How are the Bhagavatam’s cantos named?

It is difficult to see the correlation between the title of a canto and its content.

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Transcript

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Thank you. Hare Krishna.
Question. How are the Bhagavatams cantos named? Sometimes it’s difficult to see the correlation between the contents of a canto and the title of the canto. For example, the first canto doesn’t talk much about creation nor does the eleventh canto have much about general history.
So how do we understand these names? Answer. The names broadly refer not to the specific contents of each canto but to the ten main topics of those cantos. So, Jiva Goswami explains in his Bhagavat Sandarbha that the ten topics which are mentioned in the Krishna Bhagavatam, in the second canto, it says, So, these ten topics are present in the ten… in all the cantos to some extent and traditionally, the first two cantos, the Vopade was a commentator from Maharashtra who wrote a commentary, a small book on the Bhagavatam.
Some people mistake him to be the author of the Bhagavatam but he’s the author of just a commentary on the Bhagavatam. So anyway, in his commentary, he used a nomenclature which later on became quite widespread and his nomenclature was that first and second cantos he considered to be more or less parichaya, introducing the character, setting the scene, and the ten topics, sarga, visarga, he says that they are from the third canto onwards to the twelfth canto and that’s how he titles them. Now, there is not necessarily a correlation between the content, although some correlation can be seen but essentially, the themes of the Bhagavatam are the desalakshana, as it is said for the Bhagavatam, the names are related with that.
So now, Vishwaprabhupada, he doesn’t adopt that nomenclature. The nomenclature is often changed by different commentators. If you look at the Bhagavata’s chapters also, although sometimes the Gitaparas names of the Gita chapters, they are considered standard, but there are different traditions, in different sampradayas, different acharyas have used different names for different chapters.
So, just as the names of the Gita chapters can be different, just as Prabhupada himself uses different names for certain chapters, as compared to what Vishwanath Chakradhakar uses for the Bhagavatam also. So, similarly, Prabhupada uses a particular nomenclature, where he starts from the first canto with Sarga. So, that’s why the first, Atra Sarga Visarga, so Sarga is creation.
So, Prabhupada talks about, Prabhupada correlates the first ten cantos of the Bhagavatam with the ten aspects of the ten subjects or the ten themes of the Bhagavatam. Now, if we see from the content point of view, the Bhagavatam contains a wide variety of subjects, but these are also talked about. So, for example, creation.
Atra Sarga Visarga Sthanam Poshanam Udayaha. So, for example, Prabhupada, Sarga is creation. So, Udayaha is the creative impulse.
Sthanam is the status quo. Ishanukatha, Prabhupada translates that as the science of God. Nirodho Muktirashraya.
Nirodho, Prabhupada translates as, that is the eighth canto, withdrawal of the cosmic manifestation. Muktir is liberation. And Ashraya, the shelter, Prabhupada translates as the samambolam.
So, like that, now, even the translations from the Sanskrit to English may not be very precise, but they broadly reflect the ten themes of the Bhagavatam. And the eleventh and the twelfth cantos, Prabhupada translates as the general history and the age of deterioration. That reflects roughly the content of those cantos.
The twelfth canto contains predictions about Kali Yuga. So, Kali Yuga is the age of deterioration. Nangshetya, Nangshetya means to deteriorate as a famous verse.
That is Kali Yuga, Ayu, Balasuthi, various things will deteriorate. So, deterioration is a characteristic of Kali Yuga. It is the age of deterioration.
And when Prabhupada talks about the eleventh canto as general history, that means that he is referring to, generally he is using it as an assorted in terms of things being compiled from various sources. So, although a major part of the eleventh canto is Uddhav Gita, Uddhav Gita itself contains narrations from various sources. There is the Pururava story, there is the Pingala story, there is the Brahmana story, there is the, who is considered the Tatra by some, then there is Krishna narrating the conversation between him and Brahma and Hamsa.
So, like that there are various anecdotes from past history which are talked about in the eleventh canto and in that sense it is called assorted history. So, the broad names, the names of the first ten cantos come from the ten topics of the Bhagavatam, roughly translated into English and the eleventh and twelfth canton come from the, are a rough reflection of their content. Thank you.
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