The Bhagavata Purana (Sanskrit: भागवतपुराण; IAST: Bhāgavata Purāṇa), also known as the Srimad Bhagavatam, Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana or simply Bhagavata, is one of Hinduism’s eighteen great Puranas (Mahapuranas)
Composed in Sanskrit and available in almost all Indian languages, it promotes bhakti (devotion) to Krishna, integrating themes from the Advaita (monism) philosophy of Adi Shankara, the Vishishtadvaita (qualified monism) of Ramanujacharya and the Dvaita (dualism) of Madhvacharya
The Bhagavata Purana, like other puranas, discusses a wide range of topics including cosmology, astronomy, genealogy, geography, legend, music, dance, yoga and culture
As it begins, the forces of evil have won a war between the benevolent devas (deities) and evil asuras (demons) and now rule the universe
Truth re-emerges as Krishna, (called “Hari” and “Vāsudeva” in the text) – first makes peace with the demons, understands them and then creatively defeats them, bringing back hope, justice, freedom and happiness – a cyclic theme that appears in many legends
The Bhagavata Purana is a revered text in Vaishnavism, a Hindu tradition that reveres Vishnu
The text presents a form of religion (dharma) that competes with that of the Vedas, wherein bhakti ultimately leads to self-knowledge, salvation (moksha) and bliss
However the Bhagavata Purana asserts that the inner nature and outer form of Krishna is identical to the Vedas and that this is what rescues the world from the forces of evil
An oft-quoted verse (1
3
- is used by some Krishna sects to assert that the text itself is Krishna in literary form
The date of composition is probably between the eighth and the tenth century CE, but may be as early as the 6th century CE
Manuscripts survive in numerous inconsistent versions revised through the 18th century creating various recensions both in the same languages and across different Indian languages
The text consists of twelve books (skandhas) totalling 332 chapters (adhyayas) and between 16,000 and 18,000 verses depending on the recension
The tenth book, with about 4,000 verses, has been the most popular and widely studied
It was the first Purana to be translated into a European language as a French translation of a Tamil version appeared in 1788 and introduced many Europeans to Hinduism and 18th-century Hindu culture during the colonial era