A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s4.15

c19.s4.15

A striking contrast in almost every way to Śrīnātha was his brother-in-law and junior contemporary Bammera Potana (1400-75), a niyogi from Oṇṭimiṭṭa in Cuddapah district and translator of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. Potana lived and died a poor man; he had no scholarly education, and his poetry, the result of inspiration born of an intense devotion, often overlooked the niceties of grammar. Potana is said to have met a yogi called Jitānanda whose grace converted him into a devotee with the gift of poesy. The *Bhāgavata* of Potana is more voluminous than the original, and its easy diction, vivid descriptions, and narrative power together with the intense spiritual experience conveyed by almost every verse have made the work much more popular than the translations of the *Rāmāyaṇa* and the *Mahābhārata*. The story goes that when Rao Singa wanted Potana to dedicate the poem to him, the Goddess of Learning appeared in a dream and begged Potana to guard her chastity by not casting her into the arms of Singabhūpāla, and there is a notable verse purporting to be Potana's answer to the goddess. In any event, Potana did not publish his great work in his life-time and left it as a legacy to his son Mallana. Parts of the poem were found later to have suffered damage from insects, and the gaps had to be filled in by other hands. The sections of the poem on the release of the Gajendra (elephant lord) by Vishnu and the marriage of Rukmini carry an appeal even to the unlettered. Potana perhaps also wrote *Virabhadra Vijaya* in praise of Śiva, it is said, as an expiation for his having penned the words of abuse which the enemies of Śiva uttered against him on the occasion of Daksha's sacrifice.