by Bibek Debroy
1447 Twelve of Vishnu’s names for twelve parts of the body—Keshava (forehead), Narayana (stomach), Madhava (chest), Govinda (throat), Vishnu (right armpit), Madhusudana (right arm), Trivikrama (right ear), Vamana (left armpit), Shridhara (left arm), Hrishikesha (left ear), Padmanabha (back) and Damodara (waist).
1448 Anga-nyasa is the mental appropriation (nyasa) of different limbs of the body (anga) to different divinities. Kara-nyasa is similarly done to different parts of the hand (kara). This is an act of purification.
1449 Bija-nyasa uses a bija mantra to invoke divinities on different parts of the body.
1450 Hayagriva.
1451 These are different kinds of demons/demonesses and one needn’t explain what each one means or does.
1452 Yashoda.
1453 This is not just Yashoda and Rohini, but other gopis too. The reference is to the incident that occurs in Chapter 13, Chapter 13.20 onwards.
1454 Not everyone resided in the inner parts of Vraja.
1455 Rohini.
1456 Yashoda.
1457 In the third month, there are special festivities when an infant turns over on the bed.
1458 Yashoda had placed him in a cradle under the cart.
1459 Nanda.
1460 Krishna.
1461 Tripura.
1462 Though not explicitly stated, this seems to be the words of the gopas and the gopis. It has thus been placed within quotes.
1463 Yashoda.
1464 Rivers.
1465 Nanda.
1466 Alternatively, cause and effect. The sage Garga composed a treatise on astrology.
1467 Naming ceremony.
1468 Rama is derived from the word for causing delight and bala means strength.
1469 Samkarshana means to drag, bring together.
1470 Respectively for satya yuga, treta yuga and dvapara yuga. The dark is for kali yuga.
1471 Therefore, he will be known as Krishna (dark).
1472 The son is Vaasudeva, the father is Vasudeva.
1473 Meaning inside the houses.
1474 Rohini and Yashoda.
1475 Before the milking of the cows. Thus, the calves drink up all the milk.
1476 Using those to climb up. As in mortar and pestle.
1477 Yashoda.
1478 Yashoda.
1479 What she had seen.
1480 The three Vedas.
1481 Vasudeva and Devaki.
1482 To be born on earth.
1483 The milk was being boiled.
1484 Yashoda.
1485 Arjuna is a tree that stands tall and upright, Pentaptera arjuna.
1486 The text uses the word tamas. It made tamas guna pervade Narada, or made Narada fall prey to the darkness of ignorance.
1487 Depending on what is done to the body after death. If buried, worms eat it. If burnt, it becomes ashes. Or it may be eaten by predatory animals and birds and turn to excrement.
1488 A master may give a servant food.
1489 In the case of a putrika son.
1490 Who may capture the owner of the body.
1491 In case a person has been bought as a servant or slave.
1492 When the body is eaten after death.
1493 Like trees.
1494 This shloka, and the immediately succeeding one, has different interpretations.
1495 Rudra.
1496 Meaning both Nalakubara and Manigriva.
1497 Nanda.
1498 Putana.
1499 Trinavarta.
1500 To bring down fruit from trees.
1501 The daitya assumed its own form at the time of death.
1502 Baka means stork.
1503 Brahma’s father.
1504 Vraja means a settlement of cattle and cowherds and is therefore being used for the new residence in Vrindavana.
1505 The game known as leapfrog. There is a natural allusion to the apes building a bridge across the ocean in the Ramayana.
Acknowledgements
The corpus of the Puranas is immense, in scope, as well as in length. Taken together, the eighteen Puranas are four times the size of the Mahabharata. If the prospect of translating the Mahabharata seemed challenging, the task of translating the Puranas was/is downright disconcerting and intimidating. After the Mahabharata, the Harivamsha and the Valmiki Ramayana, it was a natural transition, the obvious thing to do. However, it seemed to be an impossible task. Did one dare to start? If so, where? Since there was no ‘Critical Edition’ of the Puranas, what text should one use? I have now come to believe what should be obvious. Everything one does is determined by destiny. One is merely an instrument, implementing someone else’s will. Thus, destiny intervened. It first intervened in the form of my dear friend, Professor Ramesh Kumar Pandey, vice chancellor, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha. He suggested, in the absence of Critical Editions, one should use the Nirnaya Sagar texts. They have much greater acceptance than other versions. In addition, urging me along the road, he gifted me the Nirnaya Sagar texts of eleven of the eighteen Mahapuranas.
That still left a question unanswered. Which Purana should one start with? Destiny intervened yet again, in the form of another friend, Shri Yudhistir Govinda Das of ISKCON. For some time, Yudhistir had been urging us to visit Mayapur. That visit, pending for quite some time, materialized so that it synchronized with the annual Gaura Purnima festival. What better time to visit Mayapur? Yudhistir also gifted us a set of Prabhupada’s translation of the Bhagavata Purana. This determined the answer to the question. The Bhagavata Purana it would have to be. One does indeed deplore the general ignorance about the treasure trove the Puranas are. The dumbed down versions one usually sees or reads are pale shadows of what these texts actually contain. Having said this, the Purana that most people are familiar with is probably the Bhagavata Purana. Therefore, the Bhagavata Purana was a good choice. As a token of appreciation, these three volumes are dedicated to Yudhistir Govinda Das. As Yudhistir well knows, this is nothing more than a token. Dedications are meant for the one who is beyond either of us.
All these translations, ever since the Bhagavad Gita in 2006, have been published by Penguin India. I am indebted to Penguin for believing in the utility of not just the Bhagavata Purana translation, but the entire Purana Project, which still seems to stretch into the interminable horizon of the future. But one step at a time. For the record, with the Bhagavata Purana published, I am now translating Markandeya Purana, the next one in the series. In particular, Meru Gokhale and Ambar Sahil Chatterjee at Penguin India have been exceptionally patient, persevering and encouraging. But for them, the Purana Project might not have taken off. Paloma Dutta has been the editor since the days of the Mahabharata translation. That makes life a whole lot easier. She knows my style and I know hers. There is a Paloma hand in the product, even though it won’t be detected and isn’t meant to be.
ययोरात्मसमं वित्तं जन्मैश्वर्याकृतिर्भवः । तयोर्विवाहो मैत्रि च नोत्तमाधमयोः क्वचित । (10.60.15) Ever since this translation journey started in 2006, my wife, Suparna Banerjee (Debroy) has been a constant source of support, ensuring the conducive and propitious environment required for the work to continue unimpeded. She has been much more than that. (She was with me in Mayapur too.) In a rich language like Sanskrit, I can think of close to twenty words—all capturing the different nuances of ‘wife’. Suparna has been all these and more. अनुकूलकलत्रे यस्तस्य स्वर्ग इहैव हि । प्रतिकूलकलत्र्स्य नरको नात्र संशयः॥ This too is destiny.
THE BEGINNING
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This collection published 2018
Copyright © Bibek Debroy 2018
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ISBN 978-0-143-42802-2
This digital edition published in 2018.
e-ISBN: 978-9-353-05379-6
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