Preface.

Abstract

Viṣṇu is a central deity in the Hindu pantheon, especially in his manifestation as the seductive cattleherding youth, Kṛṣṇa. The purāṇas are a genre of sacred texts, which, as the Sanskrit name implies, are collections of narratives from ‘long ago’. The Viṣṇu Purāṇa is thus an ancient account of the universe and a guide to life, which places Viṣṇu–Kṛṣṇa at the centre of creation, theology and reality itself.