This short text is a campu-prabandha written by Narayana Bhatta. Narayana Bhatta was a Nambudiri Brahmin. He was born approx. 1590 and hailed from Kerala. Many works are ascribed to him in various departments of knowledge, e.g. Prakriya-sarvasva (a treatise on grammar praised even by Bhattoji Dikshita), Maneyodaya (a work on Mimamsa), Silpi-ratna (a work on architecture), Dhatu-kavya (another important work on grammar), Narayaniyam (a devotional poem to Krishna) and several famous prabandhas. Narayana Bhatta was also an author in Malayalam.

Prabandhas are poetical works written on the basis of puranic stories. Their purpose was to propagate religious faith among people. A sub-caste called Cakyar used to perform the prabandhas. Their recitation was accompanied by gestures of hands and movements of the body.

I took the text of the prabandha from an article by Pandita V. Venkatarama Sharma Shastri Vidyabhushan called Ajamila-moksha-prabandha of Narayana Bhatta that was printed in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1926), p. 295–300.

Panditji mentions in the introduction that he was relying on a Malayalam manuscript but a certain portion of the text had been lost and he had to fill it up from the memory of a Cakyar. (Robert Gafrik)

2004-01-22

Added by: Jagat
Credits:
Text version: 1.00 (legend)
Keywords: Narayana, Bhatta, Ajamila, Moksa, campu, prabandha, Kerala, Nambudiri, Cakyar

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Additional notes from the editors' research and selected discussion forum contributions.

We have more than one Narayana Bhatta. This one has been designated number 2. Though as yet we have not posted anything by Narayana Bhatta (1), who was a South Indian Brahmin of the Gaudiya sampradaya living in Vraja and author of many books on devotion and Vraja Dham. He was considered one of the fathers of the Brajbhasha Rasa lila.