Palaniappan,

Swami Prabhupāda's explanation of the word īśvara as 'Lord’s empowered servants' is pretty dubious here. 10.33.31 should be seen in the context of the original question (10.33.26-27) on how īśvara, the Lord of the Universe -- who is the the original speaker, the executor, and the protector of the laws -- could violate the same laws/rules.

SB 10.33.29:
śrī-śuka uvāca
dharma-vyatikramo dṛṣṭa
 īśvarāṇāṁ ca sāhasam
tejīyasāṁ na doṣāya
 vahneḥ sarva-bhujo yathā

The answer is that  the status of īśvara is not harmed by any apparently audacious transgression of morality we may see in them, for they are just like fire, which devours everything fed into it and remains unpolluted (10.33.29).

SB 10.33.31
īśvarāṇāṁ vacaḥ satyaṁ
 tathaivācaritaṁ kvacit
teṣāṁ yat sva-vaco-yuktaṁ
 buddhimāṁs tat samācaret

The statements of the Lord are always true, and the acts they perform are exemplary when consistent with those statements. Therefore one who is intelligent should carry out those instructions.

There is no reason to doubt that īśvarāṇāṁ in 10.33.31 in any way refers to devotee or a servant of the Lord, and cannot make a case of any relationship with the Tamil āḷvār/āḻvār variation.

Regards,
Suresh.


On Mon, Mar 20, 2017 at 1:20 PM, Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Sorry, there was a typo in the subject line. It should have been BhP 10.33.31.

Regards,
Palaniappan

On Mar 20, 2017, at 12:16 PM, Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan <Palaniappa@aol.com> wrote:

Dear Scholars,

Yesterday, as I was browsing an online BhP text with translation published by ISKCON (https://ia801005.us.archive.org/28/items/SrimadBhagavatamEnglish-Sanskrit/Srimad-Bhagavatam_Canto_10_2.pdf), I came across the following verse.

īśvarāṇāṁ vacaḥ satyam
tathaivācaritaṁ kvacit
teṣāṁ yat sva-vaco-yuktaṁ
buddhimāṁs tat samācaret

In connection with this verse, the commentary says, “ The word īśvara is usually defined in Sanskrit dictionaries as “lord, master, ruler,” and also as "capable, potent to perform.”  Based on the commentaries for this verse and succeeding verses, it is clear that by the word ‘īśvara’ the text refers to a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. This usage of 'īśvara’ to refer to a devotee seems to be a clear case of translation of the Tamil word ‘āḷvār’ as used in Tamil texts and inscriptions. Synonyms of āḷvār are also used to refer to both the devotees and the deities in the Tamil tradition. For instance the deity in the temple at Tanjore is called Bṛhadīśvara in Sanskrit and Peruvuṭaiyār in Tamil. Here Sanskrit īśvara is synonymous with Tamil uṭaiyār. Interestingly, Rāmānuja is called Uṭaiyavar (an alternate form of Uṭaiyār) in the Tamil tradition. 

I had shown in an earlier publication that the word āḷvār meaning ‘one who rules’ got modified to āḻvār meaning ‘one who is immersed’ due to hypercorrection of ḷ to ḻ. (See http://www.academia.edu/9668394/Āḻvār_or_Nāyaṉār_The_Role_of_Sound_Variation_Hypercorrection_and_Folk_Etymology_in_Interpreting_the_Nature_of_Vaiṣṇava_Saint-Poets) 

Can anybody with access to the critical edition of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa tell me if BhP 10.33.31 quoted above is in the critical edition? If it is, then this seems to be an important important information regarding the date of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.

Thanks in advance

Regards,
Palaniappan





 


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