Research on Bilvamangala by Paturi Sitaramanjaneyulu Garu

Who is Bilvamangala?

Bilvamangala, the author of Sri Krishna Karnamritam, who was known by the name Sri Krishna Leelasuka (śrī kriṣṇa līlā śuka) became so well known , loved and revered throughout India all due to the popularity of his Sri Krishna Karnamritam and its mellifluously sweet Sanskrit verses on Sri Krishna that he grew into a legend and legends grew around his life. 

Not much is known about the exact time period or exact place and biography of Bilvamangala.All that is available is just these legends.

Most of these narratives around his life place him in south India. I found some narratives /legends where he is depicted as a Keralite. In Telugu speaking land too his legends are highly popular. The common aspects of most of these narratives is his love affair with a sex worker woman called Chintamani (Chintāmaṇi) and change in her that transformed her into a great devotee of Krishna. In modern Telugu literature there is a play written during the reformation movements that sprung during colonial rule . The play itself is called Chintamani(Chintāmaṇi)  and Chintamani(Chintāmaṇi)  , the charming sex worker is the central character. Bilvamangala is depicted in this play as one of the customers of her, enamored by her beauty, a poet. The message of the poet is against the practice of prostitution. Bilvamangala in the play is one of the three principal male characters who learn a lesson against the addiction for prostitutes. This play though does not depict Bilvamangala as the central figure of the story, must have been based on the legends having him as the central figure only. Even the Keralite legends showing him as a Keralite, have this aspect of Bilvamangala’s fascination for a prostitute and her name in this version too is Chintamani(Chintāmaṇi) only. 

My father, Sri Paturi(surname)  Sitramanjaneyulu (personal name) ( Sri Sitaramanjaneyulu Paturi , in the Personal name – Surname style of name writing) , a great scholar in many Vedic Shastras, author of around 300 books, while writing his Telugu commentary to Sri Krishna Karnamritam,  as was his practice in writing any such book, did extensive research on Bilvamangala and his life. 

He came up with a thesis that Bilvamangala was a Telugu Brahmin who lived during the 12th century when the kings and the queen of Kakatiya ruled a vast empire including the Telugu speaking areas. 

Salient features of his findings as summed up by a great archaeologist and historian Dr  P. V. Parabrahma Sastry  who specializes in Kakatiya history and epigraphy in his foreword in Telugu to Sri Sitaramanajaneyulu’s book are as follows:

1. Sri Susil Kumar De who published the Gaudiyapatha of Sri Krishna Karnamritam in 1938, mentioned that Sri Krishnalilasuka Bilvamangala renounced , i.e., took to sanyaasa , ascetic life in his twelfth year and lived in Vedadri , a Narasimha hill – shrine near Dorasamudram close to Jaggayyapet of the Krishna District of Andhra Pradesh. 
2. Based on the clue provided by Sri Susil Kumar De, Sri Paturi-ji studied some inscriptions of the place(s) mentioned by Sri De. 
3. The verses mandāramūlē madanābhirāmam ……. (I-100) and adharē vinivēśya vamśanāl̥am (II-14) are mentioned in an inscription (1640 AD) of a place called Vellaturu which was a sacred shrine and was known by a name Papaviaseshwaram in medieval inscriptions(1658 AD). This inscription mentions a lineage of gurus and their disciples. This lineage begins with Krishnaashrama Bhagavatpoojyapaada. This shows  that the shrine was centered  around devotion for Krishna. 
4. In another older inscription dated 1265 AD from the Alugadapa village of Huzurnagar Taluq of Nalgonda district (presently in Telangana state) , the first verse among the inscription’s invocation verses has an interestingly unusual feature. It has prayer to Varaaha (wild boar) form of Vishnu in the first half, first two lines of the verse. The second half, i.e., the last two lines of the verse unusually shift to praying to Gopalakrishna, i.e., Vishnu’s Krishna avatar in his cowherd form.  This unusual feature can be explained only in one way. Varaaha (wild boar) form of Vishnu is the family deity of Kakatiya dynasty whose inscription it is. Gopalakrishna, i.e., Vishnu’s Krishna avatar in his cowherd form must be the favorite of the poet drafting the inscription. The place of the inscription is located very close to the Gopalakrishna centered shrine mentioned above. That is the only Gopalakrishna centre in the neighborhood. It can thus be safely conjectured that the poet drafting the 1265 AD inscription is from the Gopalakrishna Asshrama which as per the 1658 AD inscription had a long lineage going back probably upto 1265 AD. So there is a great possibility of the author of Sri Krishna Karnamritam, Lilasuka Bilvamangala being the author of the 1265 AD inscription of the Kakatiyas.   
5. Another compelling evidence in this direction is the expression śr̥timayatanubhih used in the Gopalakrishna part of the verse in the 1265 AD inscription.  

The two Gopalakrishna lines in the verse are as follows: 

Sākam chikrīḍa gōbhih śr̥timayatanubhih kēl̥igōpālabālō 

Gōvindōsā vamandām mudamupanayatā mindirākāmukō vah  

śr̥timayatanu means body made of Vedas. Vadas make the body of Vishnu’s Krishna avatar in his cowherd form is the idea, the image here. 

Krishnalilashuka Bilvamangala in his commentary called Purushakaara to a grammar book by name Daivam uses the image of Vadas making the body of Vishnu’s Krishna avatar in his cowherd form in the first  line of a verse : gāmścha  vibhudhāmścha bhūmau . 

This confirms that the poet using the image in both the works should be one and the same. 

6. Sri Sitaramanjaneyulu shows more literary periodical evidence for the identity of the authors of the 1265 AD inscription and Sri Krishna Karnamritam. The variety of meters used in both the works are the same. In 3-100 of Sri Krishnakarnamritam the fifth syllable of the anushTubh verse is unusually a long one. The same unusual feature is found in the first verse of the inscription too. Second syllable rhyming characteristic feature of Telugu metrical rules is found both in Sri Krishna Karnamritam and the verses in the inscription. 

If we go by all these evidences, the time period of Bilvamangala can be taken as the 13th century AD. He can be safely identified as a person hailing from the Telugu speaking area close to Vellaturu mentioned above. He must have been an ascetic of the Sri Krishna Aashrama. So the Chintamani –centric legends can be either later day concocted stories or must be allegories about certain cryptic aspects of his spiritual practice. 

Sri Sitaramanjaneyulu shows evidences for the possibility of the name Bilvamangala being Sanskritisation of a Telugu family name mārēl̥la meaning ‘from a village named after bilva trees’.

I tried to summarise a greatly detailed write up in Telugu by my father late Sri Paturi Sitaramanjaneyulu garu provided in his Telugu commentary to Sri Krishna Karnamritam. 

Prof. Nagaraj Paturi

Director,

Inter-University Centre For Indic Knowledge Systems,

Indic Academy, Hyderabad.