Bharata Venpa is a well known Tamil classic re-telling of the story of the Mahabharata. Bharata Venpa was written by Baratham Paadiya Perundevanar of the 9th century CE. The author was a protégé of king Nandivaram III of the Pallava dynasty who ruled over part of Tamil Nadu. According to inscriptional records, Nandivaram had gained a decisive victory over his rivals in the battle of Tellaru. He was also a patron of scholars, of whom Perumdevanar was one. There is another poet of the same name who lived around 300 CE and wrote Bharatam Pattu.
Bharata Venpa is composed in a racy, flowing narrative style
in the venpa meter which is one of the four modes of versification of such works
and is quite popular with Tamil scholars. Complete manuscripts of Bharata-Venpa
are yet to be identified. The available text, in 831 verses, forms a portion of
Udyoga Parva, being the fifth of the eighteen parvas of the Mahabharata, and
ends abruptly with a portion of the seventh, Drona Parva.
Bharata Venpa does not follow the Sanskrit closely. The narrative
in the available portion of the text takes off from the details of the
preparations for war by the two antagonists, the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The
account of various incidents during the first ten days of the battle (under the
command of the grandsire Bhishma who led the Kaurava forces), is followed by that
of the next four days (under the command of Drona). The narrative ends with the
death of the young Pandava warrior. Abhimanyu, and his father, Arjuna, seeking
to avenge the death of his son.
The popularity of the Mahabharata among the Tamils can be
gauged from the profuse literature produced in Tamil in the form of poetry,
prose, drama, narratives, skits and folk plays based on it. Bharata Venpa is a striking example of this
kind.