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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 7.2 · 5 voices deep

Hiraṇyakaśipu, King of the Demons

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

Inside Hiraṇyakaśipu's story: Yamarāja, appearing as a child, teaches the grieving queens.

Where this voice begins

“Śrī Yamarāja said: Alas, how amazing it is! These persons, who are older than me, have full experience that hundreds and thousands of living entities have taken birth and died.”

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. 7.2.1Nārada Muni
  2. 7.2.20Hiraṇyakaśipu
  3. 7.2.37Yamarāja
  4. 7.2.39The boy
  5. 7.2.44Yamarāja
  6. 7.2.58Hiraṇyakaśipu
  7. 7.2.61Nārada Muni

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.