Padma Purana (Devanagari: पद्म पुराण), also called the gītāmāhātmya (literally, the Majesty of Gita) is one of the major eighteen Puranas. A Hindu religious text, it is divided into five parts and 55,000 verses. The Padma Purana categorizes itself as a Sattva Purana (one which represents goodness and purity).
In the first part of the text, sage Pulastya explains to Bhishma about religion and the essence of the religion. The second part describes in detail Prithvi (earth). In the third part, a description of the cosmos is given, including creation, and description of India (Bharata Varsha). The fourth part describes the life and deeds of Rama. The fifth part is in the style of a dialogue between Shiva and his consort, Parvati, and deals with the essential knowledge about religion.
The Padma Purana is one of the Mahapuranas, dating to 5000 BC. There are a number of later Jaina works also known as Padma-purana, and also dealing with the life of Rama. These include the Padma-purana (Balabhadrapurana) or Raidhu (15th century), the Padma-purana of Somadeva (1600), the Padma-purana of Dharmakirti (1612), the Padma-purana of Bhattaraka Candrakirti (17th century).
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