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          tAtparya ratnAvaLi - Part 1 - Introduction.

  SrImate SrI ra'nga rAmAnuja mahA deSika pAdukAbhyAm namaH |

The topic of the series that is starting with the current submission 
is "dramiDopanishad tAtparya ratnAvaLi".   This is a work by svAmi 
deSikan, and reflects on the guNa-s of bhagavAn that are described by 
nammAzhvAr in his tiruvAimozhi.  The current series will be primarily 
based on the vyAkhyAnam for tAtparya ratnAvaLi by SrI uttamUr 
vIrarAghavAcAr ya svAmi (hereafter denoted in short as SrI UV) for a 
start, and will be supplemented by any other sources that might 
become available in the future.  Rather than a verbatim translation 
of the whole book by SrI uttamUr svAmi, a summary of the contents 
will be provided, constrained by aDiyEn's very limited knowledge - in 
fact by the lack of any knowledge.  But because of the infinite 
Blessings of asmad AcAryan, I am sure that this write-up describing 
svAmi deSikan's SrI sUkti in the form of tAtparya ratnAvaLi will 
successfully describe emperumAn's guNa-s as described in 
tiruvAimozhi, and as identified by svAmi deSikan for each pASuram, 
for each tiruvAimozhi, and for each pattu (group of 100 pASuram-s).

tAtparya ratnAvaLi is a work in samskRt, composed in the form of 
Sloka-s by svAmi deSikan.  svAmi deSikan points out that his 
composition lists the thousand guNa-s of bhagavAn as reflected in the 
thousand pASuram-s of AzhvAr in his tiruvAimozhi, and also explains 
the importance of each of these guNa-s for cetana-s like us. 

SrI UV points out that the original palm-leaf manuscript of svAmi 
deSikan's work is not available any more for this grantham, and only 
a moth-eaten copy is available.   The earliest vyAkhyAnam for 
tAtparya ratnAvaLi is by SrI ra'nga rAmAnuja muni, also known 
as `upanishad bhAshya kArar'.  His work on tAtparya ratNavaLI was not 
a stand-alone and full-fledged vyAkhyAnam for this grantham;  
instead, he has interspersed his vyAkhyAnam for this grantham in his 
work on tiruvAimozhi in samskRt (onpadinAyirappaDi).  An AcArya by 
name SrISaila ve'nkaTAcArya svAmi has provided a vyAkhyAnam for 
tAtparya ratnAvaLi in maNipravALam.  One of the parakAla maTham svAmi-
s has written a `padineNNAyirappaDi" vyAkhyAnam for tiruvAimozhi 
based on SrI ra'nga rAmAnuja muni's work mentioned earlier, and thus 
has attempted a vyAkhyAnam for tAtparya ratnAvaLi as part of his 
vyAkhyAnam for tiruvAimozhi.  

Based on a critical review of all the above works, SrI UV concludes 
that it is unfortunately evident that even before the 16th century 
work by SrI ra'ngarAmAnuja muni, the full text of svAmi deSikan's 
work had been lost to us because of damage by moths etc.;  SrI UV is 
able to make this deduction based the following:

-       While SrI ra'ngarAmAnuja muni has included the Sloka-s from 
tAtparya ratnAvaLi in his work, he has not mapped the tAtparya 
ratnAvaLi Sloka-s with nammAzhvAr's pASuram-s in a consistent manner 
for all the Sloka-s.  This indicates that he had difficulty in making 
such a mapping, which in turn suggests that the version that was 
available to him in the 16th century had already undergone some 
changes compared to the original work of svAmi deSikan.  A possible 
explanation for this situation might be that the original manuscript 
had been corrupted by moths, and some scholars must have substituted 
their own words for the damaged parts, and in the process, they might 
have introduced errors.     
-       SrISaila ve'nkaTAcArya svAmi has indicated some difficulty in 
filling in the missing guNa-s in the manuscript that he had access 
to, which is the same version that was available to SrI 
ra'ngarAmAnuja muni.

Expert search for available manuscripts by a devotee at the 
University of Chicago reveals that manuscripts are available for 
tAtparya ratnAvaLi in libraries in India.  However, I do not have the 
means to access these manuscripts and benefit by them for this write-
up.

SrI UV has made an attempt to fill in the missing guNa-s in the 
currently available copy of the original palm-leaf manuscript, and 
thereby attempting a correction of possible errors in the manuscript 
that was available to him.  The result is what he gives us in his 
work titled `sAra ratna prabhAvaLi', which is the title he has given 
for his vyAkhyAnam for svAmi deSikan's `dramiDopanishad tAtparya 
ratnAvaLi'.    

All the above history has led some to question the authorship of the 
original work itself.  Based on SrI UV's vyAkhyAnam and the other 
available limited resources that I am able to access, I am unable to 
figure out the extent of the loss in the original manuscript.  It is 
the domain of research scholars to figure out how much of the 
original text has been lost, based on the currently available version 
of the original palm-leaf manuscript.  However, SrI UV categorically 
points out that there is no need to question the original authorship, 
and that the grantham is definitely a composition of svAmi deSikan.  
SrImad tirukkuDanthai ANDavan has included the Sloka-s from tAtparya 
ratnAvaLi in his bhagavad vishayam vyAkhyAnam, and included a simple 
word-for-word meaning for the Sloka-s.  This should help in mapping 
the principal guNa identified by svAmi deSikan with the particular 
pASuram in tiruvAimozhi.  A similar word-for-word meaning is included 
by SrI P. B. aNNa'ngarAcArya svAmi in his tiruvAimozhi vyAkhyAnam as 
well for the first three pattu-s.  A couple of nAlAyira divya 
prabandham books have the Sloka-s of tAtparya ratnAvaLi, and one of 
them has a simple mapping between the guNa-s in tAtparya ratnAvaLi 
with the corresponding guNa in the pASuram-s of tiruvAimozhi.  A 
couple of bhAgavata-s (one from the U.S. and one from India) have 
tried to support me by finding resources to help me with the write-
up.  However, except for SrI UV's commentary, none of the others give 
a detailed vyAkhyAnam for tAtparya ratnAvaLi.  

Just for the sake of completeness, it should be pointed that this 
work of SrI UV is probably his last one before he attained parama 
padam.  SrI UV has noted in his Introduction that he could not 
personally review the contents of his work becuse of failing health, 
and there are likely to be errors because of this.  In the vyAkhyAnam 
itself, the level of detail included for the different Sloka-s 
differs in detail (for example, some Sloka-s in the Introductory 
section include word-word meanings, while others are just summaries 
for the Sloka-s). This inevitably means that the level of detail in 
my English presentation will also be fluctuating.

With this Introduction, and with my AcArya's ever-present blessings, 
I commence this write-up describing the guNAnubhavam of bhagavAn as 
revealed to us by svAmi deSikan that he has extracted for us from 
nammAzhvAr's divine outpourings in the form of tiruvAmozhi, and as 
elaborated by Sri UV as the primary source for the write-up at this 
time.  

In the next write-up, we will start looking at the ten Sloka-s that 
are given to us by svAmi deSikan as the Introduction to his tAtparya 
ratnAvaLi, and that describe the greatness of tiruvAimozhi in ten 
simple Sloka-s.  

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

(To be continued)









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