# Pūntānam’s Jnānappānā (The Song of Wisdom)

- Link: https://writersworkshopindia.com/2024/12/10/puntanams-jnanappana-the-song-of-wisdom/
- Published: 2024-12-10T14:52:14+00:00
- Author: us\_basu

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**Translator: **Gopikrishnan Kottoor[⌊A sample cover of the book: midnight-blue handloom sari with gold embossed nameplate and lettering for the title and author's name. The border of the sari lines the right hand margin of the cover.⌉](https://writersworkshopindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Puntanams-Jnanappana.jpeg)
**
Pages:** 34 **Year of Publication:** 2024 (Revised edition) **Price:** Rs 150 **
ISBN: **978-81-979136-7-9 (9788197913679)

_**About the Translator**_

An established voice in Indian poetry in English, Gopikrishnan Kottoor has won major
national and international prizes such as the All India Poetry Prize, Wingword Poetry
Award and Chandigarh Literary Festival Prize, and has appeared in leading poetry
journals in India and abroad, among them _Contemporary Indian Poetry_ (Bloodaxe),
_Talk of the Town_ (Penguin), _Lie of the Land_ (Sahitya Akademi), _Year Book of
Indian Poetry_, and _Best Asian Poetry_. His poem sequence _Father, Wake Us in Passing_
won a Poetry Residency at the University of Augsburg, Germany, and was translated
into German. His oeuvre includes plays on the final days of John Keats and the lives
of Subramania Bharati and Saint Devasahayam. His novel _A Bridge Over Karma_ is 
being reissued as _Karma River_ in Malayalam. Among his translations into English
is Changampuzha’s _Ramanan_ (Kerala Sahitya Akademi). Anthologies edited by him 
include _English Poetry from Kerala: Seven Contemporary Poets_ and _What Else Is
Rain_? He founded the little magazine for English poetry, _Poetry Chain_. Three 
new poetry collections by him and the novel _Basundhara_ are forthcoming. He lives
in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

_**About the Book**_

In his introduction to the book, Gopikrishnan Kottoor writes:

“In the heart of every Hindu and among the sacred texts in the temple-rooms of Hindu
households in Kerala, the _Jnānappānā_ of Pūntānam finds a place beside the _Bhagavad
Gitā_. Pūntānam (c. 1547-1640) is the favourite Bhakti poet-philosopher of Kerala.
The popularity of _Jnānappānā_, which contains the essence of the Vedas and Upanishads
rendered in humble vein, has endured the test of the centuries. The poem sequence
is indeed a coveted publication with print runs of thousands of copies sold year
after year.

…I am humbly thankful to the Lotus-eyed Lord of Guruvayur for letting the thought
occur to my mind that I should attempt a transcreation of this priceless work. _Jnānappānā_
is indeed the gift the Eternal One has bounteously bestowed upon his devotee for
as long as the earth exists. There is nothing more that a poet devoted to his Lord
could ask for, than for his composition to be read and sung everywhere, every time,
and have a place forever along with and always close beside the Eternal One Himself.”

_**Extract**_

In the beginning, this abyss of infinity
 Was the form of the One Glorious Divine;
Nothing was bound to It, It bound itself to nothing, To those that thought It this
or that, It was the revelation of oneness of all; To others who tamed not their 
minds, It became void of all meaning; Of that which is there of a kind, And never
again, In such wholesomeness of One He filled life-force, and sans element, Created
the Universe that still contains the three.

 

 

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