Bhavishya Purana

It is one of major puranas. This was composed by Vyasa. The name itself suggests that this Puran is about prophecies (Predictions) about the future. This contains a list of royal dynasties of the past and future. Padma puran classifies this as Rajas Puran. It is also classified as one of the 10 Shaiva Puranas. The central deity of this puran is Brahma. In all Rajas Purans the central deity is Brahma.

This is divided into

1. Brahmaparvan
2. Madhyamaparvan
3. Pratisargaparvan
1. 1st Khanda
2. 2nd Khanda
3. 3rd Khanda
4. 4th Khanda
4. Uttaraparvan

In Brahmaparvan we come across ceremonies and feasts of Bramham, duties of castes and about snake myths. It also deals with the worship of Brahma, Ganesha, Skanda, Naga and Sun worship. Madhyamaparvan deals in Tantrikas. 1st three parts of Pratisargaparvan deals with the kings, dynasties, Sages of old time. The 4th part deals with new era (age). There is a mention of Isa Masih (Jesus Christ) and Prophet Mohammad in 3rd Khanda. There is also mention of Queen Victoria in mid 18th to 19th century.

1st Khanda deals with Rajputs who were born from the fire and hence they are called as Agnivamsis (from family of Lord of Fire). The 3rd Khanda mentions the destruction of Agnivamsa and the rise of mlecchas (moguls). 4th Khanda deals with mogul rulers Qutubuddin, Timur, Akbar and so on. This also contains account of acharyas like Sankara, Krishna Chaitanya, Nanak and Kabir. Last, it deals with British rule of India.

According to theory this Puran occupies 6th position in the listing of 18 puranas. This purana was told by Shiva to Brahma and Brahma told it to Narada, Narada to Sakra, Sakra to Parashara and finally Parashar to Vyasa.

In this there is a mention of Kaliyug, Kalki Avatar, duration of dynasty rules. It also mentions about foreign invasion and their religion etc. It mentions Chandra dynasty. It mentions the names of Kings in Dwaparyuga. Besides there is mention of Kali’s birth, languages spoken at that time, etc. There is also mention of Dhanvantari, Sant  Namdev, Sant Ramdas and other Saints. This proves that this puran is rightly known as Bhavishya puran. This puran explains, through some fables, the importance of fasting. It also mentions about the fasting on Chaturthi, Panchami, Shasthi, Saptami, Ashtami, Chaturmas etc along with about 200 fasts and method to be adopted for the same. It states that Dharma in Kritayuga will be on 4 legs, Tretayug on 3, Dwaparyuga on 2 and Kaliyuga on 1 leg. In the Kritayuga the main Dharma will be Tapascharya, in Treta it will be Dhyan, in Dwapara it will Yagna (yag) and in Kali it will be daan.

It gives an account of how to pay respect to elders. We have to bow down to pay respect to those who are 10 years elder to us, or those who are highly knowledgeable and intelligent even if they are young.

There is a mention that Brahma took various avatars in number of holy places and performed lot of religious ceremonies and also explains about Brahmanotsav at the end.

The most interesting part of this puran is most of the things mentioned here are what we have learned or heard as history.