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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00006 Jun 2002

 
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Dear BhakthAs:

Sriman Thirumanjanam Sundara Rajan Swamy of Srirangam
comes from a family of dear KaimkaryaparALs of Nam-perumAL ,
who performed Thirumanjana kaimkaryam for the Lord of Srirangam.
He is a great scholar and has blessed us with the attached 
article on the significance of VaikAsi 17 at Srirangam.

Sriman Sundararajan Swamy has been immensely helpful to contribute
the script for the Twin Audio Tapes on the Lives of
the 12 AzhwArs , which was released few months back by
Dr.M.A.Alwar of Melkote. 

On the day that adiyEn recieved his current posting , the first
volume of the Multimedia CD ROM on the Lives of PeriyAzhwAr,
ANDAL , ThoNDaradippodi and ThiruppANar also arrived . It is all
Sri RanganAthA's ThiruvuLLam. Sriman Sundararajan Swamy's 
scholarly contributions to this Mulrimedia CD ROM is like 
Sugar to the milk of Sriman Alwar's multimedia creation
interlaced with beautiful imagery and high quality audio
as well as rare videos of SrivilliputthUr NaacchiyAr 
ThirumALikai and archanai for Sri ANDAL and RangamannAr.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Sriman
Sundararajan Swamy for not only this scholarly posting
but also for the immense help he has given towards the creation of
the Multimedia CD ROM on AzhwArs . This CD ROM is in its 
Beta Testing Version and hopefully will be released very soon.

AdiyEn takes this opportunity to thank all the BhakthAs
who helped us with the development funds to engage in
the production and release of this AzhwAr CD ROM 
contianing the recitation of the prabhandham of the AzhwArs
by the authentic dhivya prabhandham scholars of Melkote 
ThirunArAyana PerumAL Temple.

NamO NaarAyaNAya ,
Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri sadagopan 

>
>
>>>From Sri T.S. Sundara Rajan, Srirangam:
>
>------------------------------------
>
>To-day, May 31 2002, corresponds to the Tamil calendar day of vaikASi 17,
>year chitra-bhAnu. The calendar day of vaikASi 17 of year pareetApi of
>a certain cycle, Saka year 1293 bandhu-priya, corresponding to 1371 AD,
>~~ this was the blessed day on which nam-perumAL and the ubhaya-nAcchimAr
>were brought back to the Great Temple of SRIRANGAM after a grievously
>long exile of 48 years. And, as the Great Temple chronicle 'kOyil
>ozhugu' records it, the Lord never thereafter deserted His own seat of
>'bhU-pAla-rAyan'.
>
>The Lord's exile was occasioned by the savage southern raids of Malik
>Kafur and Ulugh Khan (later known as Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq), specially
>targeting the ancient temples. This occasioned carnage in diverse
>"artistically cruel" (to quote Dostoevsky) ways of the unfeeling
>raider-vandals.
>
>Sri Pillai Lokacharya escaped with nam-perumAL and the ubhaya-nAcchimAr
>and the rescue party wended its way cautiously, anxiously, distressfully
>towards Jyotish-kuti (near Madurai Aanai-malai terrain), where the
>venerated AchArya passed away. There were sojourns next at
>tiru-mAl-irum-SOlai (azhakar) hills, thence tiru-k-kaNAmbi, kozhi-k-kODu,
>tiru-nArAyaNa-puram (mElkOTE), tirumalai, Chenjee and finally, the glory
>be, back to Srirangam.
>
>Sri Sudarsana Suri / bhaTTar (author of Sruta-prakASikA) was among those
>slaughtered on the banks of river koLLiDam, the northern arm of kAvEri,
>and it was given that svAmi vEdAntAchArya could smuggle out the precious
>work and the two children of the victim and take them to Satyamangalam.
>The most signal act of self-sacrifice for protecting the Lord came from
>tiru-t-tAzhvarai-dAsar who tied himself over to the sacred
>Lord-and-Consorts with a creeper and got himself lowered into an
>inaccessible ravine of the tirumalai hills before the lead was severed.
> The raiders stayed in siege of the foothills and carried on their
>fanatic search, but in vain, and the Lord could be traced and brought out
>much later from the ravine hideout and worshipped in the sannidhi of
>tirumalai-appan. Hence the name 'ranga-mandapam' in tirumalai temple.
>
>The Vijayanagara empire was nascent at the later half of this period of
>exile, and the ruler of the time was Harihara-II whose son was
>virUpAksha, a steadfast devotee of Lord Sriranga. He had an able and
>equally committed vassal in Gopanna Udaiyar, at Chenjee
>('SinGha-rAya-puram'). Gopanna was constantly posted with the dedicated
>'human antanna', Sri tiru-maNa-t-tooN nambi, about the movements,
>camping, the consolidation and decline of the savage raiders. Gopanna
>discreetly moved the Lord from tirumalai sannidhi to his own capital at
>Chenjee where, after biding his time, organised a quick and successful
>expedition against the muslim invader-marauders, and cleared the region
>of the pestilence. He, the noble Gopanna, accomplished the restoration
>of the Lord to His own favoured seat bhUpAla-rAyan in the holy
>'periya-kOyil-AzhvAr' of Sriranga-vimAnam. This was in year 1371 AD,
>the Tamil calendar day was vaikASi 17 of year pareetApi. And it is
>vaikASi 17 to-day.
>
>This precious regenerative event is recorded in Gopanna's lithic
>inscription cut in the eastern wall of the rAja-mahEndran (second)
>tiru-c-chuRRu (enclosure), a few steps from the vishvak-sEna shrine.
>The inscription is carried at No.286 of South Indian Inscriptions,
>vol.XXIV, 1982 [ Srirangam Inscriptions ] so well edited and issued by
>the Epigraphy Office of the Archaeological Survey of India, at the Mysore
>office.
>
>The Sanskrit inscription, consisting of two SlOkam-s, is in grantha
>character, and begins with
>"AneeyA-neela-SRnGa-dyuti-rachita-jaGad-ranjanAm-anjanAdrEh...." The
>first SlOkam is reproduced, with a minor variation, in the Great Temple
>chronicle, kOyil-ozhugu as well. We owe it to V.N. Hari Rao for
>highlighting this important historic and chronological record (which
>survives to this day) in his research work, History of the Srirangam
>Temple, 1976, Sri Venkateswara University Tirupati.
>
>svAmi vEdAntAchArya must have spent all his waking moments in his
>Satyamangalam exile praying for the restoration of Lord Sriranga to His
>abode in Srirangam, and for the return of peace and piety in the Holiest
>of Holies. He composed the prayer into the hymn 'abheeti-stavam', and
>beseeched of the Lord,
>
>"nirasta-ripu-sambhavE kvachana ranGa-mukhyE, vibho !
>paraspara-hitAishiNAm parisarEshu mAm vartaya ! "
>
>[Grant so my Lord, that I reside somewhere
>(even) in the approaches of any of the
>divya-dESam-s (blessed sites)
>which are marked by the natural bonhomie
>of the devotees, and which have Srirangam as their capital !]
>
>So be it that the Lord keeps our mind steady in remembrance of this
>precious day of vaikASi 17. The entire town of Srirangam has this day
>been plastered with a very timely, moving and succinct message issued by
>Sri A. Krishnamachari, on behalf of the Divya-desa pAramparya
>pAdu-kAppu-p-pEravai. Thanks are owed to him for this precious reminder
>and sensitisation on the most poignant moment of our history !
>
>aDiyEn rAmAnuja-dAsan,
>tirumanjanam Sundara Rajan,
>at Srirangam.






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