About the Book

"Bhagabata" was composed by Vyasa Deva, son of sage Parasar, on the advice of the great sage Narada.

Vyasa Deva compiled all the eighteen Puranas and the great epic Mahabharata. But even so he did not gain mental satisfaction from them. Sage Narada advised him to writer something for the guidance of the common man, to live a stainless life on earth, to earn mental peace.

That was what brought about the great scripture Bhagabata. We know how popular Bhagaabata became with the common masses in its translations in the regional languages all over India.

From our own experience in Orissa we know how popular the didactic sayings of the scripture on its translation by saint-poet Jagannath Das became in the 16th century and how it has maintained its popularity all these hundreds of years.

A couple of its popular sayings will show its merit at a glance:

(1) He is praiseworthy person on earth, Who does good to others in his life's path.
(2) Whose heart is bereft of ire,
Is friend to the world entire

About the Author

The author, Shri Gananath Das, retired from the Indian Administrative Service in the Year 1972. Since then he has engaged himself in the study of various saint poets starting with the famous saint poet, Kabir Das, of the 15th century A.D.

On Kabir his works include Life and Philosophy of the Saint Poet in Oriya, and translation of five Hundred of his couplets in English Verse, in three volumes: the first of one hundred published by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan of Bombay in 1992, the second of three hundred published by Motilal Banarasi Das of Delhi in 1991 and the third of one hundred published by Writers Workshop of Calcutta in 1992, followed by Sayings of published by the same publisher in 1993.

In 1992 he published his translation of one hundred songs of Guru Nanak Dev as 'Nanak Satak' in Oriya and 100 Love songs of Kabir in English Verse, which was published by Abhinav Publications of New Delhi.

In 1994 he published his Oriya Verse translation of the entire Thiru Kural, the immortal work of the Tamil Saint Poet Thiru Valluvar, consisting of 1330 couplets in 133 chapters

In 1994 he published his Essays on Kabir published by the Writers Workship of Calcutta consisting of in-depth studies of the Saint Poet's Sayings on as many as 22 topics

In the meantime he has completed his "Readings from Bhagabata", being English Verse Translation of over 150 Sayings of the famous scripture originally into Oriya Verse by Saint Poet Jagannath Das of 'Pancha Sakh' face.