Bhavishya Purana - The Future History (including 21st century and more to come) predicted way back in the past itself

I would like to throw some light on one of our Puranas' today, which is Bhavishya Purana. It is one among the eighteen Puranas. Rishi Vyasa, the narrator of Mahabaratha, is traditionally considered the compiler of the Puranas. Bhavishya means future in Sanskrit and Purana means story.  As the name itself reveals, Bhavishya Purana means story of the future. We have some amazing future histories predicted in this Purana way back in 3000 B.C.(3rd millennium B.C) itself (again it is only the documentation date but all the vedas and puranas have existed in the oral form even before this date) including Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammed, Mughal rulers, Noah's ark, king Shivaji, Hitler and even the British rule and Queen Victoria just to mention a few. Awesome isn't it?

As usual, I have collected information over many sources in the internet and will provide links here and there for your reference. But for this purana, I could not get the complete book with verses (it is there but in hindi language and I don't know hindi) but managed to get the important details which I am going to produce here. Please go to this wikipedia link to know about this Purana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhavishya_Purana

Bhavishya Purana is considered to be having five parts but only four parts are clearly known. They are Brahma Parva, Madhyama Parva and Pratisarga Parva and Uttara Parva.

Out of these four parts, it is the Pratisarga Parva which deals with the genealogy of the kings. It consists 4 parts, while the first and second parts deal with the old history, third part with that of medieval time and the fourth part which deals with the new age (modern age).

I am not going to deal with the old period here and anyone who are interested can go to this link to read it.

http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/bhavishya/bookview.php?chapnum=19

Lets proceed directly to medieval period and modern period. Before that we should understand one thing. This purana is written in sanskrit and we cannot expect direct names for every person or every thing mentioned here. Knowing this information is a must as it will clarify one important doubt which I will tell at the end of this article. Before going to the main history, let us see how certain words have changed with the change of time. This is also mentioned in this purana in detail.

It is mentioned that when the Kali Yuga passed 2000 years, there will be many kinds of languages and some among them are vraja-bhasa, Maharastri (hindi, marathi may be), yavani and garundika (english). Yes english language is mentioned as garundika language in this purana. It is also mentioned how some words changed in english language (garundika). Pitra changed into paitar (father), Brathru became bather (brother), Ravivar became sunday, Palguni month became february and shashti as sixty.

Ref: http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/BhavishyaPurana.html

Now let us continue with the predictions of prominent personalities. I am only giving few glimpses. Please go through these links for reading it in full :

http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/bhavishya/bookindex.php
http://www.astrojyoti.com/bhavishyapurana-2.htm


About Christ :  In Pratisarga Parva, Chathuryuga kanda, 19th chapter, text 23 and 26 :

When the king Salivahana asked "who are you sir?" he replied blissfully, "you should know that I am Isha puthra (Jesus) and am born of a virgin."

Hearing the question of Salivahana, Isha putra replied "O king! when the destruction of truth occured, I Masiha, the prophet, came to this county where there are no rules and regulations. Finding that fearful irrelegious conditions, I have taken to propethood".

About Adam and Eve : (pratisarga parva, chapters 4-7)

In the eastern side of a pradan city, there is a god given forest in which lived a man called Adama (Adam) lived under a papa-vriksha (sinful tree) and was eager to see his wife Havyavati (Eve).

About Noah's Ark :

Simon de Myle (fl. 1570) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Lomak's son Nyuha, (Noah) ruled for 500 years. Once Lord appeared in his dream and told him that there will be a devastation on the seventh day. And then Noah built a strong boat which was 300 feet long, 50 feet wide and 30 feet high (It is exactly mentioned as the same in the Bible).

About the Mughal Empire :

See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Sarush became the king of Dehali (Delhi) Babar was son of Sarush who was peace loving. His son Homaayu (Humayun) took a cruel stand against Hindus. But another king in the neibhorhood called Shekshak (Shershah) defeated Humayun and ruled Delhi for five years. But Humayun defeated Shershah and came to power again, Humayun would be blessed with a great son called Akbar who established a solid kingdom for 50 years. His son soloma (saleem - jahangir) followed Akbar and his son Khurdak (Kusro Shahjahan) ruled for ten years and he built the Taj Mahal. There was a power struggle between his sons and Navarang (Aurangazeb) succeeded the throne.

