, he placed them in these worlds: in this world Agni, Vayu in the atmosphere, and Surya in the sky.” Two points connected with Brahma are remarkable. As the father of men he performs the work of procreation by incestuous intercourse with his own daughter, variously named Vach or Saraswati (speech), Sandhya (twilight), Sata-rupa (the hundred-formed), &c. Secondly, that his powers as creator have been arrogated to the other gods Vishnu and Siva, while Brahma has been thrown into the shade. In the Aitareya Brahmana it is said that Prajapati was in the form of a buck and his daughter was Rohit, a deer. According to the Satapatha Brahmana and Manu, the supreme soul, the self-existent lord, created the waters and deposited in them a seed, which seed became a golden egg, in which he himself was born as Brahma, the progenitor of all the worlds. As the waters (nara) were “the place of his movement, he (Brahma) was called Narayana.” Here the name Narayana is referred distinctly to Brahma, but it afterwards became the name of Vishnu. The account of the Ramayana is that “all was water only, in which the earth was formed. Thence arose Brahma, the self-existent, with the deities. He then, becoming a boar, raised up the earth and created the whole world with the saints, his sons. Brahma, eternal and perpetually undecaying, sprang from the ether; from him was descended Marichi; the son of Marichi was Kasyapa. From Kasyapa sprang Vivaswat, and Mana is declared to have been Vivaswat’s son.” A later recension of this poem alters this passage so as to make Brahma a mere manifestation of Vishnu. Instead of “Brahma, the self-existent, with the deities,” it substitutes for the last three words, “the imperishable Vishnu.” The Vishnu Purana says that the “divine Brahma called Narayana created all beings,” that Prajapati “had formerly, at the commencement of the (previous) kalpas, taken the shape of a fish, a tortoise, &c., (so now), entering the body of a boar, the lord of creatures entered the water.” But this “lord of creatures” is clearly shown to be Vishnu, and these three forms, the fish, the tortoise, ad the boar, are now counted among the Avataras of Vishnu. (See Avatara). This attribution of the form of a boar to Brahma (Prajapati) had been before made by the Satapatha Brahmana, which also says, “Having assumed the form of a tortoise, Prajapati created offspring.” The Linga Purana is quite exceptional among the later works in ascribing the boar form to Brahma. The Mahabharata represents Brahma as springing from the navel of Vishnu or from a lotus which grew there out; hence he is called Nabhi-ja, `navel-born;’ Kanja, `the lotus;’ Sarojin, `having a lotus;’ Abja-ja, Abja-yoni, and Kanja-ja, `lotus-born.’ This is, of course, the view taken by the Vaishnavas. The same statement appears in the Ramayana, although this poem gives Brahma a more prominent place than usual. It represents Brahma as informing Rama of his divinity, and of his calling him to heaven in “The glory of Vishnu.” He bestowed boons on Rama while that hero was on earth, and he extended his favours also to Ravana and other Rakshasas who were descendants of his son Pulastya. In the Puranas also he appears as a patron of the enemies of the gods, and it was by his favour that the Daitya King Bali obtained that almost universal dominion which required the incarnation of Vishnu as the dwarf to repress. He is further represented in the Ramayana as the creator of the beautiful Ahalya, whom he gave as wife to the sage Gautama. Brahma, being thus inferior to Vishnu, is represented as giving homage and praise to Vishnu himself and to his form Krishna but the Vaishnava authorities make him superior to Rudra, who, they say, sprang from his forehead. The Saiva authorities make Maha-deva or Rudra to be the creator of Brahma, and represent Brahma as worshipping the Linga and as acting as the charioteer of Rudra.

Brahma was the father of Daksha, who is said to have sprung from his thumb, and he was present at the sacrifice of that patriarch, which was rudely disturbed by Rudra. Then he had to humbly submit and appease the offended god. The four Kumaras, the chief of whom was called Sanat-kumara or by the  patronymic Vaidhatra, were later creations or sons of Brahma.

Brahma is also called Vidhi, Vedhas, Druhina, and Srashtri, `creator;’ Dhatri and Vidhatri, `sustainer;’ Pitamaha, `the great father;’ Lokesa, `lord of the world;’ Paremeshta, `supreme in heaven;’ Sanat, `the ancient;’ Adi-kavi, `the first poet;’ and Dru-ghana, `the axe or mallet.’  

BRAHMACHARI The brahman student. See Brahman. 

BRAHMADIKAS The Prajapatis (q.v.). 

BRAHMA-GUPTA An astronomer who composed the brahma-gupta Siddhanta in A.D. 628. 

BRAHMA-LOKA See Loka. 

BRAHMAN The first of the four castes; the sacerdotal class, the members of which may be, but are not necessarily, priests. A Brahman is the chief of all created beings; his person is inviolate; he is entitled to all honour, and enjoys many rights and privileges. The Satapatha Brahmana declares that “there are two kinds of gods; first the gods, then those who are Brahmans, and have learnt the Veda and repeat it: they are human gods.” The chief duty of a Brahman is the study and teaching of the Vedas, and the performance of sacrifices and other religious ceremonies; but in modern times many Brahmans entirely neglect these duties, and they engage in most of the occupations of secular life. Under the law of Manu, the life of a Brahman was divided into four asramas or stages:-

1. Brahmachari – The student, whose duty was to pass his days in humble and obedient attendance upon his spiritual preceptor in the study of the Vedas.
2. Grihasta – The householder; the married man living with his wife as head of a family engaged in the ordinary duties of a Brahman, reading and teaching the Vedas, sacrificing and assisting to sacrifice, bestowing alms and receiving alms.
3. Vanaprastha – The anchorite, or “dweller in the woods, ”who having discharged his duties as a man of the world, has retired into the forest to devote himself to self-denial in food and raiment, to mortifications of various kinds, to religious meditation, an to the strict performance of all ceremonial duties.
4. Sannyasi – The religious mendicant, who, freed from all forms and observances, wanders about and subsists on alms, practising or striving for that condition of mind which, heedless of the joys and pains, cares and troubles of the flesh, is intent only upon the deity and final absorption.

