SWAMI SRI VEERABRAHMENDRA

A Monograph on Pothuluru Veerabrahmendra Swamy

Light From The Labyrinth of Legends

The quality of the basic material on Veerabrahmam is poor except in the case of a handful of books and articles written in Telugu and pamphlets published in English. So far as the fife history of Veerabrahmam is concerned, it is difficult to know what is authentic and definite about him. One has to make headway through a labyrinth of legends which emit little light.

Any saint, endowed with miraculous powers of doing and undoing, is sure to become a legend in his own life time. Veerabrahmam too was not an exception. For his followers who worship him as a God, Veerabrahmam of legends may be the real Brahmam. Any attempt to find out the historical Brahmam who may or may not be a God is a sin from the point of view of his devotees, Let these devotees, bereft of rational mind, curse the historian and the researcher. But the researcher need not be afraid of them. He will have his reward, i believe, in the long run.

Left to myself, I have a high esteem for Veerabrahmam whom I consider to be basically human, a man endowed with great human qualities. But as I went through the innumerable pages of his biographies available in Telugu, I could discover only a legendary Brahmam. To rely completely on him, is at times dangerous from the historical point of view. The only way out is to search for the authentic writings on Veerabrahmam which may serve as internal evidence for his life history. Even the few mystic songs and: maxims of Kalagnana said to have been composed by Veerabrahmam are still doubtful whether they were actually composed by Brahmam himself. In these circumstances, the researcher’s job will be as tough as that of a person making his way through a thick forest of modern mythology.

The Sampoorna Charitra of Sri Veerabrahmam Swamy written in Telugu by Javangula Nagabhushanadas is very popular among the people of Andhra Pradesh. Thousands of copies which were sold out, bear testimony to the popularity of this book. Nagabhushanadas was, no doubt a sincere and faithful devotee of Veerabrahmam. Like a good number of other devotees, he too was of a firm belief that Veerabrahmam was God-incarnate. With this belief and faith he made a sincere attempt to write the Swami’s biography in a rather mythological fashion.

Bhudevi, the goddess of earth entreats Sri Maha Vishnu, the protector of ail creation to redeem her of the unbearable burden of sinners on earth. Maha Vishnu assures her that she would soon be redeemed Consequently Kasi Viswanatha (God Siva of Benaras) appeared in the dream of Prakrit(y)amba of Brahmapuri and told her that ‘the all-protector’ would be born on earth as her son. And this son was none else than Veerambhotlayya himself, who was brought up by Atrimuni for some time, and later by Papamamba of Papaghni mutt. The very beginning of this story re¬veals that the biography is going to be a mass of legends freely narrated in the form of a mythology.