About Chatrapathi Shivaji :

That time, a king called Sevajaya (Shivaji) subdued several small royalties and created Maharashtra. He also brought Aurangazeb under control and installed his son as the Mughal king.

See page for author [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

About the British rule :

The habitants of the islands developed trade contacts with the Garundis (British people) especially with the Isha puthras. The king of the western dwipa (England) called Vikata and later on by his wife called Vikatavathi (Victoria) ruled over there by "Astha koushala marg" (under the counsel of parliment). The British Raj witnessed high prosperity by executing overseas business generation after generation with democracy (Rule of citizens). The nineth chief representative of Gurunds was Mekal (Lord Macauley) who administed the Raj with honesty for twleve years. This situation continued till the British rulers consolidated their grip over Bharat by divide and rule concept till it became an independent entity. But meanwhile the inhabitants of Bharat belonging to innumerable sects, religions, languages and cultures.

By Jean Baptiste Morret (actif à Paris de 1790 à 1820) ([1]) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I have not mentioned the full list of kings and dynasties (though they have been mentioned in this Purana) because I wanted to keep this article short. But even then.... it became lengthy.

Now comes the future : Remember, I told in the beginning of this article that there will be one important doubt? Here it is.... This Purana is written in sanskrit. Even though we translate it in english, some names and incidents will be given in sanskrit name only. Like Vikatavati for Victoria and Adama for Adam and Sevajaya for Shivaji and Garundas for British and so on. We can connect the past history (happened till date) dot to dot as it has already happened and we can match the names with that of the incidences. But future is yet to come. Even though the future incidents are mentioned in this purana, when we see it we will first not believe it because of the different names in sanskrit and hence we cannot pinpoint the exact details. May be when it happens in the future, then we might exactly match it. But even then I will give few examples of things which is going to come in the future. I myself is wondering how that would be possible?

1. Daityas then constructed several Jalyanas (sea borne vessels) to Harikhanda (China) where men were very strong as Devas initially but in a course of few years, a Maha Yudha or the cunning or deceitful battles in which Daityas appealed to Mahendra for protection.

2. Indra asked Viswakarma to reinvent a yantra (machine) by using which persons of one kanda (continent - chunk of land) will not be able to travel to another kanda.

3. Over two thousand years, the established regulations made by Lord Brahma would become thinner and thinner and by the second paada of kali, the old vedic values would be obliterated.

4. Those humans who live in that period would be two and a half feet tall and their life span would be forty years maximum

5. This kind of situation devoid of customs and social norms would prevail for one and a quarter lakh years.

6. In the third quarter of kali, the average age span of human beings would be 26 years maximum.

7. A new species called Kaulakalpa-named beings who would not hesitate to eat human beings and would have beastly affairs with mothers, sisters and daughters and with co-males and animals.

8. In the fourth phase of kali yuga, the average life span of humans would not exceed 20 years and live like water beasts and animals.

9. Then comes the avatar of Kalki, who will go in yoga marga for 16 thousand years and would turn the entire shristi into ash-laden devastation.

10. At that time, there would be cloud burst producing the great annihilation of the Universe under alarming and incessant rain called "Pralaya"

After reading this, we might think..... How in a technology prevailed world where travel has become smoother day by day, this (yantra preventing travel from one continent to another) might ever happen? It is not clear at this point, but may be there comes a situation in which the different continents will impose strict rules for travelling in the future. Who knows?????? Since kali yuga is considered to be 4,32,000 years. these incidents might happen very far in the future too.... But we could get more clarity if any sanskrit expert analyses this purana in detail and interprets them.

But since these predictions have accurately happened in the past, there is a hope to believe that it will happen in the future too. Isn't it??

Thank you all for reading. Please share your views and inputs.