eetaneega vaasudevanu

eetaneega vaasudevanu

(Composer: Sri Kanakadasa)

Translated By

Chakravarthi Madhusudana

raaga: bhairavi; taaLa: roopaka

Pallavi

eetaneega vaasudEva ee samasta lokadoDeya

daasagolidu tEranEri tEji piDidu naDesidaata

CharaNas:

danujeyaaLdanaNNanayyana pitana munde kauravEndrana

anujeyaaLidavana Sirava kattarisuta

anujeyaaLidavana benki muTTadante kaayda rukmana

anujeyaaLidavana moortiyannu nODirO                                            1

krooranaada phaNipa baaNavannu taraNijanu eccaaga

veeranaranatta bappudanu veekshisi

dhaariNiya padadoLouki caraNa bhajaka narana kaayda

bhaarakartanaada dEva eeta kaaNirO                                               2

vyOmakESayippadeseya sarvajagake tOruta

saamajavanu Eri baruva shaktiyaneekshisi

premadinda uravanoDDi Dingarigana kaayda saarva

bhauma baaDadaadikeshavanna nODirO                                          3

Translation and Notes:

This somewhat cryptic keertana describes how Sri Krishna saved the life of his beloved devotee Arjuna on three different occasions during the Mahabharata War.

Pallavi

He is Vaasudeva, the master of the entire universe

He is the one who mounted the chariot and held the reins of the horses out of love for his servant.

CharaNas

1.         Look at the visage of the husband of the sister of Rukma for he is the one who made sure that the fire did not touch the his sister’s husband who killed the husband of the sister of the king of Kauravas in front of the father of the father of the elder brother of the husband of the Raakshasi.

(Rukma’s sister is Rukmini. Rukmini’s husband is Krishna. His sister is Subhadra  whose husband is Arjuna. King of Kauravas is Duryodhana. His sister is Dusshala whose husband is Jayadratha or Saindhava. Finally the husband of Raakshasi, Hidimba, is Bhima. His elder brother is Yudhishthira. His father is Yama whose father is Surya, the Sun.)

The verse tells us that Krishna able to prevent Arjuna from entering the fire and kill himself by enabling Arjuna to fulfil his vow of killing Saindhava before sunset. Krishna made this possible by obscuring the Sun momentarily and putting Saindhava off guard and reveal himself. When the Sun reappeared, Saindhava became an easy target of Arjuna.

2.         When Karna shot the vicious serpent arrow at Arjuna, this is the deity who saved him by depressing the ground a little so that the arrow missed its target. (taraNi is the sun; taraNija is the sun’s son, karNa.)

3.         Showing the direction where Shiva resides, Bhagadatta mounted on his powerful elephant (Suprateeka), hurled the mighty Vaishnavaastra, it was the Keshava of Baada who intercepted and took the weapon in his chest and thus lovingly saved his devotee Arjuna.

(Vyomakesha is Shiva. The direction associated with him is North East. This line probably implies that Bhagadatta came from Pragjyotishpur which is in the North East, now called Tezpur (Assam). Baada is the place of birth of Shri Kanakadaasa.)