From my understanding (as a non-Sanskritist) as a Tamilian …
1. The term ‘bhagavAn’ is used as an epithet to a revered religious guru,
personal deity, and such.
2. In Kerala, 'bhagavati’ refers to the ‘goddess.’
2a. In the Earliest Missionary Grammar of Tamil by Henrique Henriques,
a Jesuit Missionary, we find the term ‘pakavati’ to refer to the local usage
‘goddess.’ If you can, please see
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674727236
<https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674727236>
3. Here’s what I find in Apte’s translation:
भगवत्
<https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/apte_query.py?qs=%E0%A4%AD%E0%A4%97%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D&searchhws=yes&matchtype=exact>
bhagavat (p. 1181
<https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/apte_query.py?page=1181>)
भगवत् bhagavat a 1 Glorious illustrious -2 Revered venerable divine holy an
epithet applied to gods demigods and other holy or respectable personages
स्वर्गप्रकाशो भगवान् प्रदोषः Ram558 अथ भगवान् कुशली काश्यपः S5 भगवन् परवानयं
जनः R881 so भगवान् वासुदेवः &c उत्पत्तिं च विनाशं च भूतानामागतिं गतिम् । वेत्ति
विद्यामविद्यां च स वाच्यो भगवानिति ॥ -3 Fortunate Ved -m 1 A god deity -2 An
epithet of Visnu -3 Of Siva -4 Of Jina -5 Of Buddha -Comp - N of a celebrated
sacred work it is an episode of the great Bharata and purports to be a dialogue
between Krisna and Arjuna - a resembling the Supreme - N of the source of Ganga
साक्षाद्भगवत्पदीत्यनुपलक्षितवचः Bhag5171
Regards
rajam
> On Sep 29, 2022, at 9:49 AM, Harry Spier via INDOLOGY
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Clarification. If it wasn't clear from my previous email. The meaning of
> bhagavAn/bhagavatI I'm needing to translate for a non indologist audience is
> only when it's used as a honorific to a deity.
> Harry Spier
>
> Sent from mobile phone.
>
> On Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 09:59 Harry Spier, <[email protected]
> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> Dear list members,
> Firstly happy Navaratri.
> Secondly I'm wondering what the best way to translate bhagavati and bhagavan
> would be. The target audience is a non-specialist non-sanskritist audience.
> The contexts are typically where someone is addressing a god or goddess
> where the actual name of the god/goddess is also mentioned fairly close . A
> typical example would be this gayatrī to annapūrṇā .
> bhagavatyai ca vidmahe
> māheśvaryai ca dhīmahi
> tan no annapūrṇā pracodayāt
>
> Thanks,
> Harry Spier
>
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