prabandham and commentaries

[Guest guest]

Till very recently, I was of the opinion that one hardly

needed any commentaries to interpret aazhvaarkaL and their

prabandham. I was of the opinion that just a little bit

of thamizh knowledge is sufficient to understand pretty

much the entire prabandham.

 

I was completely mistaken.

 

I had rarely looked at a full length commentary except

once when I read through the commentary of prathivaadhi

bayankaram annangaraachchaariyar on siRiya thirumadal and

periya thirumadal.

 

I also knew that periyavaachchaan piLLai had written

extensive commentaries on prabandham (I am not sure

whether he had commented on every bit of prabandham), but

I hardly knew the quality of his commentaries. I had read

a few passages of piLLai's commentary on some other books

but that really did not convey the magnitude of the beauty

and the splendour in piLLai's commentary.

 

And then I happened to come across piLLai's commentary on

thirumaalai a month or so back (triggered by the

discussions on vaNdinam muralum sOlai). From then on, I

have been totally captivated by his commentary.

 

It is very difficult to explain piLLai's skills in writing

commentaries, his understanding of aazhvaarkaL and his

knowledge of the srutis and smurutis. One has to read and

experience this oneself. He is simply awesome. My entire

outlook of thirumaalai has totally changed now and this is

all due to periyavaachchaan piLLai's commentary. What we

see on the outset in aazhvaar paasuram is only a tiny

fraction of the actual content.

 

piLLai's commentaries are in manipravaaLam. It is thus

very difficult to directly understand what he says unless

one has a good understanding of both thamizh and

sanskrit. Or, one has to rely on "translations" of his

commentaries in spoken thamizh (and even here it is useful

to know a little bit of sanskrit terminology).

 

Every single word in thirumaalai is pregnent with meaning.

Every word has a purpose and I could see the right

interpretaions for passages that I had earlier completely

misunderstood or thought as inconsequential. For the first

time I saw the interconnection between the various

paasurams in thirumaalai -- as to why the first paasuram

was placed first and why the order in which they appear is

important. piLLai quotes extensively, from various sruti

works, puraanaas, ithihaasas as well as other prabandhams,

and anecdotes from the lives of nancheeyar, battar etc.

I would even go so far as to say that piLLai knows more

about prabandham than the aazhvaarkaL themselves:-)

 

If you get a chance, read piLLai's commentaries, DO NOT

MISS THEM. It is one of the greatest pleasures one can

ever experience. If I find time, I will try to post some

gems from thirumaalai with piLLai's commentary.

 

My only regret is that there doesn't appear to be a good

sri vaishnava commentary of paripaadal (those portions

that sing about vishnu). The only old commentary available

on paripaadal is by parimElazhakar (a vaishnavite) but

that is extremely cryptic. I am trying to obtain as much

information on paripaadal as possible. It seems like

paripaadal had influenced a lot of aazhvaar's works. I am

not sure if the great scholars like periyavaachchaan

piLLai were aware of paripaadal. This is truly our loss!

 

--badri

 

-----------------

S.Badrinarayanan

Graduate Student

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Cornell University

-----------------

[Guest guest]

Badri,

 

What does periyavaacchaan piLLai say about the more

"objectionable" portions of the thirumaalai that have

been discussed earlier on the net? I.e., the verses

where he has harsh words to say about people of other

religions?

 

Mani

[Guest guest]

mani (Mani Varadarajan) wrote:

 

* Badri,

*

* What does periyavaacchaan piLLai say about the more

* "objectionable" portions of the thirumaalai that have

* been discussed earlier on the net? I.e., the verses

* where he has harsh words to say about people of other

* religions?

*

* Mani

 

I will try to translate and post thirumaalai 7 & 8. I

have completed part of 7 and will do that for 8 too

and then post them as soon as possible. My sanskrit

knowledge is extremely poor and even in cases where I

can understand the meaning, my English vocabulary is

very limited to translate many of the words. So, where

it is not possible, I have simply tried to provide

the sanskrit or thamizh words themselves.

 

As expected, periyavachchan piLLai tries to reason out

as well as justify some of the words of aazhvaar. In

fact, he has even convinced me a little bit - though

not fully yet :-)

 

--badri

 

-----------------

S.Badrinarayanan

Graduate Student

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Cornell University

-----------------

[Guest guest]

mani (Mani Varadarajan) asked:

 

* Badri,

*

* What does periyavaacchaan piLLai say about the more

* "objectionable" portions of the thirumaalai that have

* been discussed earlier on the net? I.e., the verses

* where he has harsh words to say about people of other

* religions?

