One of the prominent Tamil versions of Srimad Bhagavad Purana (Bhagavatam) is written by Sevvai Sooduvar (16th century CE). It comprises 12 skandhas or books and has details of the avatars (ten incarnations) of Bhagavan Sri Vishnu.
The term ‘Bhagavatam’ has two components – Bhagavatah + idam
mean ‘of god.’ God (Bhagavan) possesses six bhagas or divine majesties – Aishwarya
(omnipotence), virya (power), yashas (fame), shri (beauty and auspiciousness),
jnana (omniscience) and vairagya (renunciation). Bhagavatam celebrates the
glory of Bhagavan. Bhagavatas are the learned scholars who conduct discourses
on Bhagavatam. This celebrated text has been translated into many Indian and
foreign languages.
Of the seven types of Sanskrit Bhagavatam categorized in
Puranas, Iitihasa Bhagavatam and Purana Bhagavatam alone have translated into
Tamil.
Sevvai Sooduvar, a Vaishnava Brahmin, was perhaps the first
to write Itihasa Bhagavatam. Dr U.V. Swaminatha Iyer, the doyen among the Tamil
scholars, has edited this book under the title Bhagavatam, which has 155
chapters and 4970 poems. The dasama skandha or the tenth book glorifies the
birth of Bhagavan Sri Krishna in 54 chapters.
Arulaladasar alias Varadaraja Iyengar translated Purana
Bhagavatam into Tami. This text, Vasudeva Katai (1543 CE) has 131 chapters and
9159 poems. The ‘introduction’ to this book, contrary to the oral discourse recorded
in the original Bhagvatam, offers a different version, that Narada narrated
Bhagavatam tale to the child Pratti, daughter of the Vidarbha king. The other
unique features of this text include Rukmankata Caritram, available only in
Padma Puranam, the story of Dadhipantan, an oral narrative and the history of
Nappinai (Bhagavan Sri Krishna’s spouse), acknowledged in Paripatal and
Nalayira Divya Prabandham. This Bhagavatam, for the first time, describes the
wedding of Nappinai in 36 poems.
Apart from these to Bhagavatams, other prose translations were
attempted by Venugopalachariar and A.V. Narasimhachariar. Bhagavata Saram
(Tandava Shastrikal), Bhagavata Vavanam (Uvathi Cinnaiyan) and Bhagavata Vina-vitai
(Kasturi Rengaiah) are some of the different versions of Tamil Bhagavatams
available.
The dashama skandha, which narrates the story of Bhagavan
Sri Krishna, is considered to be the pivotal point of the Sanskrit Bhagavatam.
Its descriptive style and poetic structure have induced many scholars to
translate this chapter alone into Tamil. Madhurakavi Srinivasa Iyengar (19th
century CE) had published Sri Kannan Avataram, an expansion of the dashama
skandha in 24 chapters and 1232 poems. Ananthabharati Swamikal has rendered the
same chapter as a musical composition. This text, Sri Bhagavata Dashama Skandha
Kirtanai has two parts; the second part was published in 1907.
Sankaramurthy Konar’s Bhagavata Ammanai (1932) paraphrases
in simple style, the tenth, eleventh and twelfth chapters of Sevvai Sooduvar’s
Bhagavatam. Another text in the same mode by M. Mariappa Kavirayar is now
available.
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