The Kurma Purana, in its extant form, is one of the shorter Puranas in the corpus of Hindu smritis, and the late Bibek Debroy’s unabridged translation brings to the English language reader this delightful compendium of religious customs and accounts.

As a brief primer, within the pantheon of Hindu (or Sanatan) literature, the Puranas have the status of Smriti (the ‘remembered’ texts, as opposed to ‘Shruti’ texts, like the Vedas, that contain truths revealed to enlightened sages who ‘heard’ these through the powers of their penances). The Ramayana and Mahabharata fall under ‘Itihasa’, within the larger category of ‘Smriti’.

Despite the undeniable importance and popularity of the Puranas, with the exception of the Bhaagavat Purana, other Puranas have not seen as many unabridged translations in English. The size and scope of the translation itself can be daunting. Consider the Skanda Purana, which contains more than 83,000 verses — longer than the unabridged Critical Editions of the Mahabharata and Harivamsha combined! The Padma Purana, at 55,000 verses, is not much shorter. Only two unabridged English translations of the Kurma Purana have been published — by G.V. Tagare in 1981-82, and by Shanti Lal Nagar and K.L. Joshi in 2008. This is the third.

A Purana, for it to be called such, must fulfil five characteristics. The Kurma Purana lists these ‘pancha-lakshana’ in its very first chapter of the Purvaarddha — Sarga (accounts of original creation), Pratisarga (secondary cycles of creation), Vamsha (accounts of gods and sages), Vamshaanucharita (accounts of kings in the solar and lunar dynasties), and Manvantara (cosmic cycle of Manu). The Kurma Purana fulfils those criteria. We are then told, in the next shloka, even the order of these Puranas — the first in the list being Brahma Purana. Kurma is fifteenth on this list. Contrary to what some may believe, these Mahapuranas (the major Puranas, for there are many other minor, upa, Puranas, and Sthala Puranas, too) are not 18, but 10. This is on account of an unresolved debate over which two among the Bhavishya, Agni, and Vayu Puranas to include in the list of 18, with the inevitable result that 19 are generally accepted as the Mahapuranas. The Kurma Purana lists all 19.

As to the structure of this Purana, over the course of the preceding 2,000 or more years, almost every Purana has seen some, or substantial, loss. The Kurma Purana is no different. It was said to have contained 17,000 shlokas (though this number also varies slightly) spread over several samhitas — Brahmi, Bhagvati, Souri, and Vaishnavi. Of these, only the Brahmi Samhita is extant. The rest have been lost. The Brahmi Samhita, which this unabridged translation contains,........

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