16. Yamaka poems of Vasudeva

Vasudeva the son of Ravi has composed several Yamaka poems famous for their diction and elegance. According to the popular tradition in Kerala Vasudeva was a Bhattatiri of the Pattattu family of Nambutiri Brahmin in the village of Perumanam, a few miles to the South of Trichur. The development of his illiterative genius is attributed to the divine blessing of the deity of the Sasta Temple at Tiruvellakkavu in Perumanam.

Vasudeva was the student of a rich and generous scholar Paramesvara who, being a great expounder of the Mahabharata and the Puranas, was well known as Bharataguru and who was a Brahmin contemporary of king Kulasekhara.

Among his works Yudhistiravijaya, Tripuradamana, Sourikathodaya, and Nalodaya are composed in Yamaka style. Vasudeva’s all these works contain verses eulogising the royal patron of the poet.

Yudhistiravijaya^[1] mentions a king Kulasekhara. It gives the following information about the royal patron of the poet. “At the time, when there reigned a king named Kulasekhara of elephant gait, in whose kingdom decrepitude and misery were unknown, whose terrific battle fields were glorified by poets as hovered over by wheeling fights of Vultures, the fat soil of whose dominions yielded coveted harvests, while the trees provided the complete shade cowing to their luxuriance, whose subjects were graceful mannered and whose land was a fitting receptacle of fame, there lived a preceptor called Bharataguru, who was well versed in the vedas.

Trpuradahana^[2] refers a king Rama as follows: “There ruled a king who was bowed to by poets, the fight of whose army scattered his enemy kings, who was as steady in punishing the wicked as ready in succouring the righteous, whose conduct was above calumny, who was extolled as the foremost of kings (rajasekhara = siva in being wealthy (bhutidhara = a smearer of ashes) in having proboscis like arms (vyale-pati-Sphurat-Karam-serpentent wined arms) and in bestowing wealth upon the suppliants at his feet, who was considered as an incarnation of Rama himself in the sameness of his name, with the hero of the Ramayana and in (the identity of purpose) raksopayam (protection of his subjects: danger to Raksasas). In the reign of this king who was pleasing the eyes of his subjects, the Tripuradahana was composed by Ravibhu (son of Ravi) in the yamaka style.

In Saurikathodaya^[3] also Vasudeva has eulogised a king named Rama, who appears to be identical with the Rama mentioned in the earlier work Tripuradahana.

Nalodaya^[4] is another Yamaka poem composed by Vasudeva. But some assign its authorship to Ravi^[5], the father of Vasudeva. Even according to this view the work was written by a contemporary of king Kulasekhara. Hence the reference to the king contained in the work is important in this connection.

“The name of the king of his time was Rama, who was an adopt in the science of polity, whose powerful army clore its way, like a good ship through the river like armies of his enemies, whose kingdom produced stones, whose forests abounded in elephant hards, who as an overlord collected tribute from his vessels, who though being christened Rajaditya (at the same of his coronation) resembled the heaven resplendent with the sun and moon, who had conquered all his enemies etc.

The question naturally arises whether the two royal names mentioned by Vasudeva, namely, Kulasekhara and Rama represent one and the same king or two different successive rulers. But three commentaries on Yudhistriravijaya are seen to identify Kulasekhara with Rama.

Padarthacintana of Raghava while explaining the words Kale Kulasekharasya gives the following information:

kulaśekharasya kulaśekharanāmnaḥ, kulālaṅkāro'yaṃ bhavati
iti vicārya gurubhiḥ tathā kṛtanāmadheyasya paṭṭabandha
ityarthāt bhavati prāg rāmavarmanāmatvāt ||

