yadhavabhyudhaya-Chapter6

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chapter-6 chithrasarga

 

 

 

This chapter is called chithrasarga because it abounds in

chithraslokas,the slokas with alliteration containing one or more

syllable repeated etc which are made into chithrabandhas.

 

 

 

Krishna advises to worship Govardhana

 

When Nandha with gopas was preparing to do Indrapooja, Krishna

approached him and said thus:

 

 

 

vidhithavAniva vijnApayAmyaham

 

srnutha mE SakunEriva bhaAshitham

 

prTHukabuddhiraham prTHuchEthasah

 

prabhavathO bhavathO na hi SikshayE

 

 

 

This is a delightful sloka in which Desika makes Krishna speak like a

humble boy towards his elders.

 

He says," I speak as though I know everything and hear my words as

though it is from a parrot.(Sakuni here means birds in general like

parrot etc.) I am with meagre intellect and I cannot advise great wise

men like you. What is meant here by the word parrot is that he is not

telling something new but only what has been taught to him by his elders

already because in the next verse he says, 'nigamadhrshtam idham

nikhilEna vah,you have already learnt this through the vedas.'

 

 

 

What is it? 'athiyajEtha nijAm yadhi dhEvathAm ubhayathah chyavathE

jushathE api agham,' if one leaves his own God and worship another he is

abandoned by both and incurs sin. All things mountains and the like are

the manifestations of Narayana and the Govardhana mountain is the cause

of rain for the gokulam and also provides grass and other vegetation for

people and the cattle and not Indra. The very name of the mountain as

Govardhana shows that through it alone the cattle flourish.

 

 

 

bahumathO manujA dhaDhathE DHrthim

 

bahumathO api ayam ananyaDHrthih sathAm

 

giriSathOnnathimAnaDHikah

 

giriSathOpakrthOpi maheebhrthah

 

 

 

This sloka contains yamakachathushtayam, two words in the

poorvArDha,first half and two in UtthrArDha, second half repeated.

 

It means that this mountain give joy to all and extolled by the good as

the best . It is even more praiseworthy than even the Himalayas which

gives joy to Gireesa(Siva) being greater than hundreds of hills.(Pun on

the word girisathah, as 'of GiriSa,' and 'hundred hills.'

 

 

 

So. said Krishna , this mountain should be worshipped as Lord Narayana

Himself. Krishna reassures Nandha that if Indra gets angry on his pooja

being stopped and attacks, Balarama will conquer him with his plough as

his weapon.This mountain, says Krishna is the gOthra, protector of the

cattle and near whereas Indra is 'gOthrbith,' destroyer of mountains and

is far away.

 

Krishna praises Nandha as being wiser than Brhaspathi and asks him to

contemplate on this matter.The sloka is rich with alliteration.

 

 

 

DHishaNAtheetha DHishaNa lOkaneeyASthu lOkanee

 

suDHarE asmin vasuDHarE thAtha thEjasvithAthathE

 

 

 

Dhishanaatheetha means wiser than Brhaspathi(DhishaNA), second DHishaNA

means buddhi. the word lOkaneeya means lOkaneethi and lOkanee denotes

perception.The mountains are called vasudDHara , support of the earth

while suDHara means the best land meaning the mountain.

 

 

 

After this there are many chithra slokas with various bandhachithras,

the letters of which are portrayed in a pattern to form gomuthrika

bandha etc., all of them extolling the glory of Govardhana.

 

 

 

The skilful construction of words are found in the following slokas:

 

 

 

!. EkakriyAnvithaslOkAvrtthih

 

The same sloka split up differently giving different meaning.

 

 

 

abhrAnthamathiSayyEha virAjitha thamAgamE

 

niSAmayAleenaghanam sAlougham athi nandhanam (6-77)

 

 

 

The verb is niSAmaya, see. Split up as abhrAntham athiSayya iha

virAjithathamA agamE Aleenaghanam athinandhanam sAlougham niSamaya, it

gives the meaning 'see the groups of sala trees, which are extending

beyond the sky and in them the clouds are hanging.

 

When split in another way as 'thathama, Sayya iha vi rAji agamE

aleenaghanam athinandhanam sAlOgham niSAmaya,' Oh Prosperous one, in

this mountain where the birds rest, see the waterfalls delightful with

the groups of bees hovering around the trees'

 

2. Dvayakshara slokas

 

 

 

The whole sloka made up of two alphabets:

 

charucheeree ruchA rOchee ruruchArairachrcharuh

 

chirOccharochiracharo ruchoro ruchirAcharah (6-78)

 

The two alphabets are adhanthya , not belonging to those of dental

class.There are other slokas with only dental alphbets, (6-79 to92) and

slokas with the same akshara in each padha such as

 

rururooruriraroram dhoodhadheem dhadhadhAdhidhah

 

lAlilOlAlileelAlO hAhAhoohoohahEha hi (6-95)

 

 

 

3. EkAkahara slokas

 

 

 

Only one alphabet used through out:

 

 

 

nAnAnAnAnAnAnAnA nAnAnAnAnAnAnAnA

 

nAnAnAnAnAnAnAnA nAnAnAnAnAnAnAnA (6-96)

 

For this sloka there are four different meanings given by

commentators.Other similar slokas are,

 

 

 

nayAnayAnayAnaya nayAnayAnayAnaya

 

nayAnayAnayAnaya nayAnayAnayAnaya (6-97)

 

 

 

prathilOma of the same,

 

 

 

yAnayAnayAnayAna yAnayAnayAnayAna

 

yAnayAnayAnayAna yAnayAnayAnayAna (6-98)

 

 

 

The last type is called sarvathO badhram which goes like this;

 

 

 

mAyAbhAsA sAbhAyAma yAsoothAya yathAsooya

 

bhAthAyAyA yAythAbhA sA yayage gEyAyaAsA (6-99)

 

 

 

In the end of the chithrasarga Desika says,

 

 

 

aklishtachithram idham athra manAg iva uktham

 

chithrAyuthAni suvachAni punasthaTHApi

 

krthyam vibhoh nigamaneeyam ananyabhakthaih

 

ArADhyathAm harirasou prthiveedhrAthmA (6-108)

 

 

 

There are so many wonders (chithram) in this mountain.Only a little has

been said and there are more than ten thousand yet to be seen.But the

main purpose is to do the worship of Lord Hari in the form of the

mountain with unswerving devotion, giving up all other thoughts.

 

 

 

By this sloka Desika hints that he is capable of writing much more

chithraslokas than what is given here but since the main purpose of the

work is to describe the glory of the Lord Hari he has mentioned only a

few.

 

 

 

At this moment the aged gopas saw a male form in the mountain which

looked like the Lord Himself, a split image of Krishna, and Nandha too

seeing it thought that all their prayers were answered.