Brahmanda Purana

Brahmanda Purana is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts and has been assigned the eighteenth place in almost all the lists of the Puranas.

Brahmāṇḍa, literally "Brahma's egg" is a term for the universe, the created world (loka) in Hindu mythology.

The Brahmanda Purana gets its name from the account of Brahmanda (the cosmic egg of Brahma) and the future cosmic ages revealed by Brahma. It deals with the origin of the Universe as told by Brahma. In the beginning, there was a golden egg, and the prapanca (Universe with its activities) was formed out of it. Portions of Adhyatma Ramayana, references to Radha and Krishna and the incarnation of Parasurama are included in this. This text contains twelve thousand verses and it is believed to be uttama (best) to give this book as a gift to a Brahmin.

Venkateshvara Press, Bombay edition of the Brahmanda Purana consists of two distinct parts. The first part comprises first two sections of the text, the Pūrvabhāga, the Madhyabhāga and the first part of the third section Uttarabhāga (up to chapter 4). The Pūrvabhāga comprises two pādas (sub-sections): Prakriyā (chapters 1-5) and Anuṣaṅga (chapters 6-38). The Madhyabhāga and the Uttarabhāga comprise only one pāda each, Upodghāta (chapters 1-74) and Upasaṃhāra (chapters 1-4). The names of these four pādas of the text are same as the extant Vayu Purana and its contents are also almost same as the latter text. The second part, which comprises chapters 5-44 of the third section, the Uttarabhāga is styled as the Lalitopākhyāna (narrative of Lalita). It describes the worship of the Goddess Lalita according to the Tantric rites and written as a dialogue between Hayagriva and sage Agastya.