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Most translations I find online, that are comprehensive, for the Bhagavata Purana, are related to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Are there any non-ISKCON related translations?

Theologically, I find this bothersome, because ISKCON presents Krishna as being the Supreme Godhead from whom all the Vedic deities flow (including Vishnu).

From what I understand, though, the Purana, read in isolation, doesn't present Krishna as being "the God Himself." Rather it purports that God (Vishnu) has many Avatars, and that in order to spawn these Avatars, God takes form of the Original Person, and that from this Original Person come the 22 named-Avatars (Vyasa, Dattatreya, Krishna et al.). The Purana makes the unique claim that Krishna is "the God Himself." Meaning that Krishna is Vishnu's full manifestation. The Purana does not claim that Krishna exists in isolation from Vishnu, or that Vishnu comes from Krishna.

The relationship is still one-way, from Vishnu comes all the Avatars, and the complete Avatar is Krishna.

ISKCON's translation is biased, however, and will therefore consistently translate any texts they find in order to retroactively fit these biases, they will claim that the fourth Yuga-Avatar is in fact "light" or "bright" complexioned (i.e. "golden" complexioned), yet a strict translation of the Purana does not say this. ISKCON's translation: "in the fourth Yuga (Kali Yuga), although the Lord Himself is not black... (akrsnam)."

Yet the actual translation reads:

In his discussion of the yuga-avatara for Kali Yuga, Krsnadasa diverges from Rupa's description of his color as black (krsna), which accords with the description of this avatar in Bhagavata 11.5.32 as "black in color (krsna-varna) though not black (akrsna) by virtue of his luster."

Anyway, I still haven't found any comprehensive translations of the Purana not tainted by ISKCON's (seemingly Gaudiya-related) biases.

There are some translations I have found on the Amazon Kindle store but they are not comprehensive, nor are they word-for-word.

Taken from here: (http://krishnamurti.abundanthope.org/index_htm_files/The-Bhagavata-Purana.pdf)

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    That Chaitanya "fellow" is a revered saint even by other sects in India, and nowhere is it stated that one has to compulsorily 'kill miscreants' and 'engage in amorous love affairs' to be an avatara. Rather swooning at the remembrance of the Lord is a symbol of greatest devotion.
    – Surya
    Commented Nov 26, 2016 at 7:55
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    James, if you mean no disrespect towards Chaitanya Mahaprabhu please delete it from your post, majority of Vaishnavas are ISKON people and they will take it as a blasphemy directed to their God figure.
    – Yogi
    Commented Nov 26, 2016 at 17:45
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    @Yogi Do you mean Vaishnavas on this site or Vaishnavas in general? Because I think there are far more Sri Vaishnavas in the world than Gaudiya Vaishnavas. Commented Nov 27, 2016 at 8:52
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    Furthermore, Lord Chaitanya did not kill demons, but rather He destroyed the demonic nature within the demons. He established the Yuga Dharma of Hari Nama Sankirtan, and descended to protect His devotees like Adwaita Acharya and Srivasa Thakur. Even the supposed translation you posted for the verse in question is not even a translation. Both Krsnadas and Rupa supported the claim that Lord Chaitanya was an avatar.
    – Nitai dasa
    Commented Nov 28, 2016 at 23:55
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    @brahmajijnasa I answered recently this hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/30209/16618. If at all you have to call biased, we should call others biased, the reason being the sect's philosophies were made long before without help of Bhagavatam. They interpret bhagavatam to fit with their philosophies. Whereas Gaudiya and Vallabha sect who based their philosophy based on bhagavatam have correctly concluded Krishna is source of all including Maha Vishnu. :) but don't tell me all these, I have made up my mind get away from here..
    – user16618
    Commented Jan 8, 2019 at 3:18

6 Answers 6

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Check the following translation by Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. But it doesn't appear to be a word-for-word translation.

https://archive.org/details/BhagavataPuranaMotilalEnglish

If you see below the translation of the very first verse, the footnotes list some 7 different commentaries on the verse.

