Varāha Uddhāra (Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa)

The fifth chapter of the Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa tells how Nārāyaṇa saw the earth sunk under the waters, took the form of Varāha and lifted her up. This account describes Varāha as the whole yajña in a body, the yajña-purusha. After the rescue, Brahmā arranges the seas, mountains and earth in their places and begins the nine creations.

The great flood

At the start of creation the whole earth lay under the first waters. Every visible thing, whether sthāvara (fixed) or jaṅgama (moving), had merged into the ekārṇava, the one ocean of dissolution. The winds were still. Nothing moved and nothing could be seen. (Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrva Bhāga, Chapter 5)

In that silence Nārāyaṇa lay asleep on the waters. He is sahasrāksha (thousand-eyed), sahasrapāda (thousand-footed) and sahasraśīrsha (thousand-headed). He is golden and beyond all the senses. The Purāṇa says:

Svaccha-kamala-patra-tale brahmatvā-darśa-kāraṇāt ātmanātmānam vīkshamāṇaḥ nidreḥ

He rested on the surface of a clean lotus leaf. He saw his own ātman through his own ātman, because he was looking upon Brahmahood. He slept for a full thousand yugas. (Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrva Bhāga, Chapter 5)

Then Nārāyaṇa saw that the earth was sunk. He thought about it and decided:

“I alone must assume the great form and rescue the earth from the waters.”

He meditated on his Varāha form, the same form he had taken in all earlier kalpas, and brought it into being. (Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrva Bhāga, Chapter 5)

The Varāha form: the yajña in a body

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa describes Varāha as the whole Vedic yajña made flesh. Each part of his body matches a part of the yajña.

The full description also gives these marks:

• Ahōrātra-netradharaḥ: he bears day and night as his two eyes.
• Vedāṅga-ābharaṇa-bhūshitaḥ: he is adorned with the Vedāṅgas as his jewels.
• Guhyopanishad-āsana: he sits on the secret knowledge of the Upanishads.
• Māyā-patnī-sahāyaḥ: Māyā, as his wife, helps him.
• Soma-veda-ghosha: he resounds with the chanting of the Sāmaveda.
• Satyadharmamaya: he is made of truth and dharma.
• Tīkshṇa-daṃshṭra: he has sharp tusks.
• Vidyud-agni-tulya-tejas: his tejas (radiance) is equal to lightning and fire.
• Sūrya-samāna-dyuti: his light is equal to the sun.
• His body is ten yojanas wide and a hundred yojanas long.
• He is black as a rain-cloud, and his sound is like thunder.

(Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrva Bhāga, Chapter 5)

In this account the Varāha is Nārāyaṇa. Hiraṇyāksha is not named in this chapter. Nārāyaṇa does not only rescue the earth. He is himself the yajña of the whole creation in motion, and the lifting of the earth is itself the first yajña.

Going down to Rasātala

Nārāyaṇa took this Varāha form and went down into rasātala, the seventh and deepest of the lower realms, where the earth lay. He dived through the first waters, the body of the yajña, which holds the order of the worlds, entering the place of dissolution to rescue the home of dharma. (Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrva Bhāga, Chapter 5)

The rescue and Brahmā’s ordering of the world

Varāha rescued the earth (pṛthivī) from rasātala. He is now called the Yajña Varāha. He plunged back through the waters. Agni, who had wrapped the earth, was used to level and clean her surface.

Brahmā, who is Prajāpati, then took up the work of ordering the world:

• He put the creatures of the sea back in the oceans and the creatures of the rivers back in the rivers.
• He made the mountains grow across the earth.
• The mountains had been melted earlier by the saṃvartakāgni, the fire of dissolution at the pralaya. Wherever the wind cooled and wetted the burning earth, mountains rose.
• The mountains lay scattered across the world-ocean like islands in the sea. At the start of each kalpa, Viśvakarman sets them out again.

Then Brahmā made the four lokas: Bhūr, Bhuvaḥ, Suvaḥ, and a fourth that the text does not name. He also made the seven dvīpas, the seven oceans, and all the rivers, towns and peoples. (Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrva Bhāga, Chapter 5)

The nine creations (Nava Sarga)

After ordering the world, Brahmā began to make living beings, one creation after another. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa gives them as follows.

The Purāṇa says that Brahmā looked at each creation and found it not enough for his purpose. He went on one step at a time to the making of humans. Humans are rājasa, with knowledge and the power to act. They can accomplish his purpose (sādhakāḥ). (Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrva Bhāga, Chapter 5)

The Brahma tree

At the end of the account of creation, the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa describes the whole shown cosmos as the Brahma-vṛksha, the Brahma tree or Brahma forest:

Avyakta-bīja-prabhavam tat-prasādena sthitam, buddhi-rūpa-skandham indriyāntara-koṭaram, mahābhūta-prakāśam, viśesha-patrayutam, dharmādharmapushpayutam, sukhaduḥkha-phalodayam, sarvabhūtānāṃ jīvasādhanam, sanātanam — Brahma-vṛksham ālurāru

The Brahma forest in which this tree grows is the cosmos itself. The Avyakta (the unshown) fills it, and the ever-knowing Brahma moves within it. The Purāṇa then gives the parts of the tree:

• Its root is the avyakta, which cannot be seen.
• Its trunk is buddhi (intelligence), the main frame.
• The hollows in the trunk are the inner space of the senses.
• Its crown is the five great elements.
• Its leaves are the particular forms that appear.
• Its flowers are dharma and adharma.
• Its fruits are sukha and duḥkha, joy and sorrow.

This cosmic tree is eternal. It is the means of life for all beings. (Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrva Bhāga, Chapter 5)

Sources

• Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrva Bhāga, Chapter 5