Kurma

deity water Hindu single tradition · 6

Kurma is the second Avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, manifesting in the form of a turtle. As an avatar, Kurma represents a divine incarnation of the god Vishnu who descends to earth in this specific form.

↻ synthesized from 6 sources

When

First attested
400 BCE
Attested period
-400 – 400
Historical notes
The Mahabharata is estimated to have been compiled between 400 BCE and 400 CE.

Relationships

manifests as
Vishnu
aspect of
Vishnu
cognate of
Bedawang
child of
Vishnu
served by
Lakshmi

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

Source passages

“In Hinduism, Kurma is the second Avatar of Vishnu, in the form of a turtle.”

#4664 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5

“Kurma – Upper-half human, lower-half tortoise.”

#4792 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Kurma (Hindu mythology) – Second avatar of Vishnu in the form of a Turtle”

#4906 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Appearing in the forms of a swan [Hamsa], a tortoise [Kurma], a fish [Matsya], O foremost of regenerate ones, I shall then display myself as a boar [Varaha], then as a Man-lion (Nrisingha), then as a dwarf [Vamana], then as Rama of Bhrigu's race, then as Rama, the son of Dasaratha, then as Krishna the scion of the Sattwata race, and lastly as Kalki.”

#17595 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Kurma, the tortoise”

#22318 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5