History
The text is also referred in medieval Indian literature as the Vayaviya Purana or Vayaviya Brahmanda, and it may have been same as the Vayu Purana before these texts developed into two overlapping compositions.
The original, complete version of the Brahmanda Purana has been lost, and 19th-century scholars could only generally locate and procure independent sub-parts or collection of chapters that claimed to have been part of this Purana. Many of these chapters turned out to be fraudulent, sold by imposters in the 19th century. Later, Wilson states, rare compilations claiming to be the entire Purana emerged.
Other unpublished versions of the manuscripts exist, states Rocher, preserved in various libraries.[20] These vary in their structure.
The tradition and other Puranas assert that the Brahmanda Purana had 12,000 verses, but the published Venkateshwar Press version of manuscript contains 14,286 verses. The Indonesian version of Brahmanda Purana is much shorter, lacks superfluous adjectives but contains all essential information, and does not contain the prophecy-related chapters found in the published extant Indian version.
Contents
About 20% of the chapters are related to Lalitopakhyana, that is highlighting the goddess theology and her central importance.
Over 35% of the chapters in the text is Adhyatma Ramayana, an Advaita Vedanta treatise of over 65 chapters and 4,500 verses.
Another 30% of the chapters approximately, or 47 chapters, are geographical Mahatmyas to various locations across India, such as those in modern Kashmir, Odisha and Tamil Nadu.