*

* Mani

 

There are 2 verses in thirumaalai, (7 & 8), that talk about other

religions.

 

The beauty of periyavaachchaan piLLai's commentary is that, he

interprets thirumaalai as a conversation between aazhvaar and the

Lord of Sri Rangam, and then another piece of conversation

between the aazhvaar and a common man completely immersed in

worldly sensual pursuits. Thus one sees a complete

interconnection of all the paasurams.

 

I will try to translate the commentary for 7 & 8 together. The

thamizh transliteration followed is compatible with ADAMI but the

sanskrit transliteration does not follow any convention (since I

do not know any). periyavachchan piLLai's commentary includes

quotes from many sanskrit texts but does not really identify

which texts were quoted. The book I have however provides the

source of the quotes as well as the meaning (which is really very

useful).

 

What follows is a (sloppy) translation of a translation of

piLLai's commentaries to verses 7 and 8 of thirumaalai. I

apologise for the sloppy translation because I am simply not

qualified enough to translate the deep philosophical points that

are discussed and my vocabulary is very limited.

 

------

\bt

7. pulaiyaRa maaki ninRa puththodu samaNa mellaam

kalaiyaRak kaRRa maandhar kaaNbarO kEtpa rOdhaam

thalaiyaRup puNdum saavEn* saththiyaNG kaaNmin aiyaa!

silaiyinaa lilangai seRRa dhEvanE dhEva _naavaan.

 

* (paa) saakEn

\et

 

aRa kaRRa maandhar - Those people who have learnt thoroughly and

understood the inner meaning of

kalai - [all the] sastras,

kaaNbarO? - will they even have a look at [the other religions]?

kEtparO thaam? - will they even listen [to them] with their ears?

pulai aRam aaki ninRa - lowly dharma (religion) like

puththodu samaNam ellaam - buddhism, jainism et al.?

thalai aRuppuNdum - Even if [my] head is severed,

saavEn - I will not die

aiyaa! - Oh Elders and Respected People!

kaaNmin saththiyam - [i shall show you!] See this truth [that]

dhEvanE - the Lord

silaiyinaal - [who] with [his] bow

ilangai seRRa - destroyed the city of Lanka,

dhEvan aavaan - is the only supreme Lord.

 

The samsaris ask the aazhvaar: What is the use of insulting us by

calling us "thoNdu pooNdu amudham uNNaath thozhumbar" (the lowly

people who do not serve the devotees of the Lord and eat the

remains of the food served to the devotees - thirumaalai 4) and

"puL kauvak kidakkinReerE" (live so that your body will be eaten

by vultures - thirumaalai 5)? The reality of the world is like

that. The Lord who you call as "thaN thuzhaay maalai maarban"

(the one with the cool thuLasi garland on his chest - thirumaalai

4) is too far off in paramapatham, so we can not really reach

Him. Further, there are thousands of barriers in between. Please

show us a way so that we can overcome the barriers and reach

Him. To this, the aazhvaar replies, "go and follow the son of

Dasarathan, Raman, who incarnated in this world with the sole

purpose of destroying the barriers."

 

"pulai aRamaaki ninRa puththodu samaNam ellaam" = The four kinds

of buddhism, and jainism etc. that the lowly people follow.

"pulai aRam" - lowly dharma. One sect among the buddhists called

vaibhaashikas say, "Only thing that exists in this world is the

knowledge. Nobody can understand this knowledge. Thus we rely

only on the 'pratyaksha' and the 'anumana'." The second sect

sauthrandhikas say, "Knowledge exists, and no one can understand

that. Since knowledge is multi-fold, we infer that there are many

objects related to the knowledge in this universe." The third

kind, yogasaras say, "There is only knowledge. There doesn't

exist any other knowledge related object that can be understood

through inference or by 'prathyaksha' (direct experience?)." The

fourth kind, maadhyamikas say, "everything is just 'sunya'

(emptyness)." The jains who disagree with the all the above four,

say, "How can you say everything is 'sunya'? The universe which

has a cause and an effect is 'nitya' as well as 'anitya', 'bheda'

as well as 'abheda', true as well as false. Thus the universe has

so many qualities." The aazhvaar calls all these religions as

"pulai aRam".

