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The Kurma Purana (IAST: Kūrma Purāṇa) is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, and a medieval era Vaishnavism text of Hinduism.[1][2] The text is named after the tortoise avatar of Vishnu.[3][4]
The manuscripts of Kurma Purana have survived into the modern era in many versions.[5][6][7] The number of chapters vary with regional manuscripts, and the critical edition (edited by Anand Swarup Gupta, and published by the All-India Kashiraj Trust, Varanasi) of the Kurma Purana has 95 chapters.[8] Tradition believes that the Kurma Purana text had 17,000 verses, the extant manuscripts have about 6,000 verses.[9]
The text, states Ludo Rocher, is the most interesting of all the Puranas in its discussion of religious ideas, because while it is a Vaishnavism text, Vishnu does not dominate the text.[10] Instead, the text covers and expresses reverence for Vishnu, Shiva and Shakti with equal enthusiasm.[10][11] The Kurma Purana, like other Puranas, includes legends, mythology, geography, Tirtha (pilgrimage), theology and a philosophical Gita. The notable aspect of its Gita, also called the Ishvaragita, is that it is Shiva who presents ideas similar to those found in the Bhagavad Gita.[10][12]
- ^ Dalal 2014, p. 460.
- ^ Rocher 1986, p. 186.
- ^ Dimmitt & van Buitenen 2012, p. 63, 74.
- ^ Bryant 2007, p. 18 note 25.
- ^ Rocher 1986, pp. 18, 184–186.
- ^ Wilson 1864, pp. xxxiv–xxxv.
- ^ Gregory Bailey (2003). Arvind Sharma (ed.). The Study of Hinduism. University of South Carolina Press. pp. 141–142. ISBN 978-1-57003-449-7.
- ^ Rocher 1986, p. 184.
- ^ K P Gietz 1992, p. 500 with note 2778.
- ^ a b c Rocher 1986, p. 185.
- ^ K P Gietz 1992, p. 903 with note 5221.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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