Narayaniyam

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Narayaniyam is a medieval Sanskrit text, comprising a summary study in poetic form of the Bhagavata Purana. It was composed by Melputhur Narayana Bhattadri, a devotee-poet who lived in the Indian state of Kerala, in the sixteenth century AD. The Bhagavata Purana is a major Hindu scripture consisting of about 18,000 verses, mainly devoted to the worship of Krishna.

[edit] The poem

The Narayaniyam condenses the Bhagavata Purana into 1034 verses, divided into one hundred dasakas, or cantos. The work occupies a very high place in Sanskrit literature, both because of the intense devotional fervour of the verses, and because of their extraordinary literary merit. The Narayaniyam is one of the most popular religious texts in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and devout Hindus often recite it together in festivals and groups.

[edit] The author

Melputhur Narayana Bhattadri was born about the year 1560 in a village near the temple of Tirunavaya in Kerala. He composed the Narayaniyam at the age of 27.

Other monumental works by Bhattadri include a treatise on Sanskrit Grammar, entitled Prakriyasarvasva, a work similar to the Siddhanta Kaumudi, but written earlier. It is said that Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita, the author of the Siddhanta Kaumudi, on hearing about Bhattadri, set out for Kerala to meet him, but had to return disappointed on hearing on the way that Bhattadri had died.

Bhattatiri composed many other devotional hymns, as well as a work on Purva-Mimamsa entitled Manameyodaya, and panegyrics in praise of his royal patrons. It is believed that he lived till the age of 105.

[edit] Origin legend of the Narayaniyam

The people of Kerala worship Krishna in his Deity form as Guruvayurappan in the temple town of Guruvayur. According to local legends, Bhattadri had a Guru by the name of Achyuta Pisharoti, who fell victim to a severe attack of paralysis, and suffered unbearable pain. Bhattadri desired to find a cure for his master and fervently prayed for the disease to be transferred to himself, freeing his Guru from suffering. According to the legend, Lord Krishna granted Bhattadri his wish, and he soon became a cripple.

Once, when Bhattadri, unable to move, was carried into the Guruvayur temple, he met Tunchath Ezhuthachan, an eminent Malayalam poet of the time. Ezhuthachan advised Bhattadri that he could be cured if he "began his treatment with fish". The disciples of Bhattadri who heard this were shocked because Bhattadri was a devout Hindu and therefore a vegetarian who would consider it sinful to eat fish. Bhattadri however understood what Ezhuthachan really meant - that he would be cured if he could compose a hymn glorifying the incarnations of Lord Krishna beginning with the fish incarnation, known as Matsya.

Accordingly, he started composing the Narayaniyam. It is said that he would recite one dasaka, consisting of ten verses, every day. The local legend says that on the hundredth day he had a vision of the Lord, and rendered a graphic description of this form, after which he was immediately cured of his disease.