15. Padmanabhacarita by Krishna Sarma

Sri Padmanabhacarita^[1] is an unpublished Campu kavya describes the legendary history. The first five of Tvm in 6 stabakas and some portions of the 6th stabaka are available and the rest is lost to us.

The author of this Campu [Padmanabhacarita] is a poet named Krsna [Krishna Sarma]^[2] as is evident from the following passage.

bhagavadāgamanotsavakathā sudhābhirāmaṃ anantarasagarbhaṃ sandarbhaṃ kṛṣṇanāma nirmātumārabhate ||

He is said to have been protege of king Martandavarma (AD 1729-1758) of Travancore. The work was written at the instance of Kartika Tirunal Ramavarma who was a prince at that time in the state of Travancore.

The Padmanabha-Carita Campu deals with the story of the origin of the Sripadmanabha swamy temple. The matter is taken from Anantasayanaksetra-Mahatmya in which the legendary history of the temple is described in a puranic style. The first stabaka deals with the description of the city of Tvm and also given a beautiful picture of Sripadmanabha Svamy temple. The story current about the legend of the sage Divakara is dealt with the second stabaka. The third stabaka narrates the effort of Urvasi to obstruct the penance of the sage and the fourth forms the description of Lord Visnu. The fifth deals with the search after the divine boy by the sage.

In the beginning of the Padmanabhacarita he states that the reigning king was Martanda Varma. The king is described to have acquired rajyalaksmi by his own prabhava. In this instance there is an indirect reference to the fact that he had no ready inheritance of the kingdom, but he acquired inheritance by his own efforts.

The verse is—

asti prabhāvārjitarājyalakṣmiḥ śāstā samastāvanivallabhānām |
dhātrī paritrāṇapavitrakīrtirmārtāṇḍavarmā narapālavīraḥ ||

In the succeeding verse he says that the bards who have sweet words surround him like the honey bees lover on the Vasantacuta.

This is followed by another verse that glorifies the king to the maximum—

lakṣmīkāntapadaikavāsapaṭudhīssodyogadānto bhṛśaṃ
nityaṃ vyūḍhatamassampannanivahaṃ nissārayan sarvadā
netrānandakaraśca sārasahitassanmārgajṛmbhadruciḥ
nāmnā yasya na kevalaṃ vijayate mārtāṇḍatā bhūpateḥ ||

Here, the king’s moral strength is praised. Martanda Varma as known to history, was a king of high morals. He has been in history a controversial personality, but nobody has yet cast any doubt on the moral side of his character. On the process of the king Krsna Sarman adds a few there verses of excellent poetic charm. They are not quoted here as their purport is too general.

But, there is one verse of great historical value among them.—

yanmātulaḥ kṣmātalavajrapāṇiḥ
guṇaikapātrī bhuvi yajjanitrī
yasyābhirāmaṅgalatasvasāraḥ
svasāraśauryārjitakīrtibhūmnaḥ ||

In this verse what matters for the historical purpose is the reference to the sisters of Martanda Varama. We know from other records that Marthanda Varma had no direct sister. At the same time Krsna Sarman refers to his sisters. As svasāraḥ is in the plural we can well understand that the sisters were not less than three in number. It is also known in history that a princess from Kolattunad was adopted as Martanda Varma’s sister. She has to be identified with princess Parvati or Mahisurendranandini adverted to by Devaraja Kavi as the king’s sister. Therefore, the sisters spoken of by Krsna Sarman should be identified with the four princesses of Pallikkovilakam, adopted to the Travancore royal house of by Martanda Varma.

As the second adoption is known to have been made in 925 M.E. It becomes evident that the campus of Krsna Sarman was composed between 925 and 933 M.E.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Sahityaparishat Traimasikam III -Keraleya Samskrita Sahitya Caritram IV -156 -157; Kerala Sahitya Caritram, Ullur -Vol.-III -305 -309

[2]:

Krsna Sarma or Krsna kavi