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.)