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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00139 Nov 2003

 
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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.  Sri BhakthisArar has two excellent prabhandams to his credit.  Both of them written in two different types of poetic structure, in Tamil literature.  One of 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 ignore this 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 thirumazhisai azhvar 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 compared to 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-avivindri yAn 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
 


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