The same tr. is also available for download in this answer (at the end) and also on West Bengal Public Library Network.

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  • Actually this is more or less what I'm looking for. Thanks!
    – James Yen
    Commented Nov 26, 2016 at 16:26
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There is Bhagavata Purana With English Translation by Gita Press. It can be found on Archive in below links:


As mentioned in sv.'s answer, other translation is Bhagavata Purana Motilal English (only English translation, no Sanskrit verse).

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Shrimad Bhagwad Mahapurana is interpreted by many according to their inherent beliefs and Philosophy

Similar Discussion(on Bhagwata purana other than ISKCON version)

AC Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada is the only English commentator on Bhagwatam, that is why his commentary is all over the Internet and most widely studied English commentary on Shrimad Bhagwatam.

Neutral Translation/Transliteration

A beautifully compiled book by Gita Press Gorakhpur publication house in Hindi language, you have to buy Vol1 and Vol2.

Acceptable Transliteration

This is unbaised with transliteration, but when you will go deeper into the Vedabase AC Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada's translation links you will find out the same ISKCON stuff.

Intl' Gita Society Transliteration (prone to errors because the authors are not professional students)

Another Good one

Sanskrit Commentaries

Compilation of all possible Vaishnava commentaries(note that Advaita with ishta devta Shriman Narayana(Vishnu) is considered as vaishnava sampradaya)

There is a Sanskrit commentary on Shrimad Bhagwatam known as Bhagwat-Chandrika by Veraraghavacharya which is based on Vishitadvaita philosophy and is found in the aforementioned Sanskrit compilation.

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    @Student Thanks for the edit but are you sure that the link is legal and is freely available to all.
    – Yogi
    Commented Nov 25, 2016 at 20:41
  • That same book is available in parts from here vishnudut1926.blogspot.in/2014/02/…
    – Student
    Commented Nov 25, 2016 at 20:57
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    @Student We cannot link that book(directly or indirectly) it is a copyright issue, since we are distributing it for free without permission from publishers and authors.
    – Yogi
    Commented Nov 25, 2016 at 21:01
  • Ok. Then better remove it
    – Student
    Commented Nov 25, 2016 at 21:06
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    @Student I had a chance to add a similar link from vedpuran website but for the same copyright reason I've removed it. I suggest that you should delete the comment with vishnudut link
    – Yogi
    Commented Nov 25, 2016 at 21:08
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An excellent translation was done by Dr. Mahanambrata Brahmachari to BENGALI available from the Mahanaam Angan, Kolkata

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Madhav sampradaye has bhagwat tatparya nirnaya on shrimadbhagwat puran

Shridhar Swami also has given bhasya on shrimadbhagwat puran

And Shri ramananda sampradaya also has bhasya on shrimadbhagwat puran esp Shri ramanand sampradaye Rasikacharya madhuracharya---- shri ram tattva prakash and other books where he has shown that krishnastu bhagwan swaym...1.3.28 also refers to shri ram as well along with krishna.

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There is a sloka in Srimad Bhagavatam that explains this:

ŚB 1.3.28

एते चांशकला: पुंस: कृष्णस्तु भगवान् स्वयम् ।

इन्द्रारिव्याकुलं लोकं मृडयन्ति युगे युगे ॥ २८ ॥

ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ

kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam

indrāri-vyākulaṁ lokaṁ

mṛḍayanti yuge yuge

Synonyms

ete — all these; ca — and; aṁśa — plenary portions; kalāḥ — portions of the plenary portions; puṁsaḥ — of the Supreme; kṛṣṇaḥ — Lord Kṛṣṇa; tu — but; bhagavān — the Personality of Godhead; svayam — in person; indra-ari — the enemies of Indra; vyākulam — disturbed; lokam — all the planets; mṛḍayanti — gives protection; yuge yuge — in different ages. Translation

All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists.

https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/1/3/28/

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