The divisions and subdivisions of the Brahman caste are almost innumerable. It must suffice here to notice the great divisions of north and south, the Pancha Gauda, and the Pancha Dravida. The five divisions of Gauda, or Bengal, are the Brahmans of – 1. Kanyakubja, Kanauj; 2. Saraswata, the northwest, about the Saraswati or Sarsuti river; 3. Gauda; 4. Mithila, North Bihar; 5. Utkala, Orissa. The Pancha Dravida are the Brahmans of 1. Maha-rashtra, the Mahratta country; 2. Telinga, the Telugu country; 3. Dravida, the Tamil country; 4. Karnata, the Canarese country; 5. Gurjjara, Guzerat. 

BRAHMANA `Belonging to Brahmans.’ Works composed by and for Brahmans. That part of the Veda which was intended for the use and guidance of Brahmans in the use of the hymns of the Mantra, and therefore of later production; but the Brahmana, equally with the Mantra, is held to be Sruti or revealed word. Excepting its claim to revelation, it is a Hindu Talmud. The Brahmana collectively is made up of the different Brahmanas, which are ritualistic and liturgical writings in prose. They contain the details of the Vedic ceremonies, with long explanations of their origin and meaning; they give instructions as to the use of particular verses and metres; and they abound with curious legends, divine and human, in illustration. In them are found “the oldest rituals we have, the oldest linguistic explanations, the oldest traditional narratives, and the oldest philosophical speculations.” As literary productions they are not of a high order, but some “striking thoughts, bold expressions, sound reasoning, and curious traditions are found among the mass of pedantry and grandiloquence.” Each of the Sanhitas or collection of hymns has its Brahmanas, and these generally maintain the essential character of the Veda to which they belong. Thus the Brahmanas of the Rig are specially devoted to the duties of the Hotri, who recites the richas or verses, those of the Yajur to the performance of the sacrifices by the Adhwaryu, and those of Aitareya Brahmana, which is perhaps the oldest, and may date as far back as the seventh century B.C. This is sometimes called The Taittiriya Sanhita of the Yajura-veda has the Taittiriya Brahmana, and the Vajasaneyi Sanhita has the Satapatha Brahmana, one of the most important of all the Brahmanas. The Sama-veda has eight Brahmanas, of which the best known are the Praudha or Pancha-vinsa, the Tandya, and the Shad-vinsa. The Atharva has only one, the Gopatha Brahmana. In their fullest extent the Brahmanas embrace also the treatises called Aranyakas and Upanishads. 

BRAHMANASPATI A Vedic equivalent of the name Brihaspati. 

BRAHMANDA PURANA “That which has declared, in 12,200 verses, the magnificence of the egg of Brahma, and in which an account of the future kalpas is contained, is called the Brahmanda Purana, and was revealed by Brahma.” This Purana, like the Skanda, is “no longer procurable in a collective body,” but is represented by a variety of Khandas and Mahatmyas professing to be derived from it. The Adhyatma Ramayana, a very popular work, is considered to be a part of this Purana. 

BRAHMANI The female form, or the daughter of Brahma, also called Sata-rupa (q.v.). 

BRAHMA-PURA The city of Brahma. The heaven of Brahma, on the summit of Mount Meru, and enclosed by the river Ganga. 

BRAHMA PURANA In all the lists of the Puranas the Brahma stands first, for which reason it is sometimes entitled the Adi or “First” Purana. It was repeated by Brahma to Marichi, and is said to contain 10,000 stanzas, but the actual number is between 7000 and 8000. It is also called the Saura Purana, because “it is, in great part, appropriated to the worship of Surya, the sun.” “The early chapters give a description of the creation, an account of the Manwantaras, and the history of the Solar and Lunar dynasties to the time of Krishna in a summary manner, and in words which are common to it and several other Puranas. A brief description of the universe succeeds; and then come a number of chapters relating to the holiness of Orissa, with its temples and sacred groves, dedicated to the sun, to Siva, and Jagan-natha, the latter especially. These chapters are characteristic of this Purana, and show its main object to be the promotion of the worship of Krishna as Jagannatha. To these particulars succeeds a life of Krishna, which is word for word the same as that of the Vishnu Purana; and the compilation terminates with a particular detail of the mode in which Yoga or contemplative devotion, the object of which is still Vishnu, is to be performed. There is little in this which corresponds with the definition of a Pancha-lakshana Purana, and the mention of the temples of Orissa, the date of the original construction of which is recorded, shows that it could not have been compiled earlier than the thirteenth or fourteenth century.” This Purana has “a supplementary or concluding section called the Brahmottara Purana, which contains about 3000 stanzas. This bears still more entirely the character of a Mahatmya on local legend, being intended to celebrate the sanctity of the Balaja river, conjectured to be the same as the Banas in Marwar. There is no clue to its date, but it is clearly modern, grafting personages and fictions of its own invention on a few hints from older authorities.” – Wilson.

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