Post 4
Dear sri vaishNava
perunthagaiyeer,
Raama is manOharah – not only
seethaa but to all – why – that is because he is 'sringaara sekhara' – that is
what we saw in earlier post. In that post 3, perhaps all would have noticed
this line - varindha maravuri idaiyum nadaiyaiyum kaNdOr manadhai ellaam
urukki vaarkkumE. See here, this poet aruNachalak kavi also says 'raama is
manOharah' – the very vyuthpaththi of that raama naama -- ramayathi ithi raama
– simply baffles the heart of one who has a look at raama – kaNdOr or kaNdavar
manadhai ellaam urukki vaarkkumE – so he is 'manOharah'.
There is another krithi by ST
'laavaNya raama' – in raagam 'poorNa shadjam' – in this krithi ST says
'laavaNya raama kannulaara joodavE' – 'hey raama, the beauty, you see me with
your full eyes' – kannulu aara. For, if we see him, we become mind-less – our
mind being won by him with his beauty - manah already won by him.
But, if he sees us – hey – then
all our aspirations etc gone in one stroke. Which is better? Our seeing him or
he looking at us or seeing us with his puNdareeka visaala akshou - I leave it
you, dear all, for a decision.
The next naama what our Sadagopan swamy gives us is – 3.
vaathaaSanaari vara vaahanAya nama:". Also that naama 66 VinatAsuta VaahanAya
Nama: [Jayanthasenaa] conveys same meaning as above and hence both are being
dealt now.
This naama no 3. requires some splitting of the words
involved there
–
vaathaasana + ari + vara + vaahanaaya.
Now to get at the meaning for naama no. 3
–
vaathasana in Sanskrit and telugu means 'snake'.
–
Ari is enemy.
–
So vaathaasana ari or snake's enemy is garuda.
Garuda granted the boon to the lord sreeman naaraayaNan
to stay as his vaahanam – so in a little circuitous way this naama denotes or
identifies the lord raama, naaraayaNa, or vishNu – hey raama, the garuda
vaahanaa, namO namah.
Getting to naama no. 66 - Who
is vinathaa suthan – or son of vinathaa – he is garudan – he is vaahanam to
sreeman naaraayaNan – or raama – so vinathaa sutha vahaanaaya nama or
vaathaaSanaari vara vaahanAya nama.
Kindly recall the thiruNaal
Paattu for sree swamy dhEsikan – it starts 'vaathaaSanavarivarena varumaa
bhaashiyam vagai peRunaL and then goes on to conclude -- uththamamana
purattaasith thiruvONam enum naaLE'. Here we get that vaathaaSana ari ivar
vara ena – which is same or similar to what we have from ST above.
We have already seen another
series of article by MGV titled "raavaNa remembering garudan recently, with
ref from sreemadh raamaayaNam. On this sri sadagopan swamy said – "oh raavaNa
remembers garudan – and that ref is available in sreemadh raamaayaNam". In
that series, we saw garuda gave that boon to the lord, for he getting boons
from the lord.
The raagam is jayanthasenaa for
the krithi vinathaa sutha vaahana - naama 66. A few lines about this raagam –
taken from internet.
"An audava shadava janya raagam
derived from the 22nd mela kharaharapriya. The notes taken by this
raagam are shadja. A 'Ri' varja raga and is upanga in nature. Ga and Dha are
the raaga chaaya svarams. Dheergha Dha and Ga lend beauty to this raga.
Raghunatha Naik the king of Tanjore is supposed to have invented this raga.
Raga Jayanth of Hindusthani Music is similar to jayantasena with the same
arohana and avarohana'.
Getting back to main story,
Garudan came to the war scene in lankaa, when both raama and lakshmaNa were
hit by indhrajith's naaga paasam – when all other deputies like sugreeva and
sena leaders were fallen and worried about welfare of raama and lakshmaNa,
garuda relieved all troubles by making his presence there – for when once
garuda appeared all snakes ran away – thus ensuring jayam to raama and his
sena in the antham end. So victory to raama's army in the end – so 'jayantha
sena'.
As I usually say the raagam
selection by ST indicates to a large extent where the krithi will fit in
raamaayaNam, this krithi and garuda dhvani krithi 'thathvameruga tharama' fit
in this scene. [MGV has already given an article on this krithi
thathvameruga]
There is another krithi in
raagam 'hari khaambhOji' 'vinathaa sutha vaahanudai', meaning same oh garuda
vaahanaa, which goes for the 'kaanchi varadhar's garuda sEvai' – wherein the
lyrics of the krithi have mention of 'kaanchi varadhudu' specifically.
We will continue with more in
next post.
Dhasan
Vasudevan MG