INDIA’S BOOK OF WISDOM; The Bhagavata Purana | Full Documentary

India’s Book of Wisdom—The Bhāgavata Purāṇa
The Oxford Center for Hindu Studies Presents
The Bhagavata Purana is considered the crown jewel of the Hindu sacred ancient Sanskrit
literature known as the Puranas. The Bhagavata Purana is a bhakti (devotional)
scripture focused on the life and activities of Lord Krishna.
As a major source of the living bhakti tradition in India, it is essential to understand
this text to understand India’s culture of bhakti, art, literature and festivals.
This 60-minute feature documentary focuses on the January 2017 International Bhagavata Purana Conference held in Chennai, India, where prominent Bhagavata scholars assembled to discuss this Sanskrit classic.
Here we explore the ancient and contemporary life of this multi-faceted work with the documentary’s host, Dr. Kenneth Valpey, co-director (with Prof. Ravi M. Gupta) of the Bhagavata Purana Research Project of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.

The scholars who took part in this feature documentary are:
Prof. Graham M. Schweig, Christopher Newport University, Virginia
Prof. Nanditha Krishna, Writer and Historian, C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation, Chennai
Prof. Ravi M. Gupta, Charles Redd Professor of Religious Studies, Utah State University
Prof. John Stratton Hawley, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York
Hanumatpresaka Swami, Founder and General Secretary of North American Institute for
Oriental and Classical Studies, Peru
Dr. Anand Venkatkrishnan, Assistant Professor, History of Religions, The University of
Chicago
Prof. Barbara Holdrege, Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
Shaunaka Rishi Das, Director of Oxford Center for Hindu Studies (OCHS), Oxford UK