Ritual Procedure for the Kūrma Dvādaśī Observance
दुर्वासा उवाच । तथैव पौषमासे तु अमृतं मथितं सुरैः । तत्र कूर्मो भवेद्देवः स्वयमेव जनार्दनः ॥ ४०.१ ॥
durvāsā uvāca | tathaiva pauṣa-māse tu amṛtaṃ mathitaṃ suraiḥ | tatra kūrmo bhaved devaḥ svayam eva janārdanaḥ || 40.1 ||
Durvāsā sprach: „Ebenso wurde im Monat Pauṣa von den Göttern das (Meer) gerührt, und das amṛta, der Nektar, wurde gewonnen. Dort wird der Gott selbst, Janārdana, zur Kūrma, der göttlichen Schildkröte.“
Durvāsā
It preserves a Purāṇic retelling of the Samudra-manthana (churning of the ocean) motif, linking calendrical time (Pauṣa) with a well-known cosmological narrative and the Kūrma form of Viṣṇu.
No specific terrestrial location is named in this verse; the setting is the mythic-cosmological event of churning, traditionally associated with the ocean (samudra) rather than a mapped pilgrimage site.
The verse is primarily descriptive rather than prescriptive; its philosophical emphasis is on divine agency expressed through adaptive embodiment (the deity ‘becoming’ Kūrma) within a cosmic process.
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