Nallapillai Bharatham
இந்தப் பக்கத்தை தமிழில் வாசிக்க: நல்லாப்பிள்ளை பாரதம்
Nallapillai Bharatham, written by Nallapillai who lived in 18th century, is one of the Tamil Vaishnava epics.
Publication
The first edition of Nallapillai Bharatham was published in 1888 by Swaminatha Iyer. Second edition came out in 1911 published by Sundharanatha Pillai. [1]Professor Ra. Srinivasan republished it in 2007.[2]
Author
Nallapillai was born in a hamlet called Mudhalamebedu near Kavaraipettai, a suburb in North Chennai. He belonged to a caste called Karuneegar. Sengadu Veeraraghava Reddy supported his Tamil literary work.
Creation
In Tamil literature, Mahabharata references have started to appear since the Sangam period. They also appear in Purananuru texts. The poet who wrote the Payiram (preface) for Sangam songs was called Bharadham Paadiya Perundhevanar' (Perundevanar who sang Mahabharata). This text is mostly unavailable. Chinnamanur copper inscription reveals that the Pandias translated the Mahabharata into Tamil at the Madurapuri Sangam, which hasn't been found as well.[3] In the fifteenth century, Villiputhurar composed the Villibharatham.
In the eighteenth century, as learning and lecturing on Mahabharata became popular in Tamil Nadu, Villibharatham, being concise, was widely used. It was shorter than Vyasa Bharatham and had only 10 of the 18 chapters.
Nallappillai, who wanted to sing the entire Mahabharata in Tamil, composed 14000 verses,132 chapters and eighteen books as in the original Vyasa Mahabharata. Murugappa Upadhyay also co-authored the book, that was later called Nallappillai Bharatham[4].
He retains most of the verses from Villibharatham in his book, details the portions not covered by Villiputhurar and expands on the parts that are little bit condensed in Villibharatham. Therefore all of the 4300 verses of Villibharatham feature in this text. After it was completed, he was accompanied by Veeraraghava Reddy to go and present his completed Mahabharata at the Varadharaja Perumal temple at Kanchipuram.
The original palm leaf manuscript of Nallapillai Bharatham is at the Tamil University. It is still performed at Kadhaprasangam (lyrical narration or story telling) performances. [5]
Reference
Footnotes
- ↑ 'Nallapillai Bharatham aaivu seiya pada vendum' - Prof. Ra. Srinivasan's Interview on Thendral Tamil Magazine, Thendral
- ↑ Varadhu vandha Maamani..Nallapillai Bharatham
- ↑ Peridhinum Peridhu, Jeyamohan.in
- ↑ Tamil Ilakiya Varalaru, Mu. Varadharasan, Archive
- ↑ Tamil Ilakiya Varalaru - Mu. Varadharasan, Archive
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