 

"aaki ninRa" - just like weeds in a paddy field, these religions

stand out and oppose the vedic religion. By using the word

"ellaam" (et al.) the aazhvaar refers to even the religions like

sankya and vaiseshika that are opposed to vedas ('baahya') as

well as saivism etc. that accept the vedas but provide a twisted

and wrong meaning to them ('kudhrushti'). How can you call these

as "lowly religion" ? Because those who kill a person in this

world that belongs to the Lord are supposed to get immense

'papaa'. Thus it is fitting to call those who are planning to

destroy the Lord and his subjects with the knife called 'agnana'

as ultimate 'papis' and lowly people. So there is nothing wrong

in calling their religions 'pulai aRam'. These people are trying

to destroy the in-destructible truth through their arguments.

 

"kalai aRak kaRRa maandhar" - Those who have learnt sruti,

smruti, ithihasas, puranas, good tharkkas etc. and have

understood the inner meaning of the vedas - like

kooraththaazhvaan.

 

"kaaNbarO, kEtparOdhaan?" - Will the above people even look at

these lowly religions with their eyes or listen to them with

their ears? The following anecdote has to be carefully looked at:

kooraththaazhvaar's son had gone to learn a book called

'ishtasidhdhi' [is it an advaitic text? - badri] that belonged to

another religion and came late to his house. His father severely

reprimanded him for this, saying, "How can you go to learn this

when thoNdar adippodi aazhvaar has said 'kalai aRak kaRRa

maandhar kaaNbarO kEtparOdhaam?", how could you listen to that

book?" and then purified him by giving him 'sri padha theerththa

dhooLi' and then took him inside the house. Thus one should not

tolerate those who are against the vedas ('baahya') and those who

give wrong meanings ('kudhrushti'), even if they don't do us any

harm directly they are harming us indirectly. Likewise good

devotees, even if they do not do us any good directly, are doing

us immense good. One who realises this is the one who is steeped

in the worship of the Lord.

 

"thalai aRuppuNdum saavE(kE)n saththiyam kaaNmin aiyaa" - The

aazhvaar says, "I will prove to even those who do not have any

faith in the faultless vedas that the Lord (vishnu) is the only

one to be worshipped through 'pratyaksha pramana'. At least by

seeing that, change your minds." In order to prove that a person

is saying the truth, he usually takes a hot iron rod in the hand

and declares that he will not be affected by the hot rod if what

he is saying is true. Likewise, the aazhvaar says that even if

his head is severed from the body, he will not die and hence at

least by looking at that, people should realise that Sri Raman is

the only God who should be worshipped.

 

dharmaathmaa satyasanthaScha raamO dhaasarathir yathi |

powrushE saaprathidhvandhva: Sarainam jahi raavaNim || (ra, yu 91-73)

 

[addressing the arrow, Lakshmana says, "arrow!, if Sri Raman

happens to be a 'dharmathma', 'satyasanthan' and incomparable in

valour, then destroy this Indhrajith, the son of Ravana]

 

We see in Ramayana, Lakshmanan killing Indhrajith with the above

statement. Likewise, the aazhvaar tries to estabilish the

superiority of vishnu through the statement that 'he won't die

even if his head is cut off'. If the 'samsaris' ask how can one

live even after his head is cut off, he replies,

 

"saththiyam kaaNmin" - "Why do you have any doubts? You are going

to see this for yourself and are going to learn the truth."

 

"aiyaa" - The aazhvaar begs them to see this just in case the

people are feeling queasy about witnessing an execution.

 

So the samsaris tell the aazhvaar, "It is allright. We believe

you. You do not have to do such fantastic things to make us

believe this. We will just believe your word. Just tell us who

that absolute supreme Lord is."

 

To this replies the aazhvaar:

 

"silaiyinaal ilangai seRRa dhEvanE dhEvan aavaan" - All the

lesser gods and goddesses, without even the least bit of

thinking, gave countless powers to Ravana. In order to save these

gods/goddesses the supreme Lord came down to the earth (even

though that was beneath his dignity) in the form of a human being

and destroyed Lanka with the bow in his hand. He is the absolute

God to be worshipped. All these lesser gods fell at His feet and

asked Him to save them. From this, you can realize that these

others are not really the ultimate God and only 'emperumaan' is

the ultimate personality.

 

He (vishnu) destroyed the entire city Lanka that was built

with the powers given by Brahma, Shiva etc. In order to make

everybody understand that it was He who did that, He came

directly with a bow at hand. It is Him who is going to

destroy all the barriers between Him and you, and save you

all.

