Bhagavata Purana - Significance

Significance

The Bhāgavata is widely recognized as the best known and most influential of the Puranas, and is sometimes referred to as the "Fifth Veda". It is unique in Indian religious literature for its emphasis on the practice of bhakti, compared to the more theoretical bhakti of the Bhagavad Gita; for its redefining of dharma; and for the extent of its description of God in a human-like form. It is also the source for many of the popular stories of Krishna's childhood told for centuries in the Indian subcontinent. Charlotte Vaudeville refers to the Bhāgavata as "the real Bible of Krishnaism", while the Bhāgavata declares itself as the essence of Vedanta:

The Sri Bhāgavata is the very essence of all the Vedanta literature. One who has enjoyed the nectar of its rasa never has any desire for anything else.(12.13.15)

The Bhāgavata, along with the Bhagavad Gita, are the main sources of scriptural authority used by Gaudiya Vaishnavas for demonstrating the pre-eminence of Krishna over other forms of God. An oft-quoted verse from the Bhāgavata is used as a representational statement by Krishna sects to show that Krishna is "Bhagavan Svayam", or God himself: "These are amsha, or kala, partial incarnations, but krishnas tu bhagavan svayam, 'Krishna is Bhagavan, God himself.'"(1.3.28).

The 15th–16th century Assamese translation of the Purana (Bhagavat of Sankardeva) by Srimanta Sankardeva and others form the central text of the Ekasarana Dharma, a monotheistic religion in Assam. Sankardeva's rendering of the tenth Book, locally called daxama, is particularly popular.