The Bhagavata Purana (Sanskrit: भागवतपुराण; IAST: Bhāgavata Purāṇa), also known as the Srimad Bhagavatam, Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana or simply the Bhagavata, is one of the eighteen major Puranas (Mahapuranas) of Hinduism and a central text within Vaishnavism. Composed in Sanskrit and traditionally attributed to Veda Vyasa, it promotes bhakti (devotion) towards Vishnu.
Like other Puranas, the text discusses a wide range of subjects, including cosmology, astronomy, genealogy, geography, legend, music, dance, yoga and culture. It is organised into twelve books (skandhas or cantos), comprising 335 chapters (adhyayas) and 18,000 verses. The tenth book, containing about 4,000 verses, has historically been the most popular and widely studied portion.
The Bhagavata Purana is available in almost all Indian languages and was the first Purana to be translated into a European language: a French translation of a Tamil version appeared in 1788, introducing many Europeans to Hinduism and 18th-century Hindu culture during the colonial era.
The theology of the text is Vaishnava in orientation and is grounded in the philosophical traditions of Vedanta and Samkhya, which it employs in the service of bhakti. It has been interpreted as having a non-dualistic tenor, while also integrating themes from the Advaita (monism) philosophy of Adi Shankara, the Vishishtadvaita (qualified monism) of Ramanujacharya, and the Dvaita (dualism) of Madhvacharya. The dualistic school of Madhvacharya has produced commentaries expounding a dualistic interpretation of the Bhagavata, beginning with the Bhagavata Tatparya Nirnaya.