Caitanya Mahaprabhu — Scriptural Proofs of His Avatarahood and Divinity. Part 9
The Ādi-purāṇa does not contain this passage.
The Ādi-purāṇa was published in Calcutta in 1891 (Navīnakṛṣṇa Lāhā edition) + Bengali translation in 1829 (Bombay: Veṅkaṭeśvara Press). The translation was republished in 1907. The Ādi-purāṇa has been extensively researched by P. Hazra, a renowned scholar of the Purāṇas. The published Purāṇa contains 29 chapters. The main subject is Kṛṣṇa’s life, his birth, his appearance in Naṅda’s house, etc. Kṛṣṇa is represented as the supreme God and eternal Brahman, and not as an avatāra of Viṣṇu.
The Purāṇa itself belongs to the category of Upapurāṇas (secondary or minor Purāṇas). Upapurāṇas are number of writings subordinate
to the eighteen principal Purāṇas: viz. Ādi (by Sanat-kumāra), Nṛsiṃha-, Vāyu-, Śivadharma-, Durvāsa-, Nārada-, Nandikeśvara-, Uśana-, Kapila-, Varuṇa-, Śāmba-, Kālikā-, Maheśvara-, Padma-, Deva-, Parāśara-, Marīca-, Bhāskara-.
There are manuscripts of the Purāṇa that only partially echo the published Ādi-purāṇa. The first four chapters in the published version are missing from the manuscripts, while there are manuscripts containing chapters 51 and 52, continuing Kṛṣṇa’s story up to the killing of Kaṃsa.
Some quotations from the Ādi-purāṇa are found in the Dharma-nibandhas (legislative compilations. Much of the material in the compilations are extended quotations from the Dharma-sūtras, Dharma-śāstras and Purāṇas, systematised by subject). Many quotations are related to funeral ritual, cremation, and other rites associated with death. There are no stanzas about Caitanya in either published editions or manuscripts. In most lists of Upapurāṇas, it is the Ādi-purāṇa (or Ādya-purāṇa) that is mentioned first. Al-Biruni was evidently familiar with the name of the Purāṇa. Scholars believe that the Ādi-purāṇa known to Al-Biruni was different from the published version. Hazra determines the period of creation of the Purāṇa taken for publication to be somewhere between 1203–1525, while the version known to Khwarizmian is c. 6th century.
The Brahma-purāṇa, the “first” of the Mahāpurāṇas, is often called Ādi-purāṇa (“First”/“Primordial”-purāṇa). The Ādi-purāṇa is very popular among Jains. The Jain monk Jinasena, who lived in the 9th century, in his treatise named Ādi-purāṇa describes the life of Ṛṣabhanātha, the first tīrthaṅkara of Jainism.
From the passage offered by Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja, we see that it was composed no earlier than the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Before the beginning of the nineteenth century, none of the prominent representatives of the Caitanya school quoted or mentioned the passage.
The second work is called the Bṛhan-nāradīya-purāṇa. The proposed passage is found in 1.5.47. In this chapter Nārada tells Sanaka about the Lord’s conversation with Mārkaṇḍeya. Strophe 1.5.47 is part of this conversation. It is not about God’s appearance or kali-yuga-avatara-s. How Caitanya is predicted here remains to be guessed. The word saṅkīrtana does not occur in the Bṛhan-nāradīya-purāṇa. The translation of this stanza is as follows:
“I am the best of the twice-born, in the ever-hidden form of a devotee always protecting the world.”
All other words are Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja’s fantasy. The stanza itself does not contain the words “protecting My devotees”. There is no reason to believe that the stanza refers to Śrī Gauraṅga-deva.
Bṛhan-nāradīya-purāṇa is included in the list of eighteen “great” Purāṇas (mahāpurāṇa), and along with Nārada-purāṇa is included in most lists of “minor” Purāṇas. In the list of Mahāpurāṇas contained in the Bṛhad-dharma-purāṇa the Bṛhan-nāradīya-purāṇa is not mentioned, but it is listed in the list of Upapurāṇas of the same Bṛhad-dharma-purāṇa. Nārada-purāṇa is also mentioned separately in the same Upapurāṇa list. There is confusion with the manuscripts of the Bṛhan-nāradīya-purāṇa. The colophons of some manuscripts say that their text is the Bṛhan-nāradīya-purāṇa, while one manuscript says that it is the Nāradīya-purāṇa. Winternitz argues that Nārada-purāṇa and Bṛhan-nāradīya-purāṇa are different names for the same work.
Nārada-purāṇa consists of two parts. The first part (pūrvabhāga) is divided into four parts (pāda) in which the four interlocutors address Nārada (ch. 1-41, 42-62, 63-91, 92-125). The second part (uttarabhāga) consists of 82 chapters.
The Bṛhan-nāradīya-purāṇa consists of 38 chapters and has not a single sign of Mahāpurāṇa. Its content is strictly Vaiṣṇava. Viṣṇu-bhakti is named as the main means of salvation. The work describes Vaiṣṇava festivals and ceremonies and the glorification of Gaṅgā. Prayāga and Vārāṇasī are named as the most sacred places. Some chapters describe the duties of varṇa-s and āśrama-s, as well as funeral rites, vows, etc.
Chapters 1-41 of the Nārada-purāṇa generally echo the contents of the Bṛhan-nāradīya-purāṇa with slight differences. The remaining chapters of the first part deal with many different topics. Chapters 50-57 discuss the Vedāṅgas. Chapters 92-109 detail the contents of the 18 Mahāpurāṇas (one chapter for each Mahāpurāṇa). Other chapters describe the knowledge of the soul, the path to liberation from saṃsāra, the teachings of the Pāśupatas, etc.
The chapters describing worship and mantra-s to different planets, deities Gaṇeśa, Mahāviṣṇu, Narasiṃha, Hayagrīva, Lakṣmaṇa and Rāma, Hanumān, Kṛṣṇa, Devī, Mahālakṣmī, Maheśvarī, etc., are prominent. Caitanya is not among them.
According to Wilson, the Nārada-purāṇa and the Bṛhan-nāradīya-purāṇa are 16th–17th century works. Hazra believed that the Bṛhan-nāradīya-purāṇa was most likely composed in 850, and the Nārada-purāṇa is a compilation, not a complete work. Its chapters are composed at different times. The chapters of the first part are composed between 875-1000 and the rest much later.
The title Nārada-purāṇa appears in most of the lists of Upapurāṇas. According to Hazra, there was the Nārada-mahāpurāṇa, the Bṛhan-nāradīya-purāṇa and the Nārada-upapurāṇa different from the first two.
