You are here: SriPedia - Ramanuja - Archives - Nov 2003

Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00072 Nov 2003

 
Nov 2003 Indexes ( Date | Thread | Author )
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]


Sri Parthasarathi thunai
SrimathE rAmAnujaya Namaha
Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha
Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha
 
?makAyAm makarE mAsE chakrAmsam bhArgavOtbhavam
maheesAra purAdheesam bhakthisAra maham bhajE?
 
In the previous posting we enjoyed the greatness of our dear thirumazhisai 
Azhvar and now we will highlight the greatness of his two prabhandams. 
SriBhakthisArar has two excellent prabhandams to his credit. Both of them 
written in two different types of poetic structure, in Tamil literature. Oneof 
them is Thiruchandhaviruththam, as the name suggests the type of ?pA vagai? as 
per Tamil literature is chandha viruththam. In this prabhandam, azhvar gives a 
number of mathematical calculations (?punilAya iyindhumAi punarkan nindra 
nAngumAi?.?). But that is no reason for us to ignorethis prabhandam to be tough 
and beyond our knowledge. It has such divine meanings, which clarifies all our 
doubts. Not all paasurams are tough instead there are so many sweet and 
anubhavam filled paasurams in this prabhandam also (?kondai konda Kodhai 
meedhu?..?).
 
The second prabhandam of Azhvar is ?nAnmugan ThiruvandAdhi?. This prabhandam is 
in AndAdhi style. Today the game of anthAkshari is very common among the young 
folks. One sings a song and the other continues to sing with the word the 
previous one ends. This was formally derived only from Andhadhi structure of 
the Tamil literature and the mudal Azhvars were the first to make such poems. 
There are two advantages in such poetry. First thing is, no insertions 
(edaiserugal) can be made. So the essence of the poem is maintained and 
secondly it is easy to by heart them, as it is easy to remember the order of 
paasurams. The andhAdhis of the mudal Azhvars were called as mudal, erandhAm 
and moondrAm thiruvandhAdhi?s considering the order of the Azhvars who sung it. 
But how did this prabhandam of thirumazhisaiazhvar get this name? There is also 
one another andhAdhi prabhandam of nammazhvar it is called ?Periya 
thiruvandhAdhi? why should it be called so? The interesting fact is that
the number of paasurams in Periya thiruvandhAdhi is only 87 while comparedto 
the other thiruvandhAdhis it should only be called ?siriya thiruvandhAdhi?. On 
the contrary it is called Periya thiruvandhAdhi. Here this thiruvandhAdhi of 
thirumazhisai pirAn is called as nAnmugan thiruvandhAdhi while the whole 
prabhandam talks only about the greatness and parathvam of Sriman Narayana. 
Azhvar declares himself to be ?marandhum puram thozhA mAndhar? but see the 
irony his prabhandam is named ?nAnmugan thiruvandhAdhi?. Why?
 
Generally, prabhandams are either named after the azhvar who did it viz, 
periyAzhvar thirumozhi, nAchiyar thirumozhi etc or with some highlighting point 
in the prabhandam viz., Periya thiruvandhAdhi etc or with the starting letter 
of the prabhandam viz., nAnmugan thiruvandhAdhi, amalanAdhipiran, kanninun 
siruthAmbhu etc. So this prabhandam derives its name from its starting word. 
Azhvar starts the prabhandam as follows: ?nAnmuganai nArAyanan padaiththAn??. 
Though not pertaining to the subject just as a matter of fact let us see why 
Periya thiruvandhAdhi is called so. In Periya thiruvandhAdhi, 75th paasuram 
azhvar challenges perumal for superiority. ?puviyumiruvisumbhum ninnagaththa 
nee enseviyin vazhipugundhu ennullAi-avivindriyAn periyan nee periyai 
enbhathanai yArarivAr voon parugu nEmiyA vullu?.Oh! My lord you are ubhaya 
vibhoothi nAthan but then now you have gone through my ears and is staying 
inside my heart. Now who will understand who is superior among us? Or another
interpretation is that azhvar confirms that he is superior and questions ?yan 
periyan! Nee periyai enbhathanai yAr arivar?? Only due to this nammazhvar?s 
andhAdhi was named as ?Periya thiruvandhAdhi? though it has less number of 
paasurams and even today Azhvar is sometimes referred to as ?periyan? in azhvar 
thirunagari side.
 
In the next posting we will start enjoying the paasurams in ?nAnmugan 
thiruvandhAdhi?.

Alwar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam
 
Adiyen rAmAnuja dAsee
Sumithra Varadarajan
 


---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index ] [Thread Index ] [Author Index ]
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia
ramanuja-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To subscribe to the list