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Who is speaking?

Every chapter of the Bhāgavatam, coloured by how many narrators deep it goes. Choose one to see its frames and every verse where a new voice begins.

335 chapters

The depth map

1 voice5 voices deep
Canto 1
Canto 2
Canto 3
Canto 4
Canto 5
Canto 6
Canto 7
Canto 8
Canto 9
Canto 10
Canto 11
Canto 12

SB 3.15 · 4 voices deep

Description of the Kingdom of God

The frames this chapter sits inside, outermost first. Choose one to read its note and the verse where its voice begins.

Brahmā explains the darkness troubling the universe by telling how the gatekeepers Jaya and Vijaya were cursed.

Where this voice begins

“Lord Brahmā said: My four sons Sanaka, Sanātana, Sanandana and Sanat-kumāra, who were born from my mind, are your predecessors. Sometimes they travel throughout the material and spiritual skies without any definite desire.”

In the translation

Voices in this chapter

Each verse whose translation opens by naming its speaker, in order. Repeated openings by the same speaker are grouped.

  1. 3.15.1Maitreya Ṛṣi
  2. 3.15.3The fortunate demigods
  3. 3.15.9The demigods
  4. 3.15.11Maitreya Ṛṣi
  5. 3.15.12Lord Brahmā· 2 openings
  6. 3.15.32The sages
  7. 3.15.46The Kumāras

The frames come from where the translation itself says who is speaking (“Śukadeva Gosvāmī said …”). Their exact start and end verses, the episode labels and the setting bands are study aids, not words of the scripture; Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on each verse is always the final word.