Bas-relief depicting Samudra Manthan at The Musée Guimet, Paris

Samudra manthan (Sanskrit: समुद्रमन्थन, lit. churning of the ocean) is one of the best known episodes in Hindu mythology. The story appears in the Bhagavata Purana, the Mahabharata and the Vishnu Purana, and explains the origin of amrita, the drink of immortality. This is a plaster cast of a molding (by Joseph Ghilardi) of a section of the bas-relief of Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia. Cast taken on a Louis Delaporte Mission, now located at The Musée Guimet, Paris.