This is rough translation of my Malayalam poem Dwaparashesham. It is not easy to translate poetry from one language to another and I am not into poetry in English. Sometimes the ideas get distorted in translation. I am just trying to capture the meaning for the benefit of my readers who do not read Malayalam (even though I have only a handful of readers now:) ). Thanks to Nishant for the request to translate.
So here's "The legend of Vajranabha" :
From the city of Dwaravati swallowed by the sea
Arjuna brought a toddler home
That Vajranabha , the son of Anirudha
Grew up to be the lord of cowherds
While he was the ruling Vrindavan
he noticed a deep sadness in people
The cowherdesses lost their glow
The cows stopped giving milk
Slowly people started leaving
and settling down in other lands
The king was dejected
Searched for a solution
A wise man told people are sad
Because they missed Krishna
Build a beautiful temple here
Invoke the presence of Krishna within
Goddess Lakshmi will follow her lord
Joy and good luck will follow her feet
King Vajranabha gathered from everywhere
All the skilled Sculptors of land
The sculptors said ,' Oh, beloved king,
We have not seen the lotus-eyed one.
The generation of the beautiful one
Moved beyond the curtain of time.
Is there any elderly one
Who can describe the divine form to us?'
Then came Lady Uttara
Queen mother of Hastinapura
'Listen to me child, I have seen
Krishna whom the whole world has heard of.
Whom the world calls the Lord
I called him my dear uncle.
I lived in the protection of his love
I have earned the merit of touching his feet.
I shall describe you the form
That was much admired by women of the time.
The perfect body of the trained warrior
Beautiful dark complexion
The curly hairs cascaded like clouds
gathered in a top knot
adorned by a feather of peacock
He wore the Tilak of Hari
On that perfectly shaped forehead
Eyes looking like petals of lotus
Calm oceans of divine wisdom
The nose shaped like the flower of sesame
A smile played on the lips always
The paste of sandalwood enhanced the fragrance
of beautiful form adorned by ornaments
Among them strings of pearls mined from Dwaravati
Along with garlands of flowers brought by his fans
The sight of that divine form clad in yellow silk
Made many an auspicious lady is distress (of love)
I still remember how he used to stand in the Tribhanga posture
and how he used to play the flute'
Sixteen sculptors started their work
Following every word of the lady
From the Black Stone they built
Idols of the lotus-eyed one
All resembled the one of pure consciousness
None looked exactly like him
Still the idols were installed
In sixteens temples invoking the deity
Goddess of prosperity came back to land
People also returned to homeland
Six thousand years have passed by henceforth
Vrindavan remains inhabited to date
The picture drawn in words by Uttara
Lives on in our minds as the form of Krishna
The temples were manmade
They could not withstand the onslaught of time
The human consciousness is immortal
Hence Time could not destroy the memories of Krishna
It remains our living heritage.
Notes :
The idea of this poem came to me when searching about definition of history. I used to have the idea that history is all about written records. I was surprised to know that now this definition is changed, even in Wikipedia. Apparently the man called father of history was also called father of lies and father of all liers! Well, anything can be written in a book. The modern definition is that history is what remains in the collective consciousness of a people. For eg., do written records survive from the period of Alexander as a proof that Alexander lived ? Not really. The first written record was allegedly written centuries after his death. Does the original record survive today ? No way. We just have to believe the historians' word for this. Perhaps the original was copied by the disciple of the author and then somebody else copied and thus manuscript may have passed centuries and any 'proof' will only be a few centuries old. So does that mean Alexander did not live ? Not really. The best proof is the collective memory left behind and transmitted through generations. Then there is the question. Why the collective memory of Indians is not accepted as proof and instead we are told our legends have no proof. Pure double standards and nothing else. The second thought was triggered by the picture of a statue of Alexander given in Wikipedia page. Apparently the statue was a copy of copy of original statue. Well, that triggered a thought that whether Krishna's image that is passed through generations also based on an original statue ? That's when I remembered the legend of Vajranabha building the first Krishna temples and then the poem came to me on its own. This is one poem I never had to struggle at any line. It just flowed to my mind.
1. It is mentioned in Ramayan and Mahabharat that the people of those days use to apply sandalwood paste in their body. Till the time British banned cultivation of sandalwood trees, it used to be abundant in India.
2. To describe the body of Krishna, I have used two techniques , that he had the warriors body and that he was much admired by women. This is not meant to imply that he had any relationships.
3. It was my imagination that Krishna used to wear pearls and Vanamala (floral/tulsi garland ). After all Dwaravati is likely to have pearls as it was near the sea. Later when I read narayaneeyam, Melpathoor has written the same thing. I felt a thrill when I read that.
4. Vajra (or Vajranabha) was the son of Anirudha and Usha . Anirudha was son of Pradyumna and Rukmavati. Pradyumna was sone of Krishna and Rukmini. Mahabharat mentions that Arjuna brought some women and children from Dwaraka and among them there was a little boy Krishna's great grandson Vajra. Dwaraka temple was built by same Vajranabha.
