Paá¹Âá¹Âattu VÃÂsudeva Bhaá¹Âá¹Âatiri (c. 9th century CE) was an Indian Sanskrit poet hailing from the present-day Thrissur district in Kerala. Bhaá¹Âá¹Âatiri's works are particularly noted for the use of the yamaka (a kind of rhyme) in the decoration of the verses, and his reputation as a poet largely stems from his skillful and extensive use of yamaka-s in his compositions. Yamaka is a form of literary ornamentation which involves the repetition of letters which has similar sound but mutually differs in meanings.
Bhaá¹Âá¹Âatiri was born into Paá¹Âá¹Âattu Mana, a Naá¹Âpà «tiri family whose ancestral home is located near Thiruvullakkavu Sree Dharma Sastha Temple in Cherpu Gramapanchayath in Thrissur district. The ancestral house of the Mana has survived to modern times possibly with many alterations and renovations. Bhaá¹Âá¹Âatiri has given some information about himself in some of his literary works. This suggests that he was a contemporary of King Kulaà Âekhara and was a student of a scholar by name Parameà Âvaran Naá¹Âpà «tiri and having the title of BhÃÂrataguru. There was a tradition wherein all Kerala Kings, at the time of being crowned as king, assumed the title of "Kulasekhara". This means that there were many kings known by the name Kulasekhara. However, as per other indications in Bhaá¹Âá¹Âatiri's writings, it could be reasonably concluded that the Kulasekhara that Bhaá¹Âá¹Âatiri refers to was Kulasekha Alwar who is known to have reigned during the ninth century CE.
Bhaá¹Âá¹Âatiri is particularly noted for his expertise in the use of yamakams in his compositions. Composing a yamaka kÃÂvya is considered technically demanding, requiring significant poetic skill. According to tradition, Bhaá¹Âá¹Âatiri's emergence as a gifted poet from a modest, rural background was attributed by contemporaries to divine intervention. A well-known legend narrates the circumstances of this divine influence on his life.
The members of Paá¹Âá¹Âattu Mana, the family into which he was born, were traditional hereditary priests in the nearby à ÂÃÂstàtemple at Thiruvullakkavu. Bhaá¹Âá¹Âatiri also used to perform duties of a priest at the temple. One night, after the completion of his priestly duties, Bhaá¹Âá¹Âatiri found himself unable to return to his house due to continuous heavy rain and, as time passed, he felt very tired and hungry as he had not taken his nightly meal. As there were nobody in the precincts of the temple to seek help, he cried out to the deity of the temple to help him save from the grave situation. At that moment Bhaá¹Âá¹Âatiri heard a voice from the sanctum sanctorum instructing him to go the temple kitchen and eat the plantain fruit, kept there to be used as offering to the deity, to sate his hunger and to light the kitchen's fireplace using the firewood available there to warm himself. He obeyed the divine instructions and fell asleep in the kitchen floor itself. Next morning, when the temple servant came to clean up the temple, she was shocked to find the priest sleeping on the floor of the kitchen. To the surprised queries of the servant, Bhaá¹Âá¹Âatiri's reply was a verse in the vernacular language Malayalam couched in yamakam describing what he had done during the previous night. This verse is considered his earliest known composition and is traditionally viewed as the moment his poetic talent emerged. A further detail in the legend describes how the temple servant, believing that the plantain had granted Bhattathiri his poetic skill, consumed the remaining parts of the fruit, such as the rinds, and was said to have gained some poetic ability herself, though to a lesser degree.
The following are the main works attributed to VÃÂsudeva Bhaá¹Âá¹Âathiri.
Some scholars have attributed the following works also to VÃÂsudeva Bhaá¹Âá¹Âathiri. But Not all scholars agree to this.
Bhaá¹Âá¹Âatiri's Yudhiá¹£á¹Âhiravijaya is the first ever yamaka-kÃÂvya to be composed in the history of Sanskrit literature. The use of yamaka-s has made the understanding of the meaning of the verses extremely difficult. This resulted in the composition of commentaries by accomplished scholars in the subsequent eras. A large number of commentaries on Yudhiá¹£á¹Âhiravijaya have been identified from several parts of India. Most of them are still not critically edited and published. Yudhiá¹£á¹Âhiravijaya has attracted commentaries by scholars from various parts of India, including regions as distant as Kashmir. This suggests a significant degree of recognition and circulation beyond its place of origin in Kerala. Among Sanskrit works composed in Kerala, few, aside from those attributed to Adi Shankaracharya, appear to have achieved comparable attention on a subcontinental scale.
Due to its linguistic complexity, Yudhiá¹£á¹Âhiravijaya was used as a classroom text to illustrate the structure and derivation of Sanskrit words and also to teach the vocabulary of Sanskrit language.
The commentaries on Yudhiá¹£á¹Âhiravijaya include the following: