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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