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Formalized by the tenth century, the expansive Bhagavata Purana resists easy categorization. While the narrative holds together as a coherent literary work, its language and expression compete with the best of Sanskrit poetry. The text's theological message focuses on devotion to Krishna or Vishnu, and its philosophical outlook is grounded in the classical traditions of Vedanta and Samkhya. No other Purana has inspired so much commentary, imitation, and derivation. The work has grown in vibrancy through centuries of performance, interpretation, worship, and debate and has guided the actions and meditations of elite intellectuals and everyday worshippers alike. This annotated translation and detailed analysis shows how one text can have such enduring appeal. Key selections from the Bhagavata Purana are faithfully translated, while all remaining sections of the Purana are concisely summarized, providing the reader with a continuous and comprehensive narrative. Detailed endnotes explain unfamiliar concepts and several essays elucidate the rich philosophical and religious debates found in the Sanskrit commentaries. Together with the multidisciplinary readings contained in the companion volume The Bhagavata Purana: Sacred Text and Living Tradition (Columbia, 2013), this book makes a central Hindu masterpiece more accessible to English-speaking audiences and more meaningful to scholars of Hindu literature, philosophy, and religion.

Puranas. --- Bhāgavata Purāṇa --- Śrīmad-Bhāgavata --- Bhāgavatapurāṇa --- Śrīmadbhāgavata --- Śrīmagbhāgavatam --- Shreemadbhagwat --- Śrīmadbhāgavatamahāpurāṇam Sātvatasaṃhitā --- Maharṣi Śrīvedavyāsapraṇītam Śrīmad Bhāgavatam --- Śrīpejāvaramaṭhīya-Śrīsubramaṇyamaṭhīyahastalikhitapustakānusāreṇa saṃśodhitaśrīvijayadhvajīyapāṭhānuguṇam Śrīmagbhāgavatam --- RELIGION / Hinduism / Sacred Writings.

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"The Bhagavata Purana is one of the most important, central and popular scriptures of Hinduism. A medieval Sanskrit text, its influence as a religious book has been comparable only to that of the great Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Ithamar Theodor here offers the first analysis for twenty years of the Bhagavata Purana (often called the Fifth Veda ) and its different layers of meaning. He addresses its lyrical meditations on the activities of Krishna (avatar of Lord Vishnu), the central place it affords to the doctrine of bhakti (religious devotion) and its treatment of older Vedic traditions of knowledge. At the same time he places this subtle, poetical book within the context of the wider Hindu scriptures and the other Puranas, including the similar but less grand and significant Vishnu Purana. The author argues that the Bhagavata Purana is a unique work which represents the meeting place of two great orthodox Hindu traditions, the Vedic-Upanishadic and the Aesthetic. As such, it is one of India s greatest theological treatises. This book illuminates its character and continuing significance."--

Puranas. --- Bhāgavata Purāṇa --- Śrīmad-Bhāgavata --- Bhāgavatapurāṇa --- Śrīmadbhāgavata --- Śrīmagbhāgavatam --- Shreemadbhagwat --- Śrīmadbhāgavatamahāpurāṇam Sātvatasaṃhitā --- Maharṣi Śrīvedavyāsapraṇītam Śrīmad Bhāgavatam --- Śrīpejāvaramaṭhīya-Śrīsubramaṇyamaṭhīyahastalikhitapustakānusāreṇa saṃśodhitaśrīvijayadhvajīyapāṭhānuguṇam Śrīmagbhāgavatam --- Criticism, interpretation, etc.