Hindu religious traditions
Chitraguptaचित्रगुप्त
Recorder in the court of justice
Chitragupta records deeds and participates in Yama’s court of justice in the Garuda Purana Saroddhara.
Statue of Chitragupta — photograph by Suraj Belbase, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.STORY & TRADITION
The world of Chitragupta.
Chitragupta is the recorder of human deeds in the court of Yama. Chapter XIV of the Garuda Purana Saroddhara describes his dwelling, assembly and examination of conduct. The Saroddhara is a later digest and its presentation must be distinguished from the complete Garuda Purana and other recensions. His association with record keeping and justice gives him a distinctive religious role. Later community traditions develop genealogies and devotional practices around him; those are not treated here as one universally shared early account. This profile occupies an editorial roster position made available by moving an object into the treasure and weapon archive. The rank is a site classification, not a scriptural comparison of divine status.
Characters & Cosmic Entities
Details & context.
- Tradition dependence
- High — compare the identified textual or regional account.
- Religious role
- Recorder of deeds in Yama’s court.
- Realm
- Yamaloka
- Textual account
- Garuda Purana Saroddhara, chapter XIV.
- Family / origin
- Accounts differ in later traditions; no single genealogy is asserted here.
- Iconography
- Writing and record keeping are common associations.
- Tradition notes
- Distinguish the Saroddhara digest from the full Garuda Purana.
FOLLOW THE THREADS
Connected worlds.
4 connected profiles. Every path leads to an original record.
The Sacred Library1
Realms & Cosmic Worlds2
Characters & Cosmic Entities1
VISUAL ARCHIVE
Art & iconography.
Image credit.
Statue of Chitragupta — photograph by Suraj Belbase, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and converted to WebP for the website.
READ THE SOURCES
Texts & references.
Garuda Purana Saroddhara — City of justice
Chapter XIV; a later digest, not the complete Garuda Purana.
Puranic · 1911 Wood–Subrahmanyam translation of the Saroddhara digest; do not conflate it with every Garuda Purana recension.Reference overview. Consult the identified text and passage; unestablished fields are explicitly marked.