The Beautiful Legend of God is the tenth and most significant book in the popular Indian epic Srimad Bhagavata Purāņa, which is the prin-cipal source for the story of the Krishna, worshipped in Hinduism as the supreme being. Devoted to Krishna's miraculous incarnation, it recounts his childhood and adolescence in the forests of Vrndāvana: playing with his friends, dallying amorously with cowherd girls and stealing butter to feed to the monkeys. Krishna emerges from these episodes as an immediately engaging figure, and the stories have inspired generations of artists, musicians, poets and dramatists. They also contain invaluable insights into Hindu views on such matters as creation, cosmography and the history of the subcontinent.

This new translation by Edwin F. Bryant is both faithful to the original Sanskrit text and accessible for contemporary readers. The introduc-tion provides a detailed background to Hinduism and places the work in its philosophical and theological context.