Vijayadarsika of Acyuta explain the word Kulasekhara as follows:

kulaśekhara iti abhiṣekakṛtaṃ nāma, pitrādikṛtaṃ tu rāmavarmeti |

The word vasudhāmavataḥ ise xplained to mean—

vasūni dhanāni dhāma mahodayākhyaṃ puraṃ ceti dvandvaḥ |

Ratnapradipika of Sivadasa explain these words as follows:—

kulaśekharasya kulaśekhara iti nāmavataḥ
etad abhiṣekakṛtaṃ nāma pitrādikṛtaṃ tu rāmavarmeti |
vasudhāmavataḥ vasu dhanaṃ dhāma mahodayākhyaṃ puram ||

From these references one may safely conclude that the term Ramavarman was the personal name of the king who received the title Kulasekhara on the occasion of his inauguration. According to Visnu, a commentator of Nalodaya, the king Rama of Mahodayapuram also possessed the title Rajaditya.

Vasudeva has praised Kulasekhara in each of his four Yamaka compositions, this giving the posterily useful account of his patron. Scholars have expressed different views regarding the identity of Vasudeva’s patron. Zachariae tries to identify his patron with Ravi Varman Kulasekhara of Quilon the author of Pradyumnabhyudaya. This view is untenable since the patron of Vasudeva was Ramavarman Kulasekhara who had his capital at Mahodayapuram. According to another view Kulasekhara Alvar is credited with the patronage of Vasudeva. A third view is that Ramadeva of Ramavarman mentioned in the Laghubhaskariya of Sankaranarayana in the patron of the yamaka poet.

Keralavarma who has been referred by the poet must be the ruler with the title of Kolatiri (Kolabhupa in Sanskrit) during the period 1423 -1446 AD. In his commentary on Vasudeva’s Yudhishtiravijayam with the title of Padarthachintanam the commentator Raghava has mentioned that he was undertaking the task that the behest of his royal patron with the name of Keralavarma.

śrīkeralavarmanṛpaḥ paribhūtārātibhūtibhūritamadaḥ
āsthanamalaṅkurvannā rathāyogāt kadācidaśiṣanmām
racaya yudhiṣṭiravijayavyākhyāṃ prakhyāpitorutātparyām
locanacaturāṃ rāghavalāghavavijitātmajitām ||

Poet also says that he had been directed by his patron, evidently the same ruler with the name of Keralavarma to make a śravyakāvya, not a play coming under the category of dṛśyakāvya

koleśvarastaṃ muditaḥ kadācidā sthanavarti nṛpacakravartī
niṣṇātadhīḥ kṛṣṇakathānubandhaṃ kāvyaṃ kuru śrāvyamiti nyagādīt |

Both of them, the preceptor as well as the desciple must have been held in great esteem by the scholarly ruler of the Kola kingdom.

A Sanskrit manuscript available in the Tekke Medham, Trichur which gives details of the carreer of carrier of Padmapada, the disciple of Sankaracharya (780 -822 AD) mention a Kulasekhara as he contemporarily ruler of Mahodayapuram while the Sivananda Lahari of Sankaracharya mentions a king by name Kulasekhara on the evidence of both these works it is possible to inter that Sankaracharya was contemporary of both Kulasekhara Alvar (800 -820) and Rajasekhara Varman (820 -844).

This miscellaneous also throw some knowledge about Kerala history.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Kavyamala 60

[2]:

Being pub. in Travancore Sanskrit Series

[3]:

Descriptive catalogue of Sanskrit MSS 11815; R 1852 b

[4]:

Quoted in Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, London, 1925, P 268—
iti nalodaye vāsudevakṛte caturthaḥ paricchedaḥ

[5]:

This Ravi referred to in Mukundamala is the father of the Yamaka poet Vasudeva. He is to be identified with Ravi who is mentioned as proficient in Yamaka poem by Srikantha, the author of Raghudaya. So far his work is not available. But Vatakkumkur attributes the authorship of Nalodaya to him. (Kerala Sahitya Caritram, Ullur I -P 116 -119; Keraleya Samskrita Sahitya Caritram -I -P 161)