Tuesday, October 1, 2013

itaneega vAsudevanu

"eethaniga vasudevanu" an amazing composition from Sri KanakadAsa. This is a beautiful translation from Rajeev Ramachandra on FB Kannadiga forum. 


It is well know that Kanakadas compositions are always a little tricky to decode, as the meanings are hidden within complex riddles. Such compositions are called shardoola vikreeditha in Sanskrit..
This composition expounds the various facets of Lord Krishna, Adi Keshava, KanadAsA's aaraadhya daiva.

Eetha-neega Vasudevano e samstha lokadodeya ... Now, this is vAsudEva, the Lord of this entire universe ...

dAsagolidu tEranEri tEji piDidu nadisidatA
Daasa (Arjuna)nige volidu; tErannu yEri (rathavanna hathi); tEji (Horse) piDidu (taking control of); nadisidata (he navigated it)

The Lord melting to His servant, mounts the chariot, takes the rein, and navigates through the battlefield. The Lord submits Himself to those who submit to Him and navigate them through the difficult times. 

In the following verse Krishna’s deeds in Mahabharata are identified, but by connecting various relationships of Mahabharata characters…

First Paragraph:
dhanujeyALda annana ayyana, pithana mundhe, Kouravendrana  anujeyalidavan shirva katharisuthaa, anujeyalidavana benki muttadanthe kaaydaa ... rukmana anujeyaalidavana murthee yannu nodiro. eethaneega vaasudevano.---

Dha - Rakshasha, Anuje - Sister ('anu' means together, 'Ja' means born); Dhanuje - Rakshasi; in reference to Mahabharatha, Dhanuje is Hidambe; aaLda - rules or husband of; dhanujeyaalidavanu - husband of Hidambe, which is Bheema ; aNNana - Bheem's elder brother - Yudhishtira.. ; ayyana - father; Yudhishtira's father - Yama ; pitana - his father, i.e. Yama's father - Surya (SUN),

So, dhanujeyALidannana ayyana pitana means SUN :)
Kouravendrana - Duryodhana; anuje  - Sister - sister of Duryodhana -Dhushyale; [Dhushyaleyanu] aalidavanu - her husband i.e. Jayadratha; shirava kathirusutha - severing the head; anujeyalidavana - Krishna's sister is subhadre, and her husband is Arjuna; benki muttandane kaaydaa - Krishna protected Arjuna from falling into the fire.

Krishna ensured that Jayadratha's head was severed before the Sun was set. Had the Sun set without severing Jayadratha's head, Arjuna had vowed to enter into fire to avenge the death of Abhimanyu.

rukmana anuje - Rukma's sisteter, Rukmini; aaLidavana - Rukmini’s Husband, Krishna; moorti - form; annu nodiro - please see

So, the line "dhanujeyALida annana ayyana, pithana mundhe Kouravendrana  anujeyalidavan shirva katharisuthaa, anujeyalidavana benki muttadanthe kaaydaa ... rukmana anujeyaalidavana murthee yannu nodiro"simply means - look at the glorious form of Sri Krishna. 

Second Paragraph:krooranAda phaNipabANa taraNijanu nireekshisalu, veeraneccha yasuge bappudannu eekshisee, dhaariNiya padadalauki charaNa bhajaka narana kaaydu, bhArakartanAda dEva eeta nODiro 

krooranada - the cruel; phanipha - snake, bANa - arrow; phaNipabANa  means - the "snake arrow" or "sarpAstra" ; tarunija - taruNa is Surya (Sun), born from Sun is KarNa, so taruNija is KarNa; Nireekshisalu - anticipating or waiting for the right time; veeraneccha yasuge - when sarpasthra was thrown at Arjuna with a lot of power and strength by Karna; bappudannu - eekshisi - seeing the oncoming (sarpAstra); dharuNiya padadaLouki - by pressing the Earth / ground (Krishna depressed the earth and the entire chariot went couple of inches down. The sarpastra missed the neck and hit the crown of Arjuna and thus saved his life); charana - feet (of Lord Krishna); bhajaka - one who worships, i.e. Arjuna; narana kAyda - one who protected the human; Krishna protected Arjuna from KarNA's sarpAstra; bhArakarthanAda deva eetha nOdiro - see the Lord who is the cause behind everything; one who part and parcel of shrusti (creation), sthithi (position, fixedness, sustenance, ordinance, inertia, constancy, state, shape), laya (dissolution, rhythm)


Paragraph 3
vyomakeshanippa deseya aa mahAmahimeyuLLa, 
sAmajavanu yEri baruva shaktiya eekshisi,
prEmadiMda uravanoTTi, diMgarigana kAyda, 
sArvabhauma vaDAdAdikEshavanna nODiro.

Vyomakesha -
Vyoma - aakAsha (eternal sky), Kesha - hair; one who's hair is the sky or who's hair is spread across the skies, and who holds Ganga in his jhaTa, i.e. Shiva; aa deseya - in that direction - Shiva resides in the North-East, i.e. eeshAnya, where the kailasa parvatha is; mahAmahimeyuLLa sAmaja - the elephant of significance; this is related to narakAsura's son Bhagadattha who had an elephant called "suprateeka" - or alternatively "mahAmahime";  he was the king of Pragjotishapura, which was on the North-East side; 
vannu eri - [Bhagadatta] seated on [the elephant "suprateeka"]; shaktiya - shakti astra (nArAyaNAstra); Bhagadatta threw the vaishNavAstra; eekshisi - upon seeing this; prEmadiMda - with love, uravanoTTi - He presented His own chest; and saved Arjuna from the lethal weapon of Bhagadatta;  diMgarigana kAyda - protected His devotee or "servant"; sArvabhauma varAdAdikEshavanna nODiro - look at the magnificent emperor of the whole Universe, the all granting Lord Adi Keshava.

These are the popular stanzas used in the movie KanakadAsa, beautifully sung by PB Srinivas.

6 comments:

  1. Good day,
    While explaining the First Paragraph, you mentioned "shirava kathirusutha - severing the head;". Could you elaborate more on the meaning of the word "shirava", or "shirva", please? I mean, how can one correctly translate this word from Sanskrit to English?
    Your help is much appreciated.

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    Replies
    1. sanskrit and kannada word combination.sira(head) va('s) katharisuta(decapitate)
      =to separate head from...

      Delete
  2. Wondrerful tranlation sir.. Thank u so much and god bless u!

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  3. Shirava means head and katharisutha means severing or cutting that means Arjuna cutting the head of jayadratha OK

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  4. Without translation very difficult to understand even a word, now I realize how great was Shri Kanakadasaru and what was his level of knowledge and accomplishment. Thanks very much for great explanation, which perhaps only few really understand and even few take pain to explain to person like me.

    ReplyDelete