Bilvamangala in Madhva’s Sarvamula


 Bilvamangala in Madhva’s Sarvamula

 

 In 1510, according to Krishnadasa Kaviraja’s Caitanya-caritamrita, Caitanya brought Bilvamangala Thakur’s composition Krishna-karnamrita with him to Puri from a pilgrimage in South India. Krishna-karnamrita is a passionate praise of Krishna in erotic verses. The work has been highly appreciated for centuries throughout India. It has had a great influence on the emotionalism of the Bengali faith. Krishna-karnamrita is also highly appreciated by the Sahajiyas, whose ideas are captured in the teachings of Bengal Vaishnavism.

 

The earliest mention of Krishna-karnamrita dates back to 1367. And the earliest possible mention of the author (=Bilvamangala), as pointed out by F. Wilson in The Love of Krishna: The Kṛṣṇakarṇāmṛta of Līlāśuka Bilvamaṅgala, we find in Madhvācārya’s Sarvamūla (see Śrimat Sarvamūlam; The Collected Works of Madhvācārya, Vol. 3, ed. R. Kṛṣṇācārya and Rāmācārya; Bombay: Nirnaya Sagar Press, 1892):

 

iti śrīmadānandatīrthabhagavatpādācāryaviracitā

kṛṣṇastutiḥ saṃpūrṇā. bilvamaṅgalaḥ sādhuḥ

śrīkṛṣnārpaṇam astu sarvamūlaṃ saṃpūrṇam


There has been some discussion as to what bilvamaṅgalaḥ sādhuḥ may mean here. It is possible that it is a benevolent utterance or praise. The A.S. Acharya (from Tattvavada school) is of the opinion that by adding bilvamaṅgalaḥ sādhuḥ, Madhva may have drawn attention to a good and holy, though simple man named Bilvamangala, who was among the circle of Madhva’s disciples and followers. According to B.N.K. Sharma, according to tradition, bilvamaṅgalaḥ sādhuḥ was supposedly uttered by Madhva. Sharma is of the opinion that one should not see this as a mantra. Sharma has not offered any explanation of the words bilvamaṅgalaḥ sādhuḥ as an address to the poet. These words have no traditional meaning in the Madhva-sampradaya. P. Hayagrīvācārya Guttal (Tattvavada school) of Deccan College wrote an article on the possible meanings of these words as a mantra or as an address to a poet (Poona, 1960?).

 

The 1974 edition of Bannanje Govindacarya’s Sarvamūla (vol. 5), based on the manuscript of Hrishikesha Tirtha, a disciple of Madhva, does not contain these words. The discrepancies are quite real. There is little information and no one has done solid research on this subject yet. But I know that there were several Bilvamangalas and they lived at different times, scholars note the period of their life in 5th–14th centuries. It is also worth remembering that we have several versions of Krishna-Karnamrita. The shortest version is the Bengali version (122 stanzas). Prof. De considers it to be the most ancient. The other five versions are South Indian. And a few commentaries on them all. The second and third parts of the southern versions, which are not in the Bengali version, were added to the first part after Caitanya had received his copy of the Bengali version in South India about 1510.

 

Rupa Gosvamin compiled a Sanskrit anthology and entitled it Padyavali. In the final 387th stanza of this work, Rupa says that in compiling the anthology he deliberately refrained from including the poetry of Jayadeva and Bilvamangala. There is not a single stanza in Rupa’s work from the first part of the Krishna-karnamrita of any edition. Thus, the first and only part of the Bengali version Rupa evidently regarded as authentic. However, some stanzas occurring in the second and third parts of the KK with commentaries by Papayallaya Suri are attributed by Rupa to authors other than Bilvamangala or quoted without attribution.




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