5. I did not mean Lord Krishna always smiled like an idiot. In fact, in Mahabharat there are instances where he joked with a straight face or his face displayed toughness. However, Uttara may have remembered her uncle-in-law with a smile always.
So here's "The legend of Vajranabha" :
From the city of Dwaravati swallowed by the sea
Arjuna brought a toddler home
That Vajranabha , the son of Anirudha
Grew up to be the lord of cowherds
While he was the ruling Vrindavan
he noticed a deep sadness in people
The cowherdesses lost their glow
The cows stopped giving milk
Slowly people started leaving
and settling down in other lands
The king was dejected
Searched for a solution
A wise man told people are sad
Because they missed Krishna
Build a beautiful temple here
Invoke the presence of Krishna within
Goddess Lakshmi will follow her lord
Joy and good luck will follow her feet
King Vajranabha gathered from everywhere
All the skilled Sculptors of land
The sculptors said ,' Oh, beloved king,
We have not seen the lotus-eyed one.
The generation of the beautiful one
Moved beyond the curtain of time.
Is there any elderly one
Who can describe the divine form to us?'
Then came Lady Uttara
Queen mother of Hastinapura
'Listen to me child, I have seen
Krishna whom the whole world has heard of.
Whom the world calls the Lord
I called him my dear uncle.
I lived in the protection of his love
I have earned the merit of touching his feet.
I shall describe you the form
That was much admired by women of the time.
The perfect body of the trained warrior
Beautiful dark complexion
The curly hairs cascaded like clouds
gathered in a top knot
adorned by a feather of peacock
He wore the Tilak of Hari
On that perfectly shaped forehead
Eyes looking like petals of lotus
Calm oceans of divine wisdom
The nose shaped like the flower of sesame
A smile played on the lips always
The paste of sandalwood enhanced the fragrance
of beautiful form adorned by ornaments
Among them strings of pearls mined from Dwaravati
Along with garlands of flowers brought by his fans
The sight of that divine form clad in yellow silk
Made many an auspicious lady is distress (of love)
I still remember how he used to stand in the Tribhanga posture
and how he used to play the flute'
Sixteen sculptors started their work
Following every word of the lady
From the Black Stone they built
Idols of the lotus-eyed one
All resembled the one of pure consciousness
None looked exactly like him
Still the idols were installed
In sixteens temples invoking the deity
Goddess of prosperity came back to land
People also returned to homeland
Six thousand years have passed by henceforth
Vrindavan remains inhabited to date
The picture drawn in words by Uttara
Lives on in our minds as the form of Krishna
The temples were manmade
They could not withstand the onslaught of time
The human consciousness is immortal
Hence Time could not destroy the memories of Krishna
It remains our living heritage.
Notes :
The idea of this poem came to me when searching about definition of history. I used to have the idea that history is all about written records. I was surprised to know that now this definition is changed, even in Wikipedia. Apparently the man called father of history was also called father of lies and father of all liers! Well, anything can be written in a book. The modern definition is that history is what remains in the collective consciousness of a people. For eg., do written records survive from the period of Alexander as a proof that Alexander lived ? Not really. The first written record was allegedly written centuries after his death. Does the original record survive today ? No way. We just have to believe the historians' word for this. Perhaps the original was copied by the disciple of the author and then somebody else copied and thus manuscript may have passed centuries and any 'proof' will only be a few centuries old. So does that mean Alexander did not live ? Not really. The best proof is the collective memory left behind and transmitted through generations. Then there is the question. Why the collective memory of Indians is not accepted as proof and instead we are told our legends have no proof. Pure double standards and nothing else. The second thought was triggered by the picture of a statue of Alexander given in Wikipedia page. Apparently the statue was a copy of copy of original statue. Well, that triggered a thought that whether Krishna's image that is passed through generations also based on an original statue ? That's when I remembered the legend of Vajranabha building the first Krishna temples and then the poem came to me on its own. This is one poem I never had to struggle at any line. It just flowed to my mind.
1. It is mentioned in Ramayan and Mahabharat that the people of those days use to apply sandalwood paste in their body. Till the time British banned cultivation of sandalwood trees, it used to be abundant in India.
2. To describe the body of Krishna, I have used two techniques , that he had the warriors body and that he was much admired by women. This is not meant to imply that he had any relationships.
3. It was my imagination that Krishna used to wear pearls and Vanamala (floral/tulsi garland ). After all Dwaravati is likely to have pearls as it was near the sea. Later when I read narayaneeyam, Melpathoor has written the same thing. I felt a thrill when I read that.
4. Vajra (or Vajranabha) was the son of Anirudha and Usha . Anirudha was son of Pradyumna and Rukmavati. Pradyumna was sone of Krishna and Rukmini. Mahabharat mentions that Arjuna brought some women and children from Dwaraka and among them there was a little boy Krishna's great grandson Vajra. Dwaraka temple was built by same Vajranabha.
5. I did not mean Lord Krishna always smiled like an idiot. In fact, in Mahabharat there are instances where he joked with a straight face or his face displayed toughness. However, Uttara may have remembered her uncle-in-law with a smile always.
