Naradeya Purana

The Naradiya Purana (Sanskrit: नारदीय पुराण, Nāradīya Purāṇa) or Narada Purana (Sanskrit: नारद पुराण, are two Sanskrit texts, one of which is a major Purana of Hinduism, while the other is a minor Purana (Upapurana). Both are Vaishnavism texts, and have been a cause of confusion in Purana-related scholarship. To prevent confusion, some scholars sometimes refer to the minor Purana as Brihannaradiya Purana.

Unlike most Puranas that are encyclopedic, the Brihannaradiya text is focussed almost entirely on Vishnu worship, while the Naradiya text is a compilation of 41 chapters (20%) on Vishnu worship and rest of the chapters (80%) cover a wide range of topics including a large compilation of Mahatmya (travel guides) to temples and places along river Ganges, and neighboring regions.

The Naradiya Purana is notable for dedicating eighteen chapters on other Puranas, one entire chapter summarizing each major Purana. It is also notable for its verses extolling Buddha in chapter 1.2.

Manuscripts of nearly all the major Puranas acknowledge the existence of a major Purana named either Narada or Naradiya, suggesting it was an important text in Hindu history. Yet, unlike other Puranas which either appear in the major Purana or minor Purana lists, the Narada text appears in both lists. This caused significant confusion to 19th and early 20th century Indologists. The confusion was compounded by the fact that the content of the text manuscripts they found seemed to follow similar scope and focus, except that the Brihannaradiya Purana text with about 3,500 verses was slightly bigger than the other with about 3,000 verses.

Later discovered manuscripts and scholarship established that the Narada or Naradiya is the major Purana, Brihannaradiya is the Upapurana. The Naradiya Purana consists of two bhagas (parts), with the first called Purvabhaga and second called Uttarabhaga. The Purvabhaga has four padas with the total of 125 chapters. The Uttarabhaga has 82 chapters, which embeds the Rukmangada-carita.

The Brihannarada Purana has no parts or padas, and a total of 38 adhyayas (chapters).

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