N.A. Deshpande (translator) - Padma Purana

14b. I was ordered by my father, the intelligent pupil of Vysa (thus):

15-16a. Going to the sages wait upon them and tell them whatever they ask you. The revered ones (therefore) may tell me which story I (should) narrate, or if I should describe the various kinds of duties (dharmas).

16b. The best sages heard the sweet words uttered by him.

17a. Then in them arose a desire to listen to Pura.

17b-19a. Seeing that very confident learned Laumahara, the chief of the sages, , depending upon their intention (anticipating what the sages wished), and desiring to hear the religious observances, said:

19b-20. O highly intelligent Sta, for (learning) Itihsa and Puras, you had properly waited upon revered Vysa, the best among those who know Brahman. You drew (towards you) his auspicious mind attached to the Puras.

21-23. O highly intelligent one, these eminent brahmins have now a desire to listen to the Pura. Please, therefore, narrate it to them; for all these noble ones belonging to different families have gathered here. Let these teachers of to all of them:

24. How was the lotus produced? How did Brahm come into being there? Narrate, in due order, how, He, after having sprung up (from the lotus) effected the creation?

25. Thus asked, he replied to them in sweet words: Ugraravas, the son of spoke to them exquisitely and logically:

26. By this encouragement of yours, I am pleased. I am favoured by you who are conversant with Pura and who have mastered the entire Dharma.

27a. I shall narrate to you the entire well-known significance of the Pura as I learnt it (from my father).

27b-29. This is the Stas duty from primeval times as perceived by the good to record the genealogies of gods, sages and kings of unlimited prowess and the eulogies of the noble who are seen in Itihsa and Puras to be the declarers of sacred lore. The sta has no authority whatsoever over (the teaching or reciting of) .

30. When the sacrifice of the noble and Sta praised that king.

31a. Being pleased (with them), the large-hearted king granted them a boon:

31b. (He gave) the Sta-country to Sta and the (country) to Mgadha.

32-33a. The one born of

33b-34a. As the preceptors powerful offering got mixed up with the offering in the pupils hand there arose the mixed castes due to the mixing up of lower and higher streams.

34b-35. Those here who were born of a To subsist on a Katriyas profession is the secondary duty of a Sta.

36. Here (in this world) Brahmins have delegated to me authority over the Puras. Having perceived Dharma, you, the declarers of Veda, have asked me thus.

37a. Therefore, I shall narrate to you properly the Pura revered by the sages on the earth.

37b-38. The mind-born daughter of the , the cause of holy fire, she got into the womb of a fish.

39-42a. From her by from the ocean of the sacred lore.

42b-43a. If these three, viz. , the sun and Viu were not there, what would have been the plight of the world blind with the darkness of ignorance?

43b. Know .

44a. Who else but the Lotus-eyed one (i.e. Viu) would be the author of the Mahbhrata?

44b-46. From that teacher of the Veda, the Omniscient one of bright lustre and revered in all the worlds, I learnt the Pura. Of all the branches of knowledge, Brahm first called to His mind Purathe best in all the worlds, the cause of all knowledge, the means to the three goals of human life (viz. Dharma, ), and of an expanse of a hundred crores (of verses).

47. At the order of Brahm, in the form of a horse, brought back the Vedas when all the worlds had nothing left in them.

48. The (treatises).

49. At the beginning of , Keava in the form of Fish snatched it back in the ocean of water; (and) remaining in the water, the Omnipresent one narrated the whole of it (to Brahm).

50. The Four-faced one (i.e. ) having heard it (from Keava) narrated the Vedas to the sages. Then, Pura became the source of all the sciences.

51-52. Then Brahm, the Supreme Ruler, seeing after (a lapse of) time the lack of apprehension of the Pura (by people), sang it, in the form of Vysa at the measure of four to (re-) collect it; then dividing it into eighteen parts He brought it to light in this world.

53. Even now in the worlds of gods its expanse is a hundred crores (of verses); the same is put here in an abridged form in four lakhs (verses).

54. I shall narrate the greatly meritorious Pura called .

55-56. There (i.e. in the Pura) would be (i.e. there is) that has come up and full of which is the world.

57-60. Because the Pura is based on the account of it (i.e. the in an abridgement made by Vysa.

61-63a. The first Himself is (described to be) born; the second is Trthaparvan based on (the accounts of) the groups of planets. The third Parvan records the (accounts of) kings (giving) ample gifts (to brhmaas). In the fourth is narrated the history of dynasties. In the fifth the essential nature of final Bliss and of everything (else) is narrated.

63b-64a. In the Paukara (Parvan the description of) the creation of nine kinds and of Brahms being the Creator of all gods and sages (is given); and also (the description of) the matchless creation of the fathers (is given).