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To what profound penance owe you this boon, O! Yashotha! Translation of Oothukkadu Venkata Subbha Iyer’s enna thavam seithanai – yashOthA by T. Wignesan

To what profound penance owe you this boon, O! YashOthA! ®

That He – the ParaBrahmman – who bestrides the Universe
Should call you “Mother!”

To what profound penance owe you this boon, O! YashOthA!

He who created the two times seven worlds
Whom you may lift up breast-feed and cradle in your arms 
Such as to drive even Brahmman and Indhiran to stark envy

(Yes) He whom you tied to the large stone mortar
Muffled and reduced to utter beggary, O! Mother!

To what profound penance owe you this boon, O! YashOthA!

What Sanakkadi Saints attained through self-mortifying  
        Endurance
You obtained that purity with ease just by being made His 
        Mother!

To what profound penance owe you this boon, O! YashOthA!



Transliteration

enna thavam seithanai – YashOthA (Refrain)
enkum nirai parabrahmman amma enralaikka
enna thavam seithanai – YashOthA
IrElu pUvanangkal padaitthavanai
Kaiyil Enthi cIr Addi pAlUddi talAdda
brahmmanum inthirannum manathil porAmai kola
uralil kaddi vAy potthik kenja vaitthAy tAyE
enna thaval seithanai - yashOthA
sanakkAthiyarthavayOkam seithu varunthi
sAthitthadai punitha mAthE eluthil pera
enna thavam seithanai - yashOthA

Resources

We are back again to celebrate Krishna in the words of the poet,
and thus to evoke the penchant for « playfulness » in the Hindu mind which cannot be dissociated from the profoundly respectful pre-occupation with anything religious whenever Krishna, the avatar/ embodiment of Vishnu, the Preserver in the Hindu Trinity, is the subject of one’s thoughts. The Hindu Pantheon is filled with some 33 million « gods », by some counts, but Krishna outshines them all.
In the Hindu religious tradition, the real and the mythological confound themselves, or rather the poet enhances the real through
his imagination, with the result we are made to believe that the
Supreme Being has a worldly life in which his worshippers may
interact with Him. This poem is yet another example. YashOthA
of the herdsman caste is entrusted with the infant Krishna, and as His foster-mother, she is the object of envy even by gods.

The poem has been set to music in the Carnatic mode (with ragas
and thalas) and sung by several able exponents of the art. Check out versions by Sudha Ragunathan or by Karthik and a good many others on the Internet (Abirami).

 ©  T. Wignesan – Paris, 2015.
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