 

"dhEvanE dhEvan aavaan" - the first word came from the root

'dhivu kaanthi' and the second word from the root 'dhivu

gathi'. The meaning of this therefore is, "The beautiful

person who stood with the bow in his hand with the 'kanthi'

(after the demise of Ravana) is your 'gathi'."

 

----

\bt

8. veRuppodu samaNar muNdar vidhiyilsaak kiyarkaL ninpaal

poRuppari uanakaL pEsiR pOvadhE nOya dhaakik

kuRippenak kadaiyu maakil koodumEl thalaiyai aangE

aRuppathE karumam kaNdaa yaraangamaa nakaru LaanE.

\et

 

arangamaanakaruLaanE!

veRuppodu - With hate [because of their inability to appreciate

Lord Narayan],

samaNar - Jains,

muNdar - Saivaites, [and]

vidhi il - unlucky, hopeless [not having heard good things about

our Lord]

saakkiyarkaL - Buddhists

pEsil - happen to say

poRuppu ariyanakaL - intolerable things

nin paal - towards you [Narayanan],

nOy adhu aaki - let that 'nindhai' kill me! [if not,]

enakku - if I [who can not stomach this 'bagawath dhooshaNam']

kuRippu adaiyum aakil - get a chance,

koodumEl - [and if I] have the power,

aangE - at that very place [where they denigrated the Lord]

thalaiyai aRuppadhE - I will cut of their heads.

karumam kaNdaay - That is the right thing to do.

 

Even after explaining to the samsaris that Sri Raman alone is the

God to be worshipped, samsaris do not realise the qualities of

the supreme Lord and as usual eat and sleep and denigrate our

Lord. So the aazhvaar thinks that the reason for this must be

their interest in the external religions. Therefore he feels

that they are fit to be killed.

 

"veRuppodu samaNar muNdar" - These people hate our Lord due to no

reason - neither due to money nor due to women. Whenever they hear

us praising our Lord, their face turns red due to hate. Saivites

and Jains can not tolerate the praises showered on our Lord in the

vedas or the sacrifices done to Him in 'jyOthishtOmam'. During

festivals when our Lord comes on a procession, these people hang

themselves and die! When they listen to the sounds coming from the

various instruments, they bang their heads against the wall! Here

'muNdar' denotes saivites. As mentioned in thiruchchandha

viruththam 71, "muNdan neeRan" might mean the saivites who had

shaved their heads. Otherwise, it could also be taken to mean

"samaNar muNdar", ie., jains who had shaved their heads.

 

"vidhiyil saakiyarkaL" - Buddhists who have no luck or 'bakyam' to

worship our Lord and learn about his great qualities.

 

"nin paal poRuppu ariyanakaL pEsil" - You are the greatest of all,

and you have the best qualities. If they happen to say intolerable

things about you ... Jains deny the existence of the supreme Lord

and the universe he created. Saivites call an ordinary 'jeeva'

Shiva as the 'paramaathma' and consider insulting the real

paramaathma sriman narayaNan as their only duty. These acts are not

tolerated by the vedic people ('vaidikaas'). The aazhvaar does not

even want to repeat the utterances of these Jains and Saivites and

hence says 'poRuppu ariyanakaL'. The aazhvaarkaL can not even think

of even saying the offences committed by others. Refer to, 'thaan

theengu ninaiththa' (thiruppavai 25) and 'anRinnaadha sey

sisupaalanum' (naachchiyaar thirumozhi 47).

 

"pEsil" - if they happen to say that in from of us (within our

hearing distance)

 

At this stage, one should carefully study the following anecdote:

 

We find in the puranas, the following story: Mahabali went to his

grandfather Prahladha and asked him the reason for his state

diminishing in size. So Prahladha replied, "You have been hurting

the dhEvaas and so they went and complained to our Lord in the

milky ocean. Our Lord has therefore come and incarnated in this

world as a son of adhithi in order to win back all the land that

you have captured. Assume that your wealth is lost forever."

Hearing this, Mahabali started abusing the Lord. Prahladha closed

his ears and said, "You are going to be destroyed! Get out of my

eyes. You have denigrated our Lord in my presense. Instead, you

could have done me a big favour by cutting off my head. You will

lose your entire wealth for abusing our Lord."

 

nancheeyar asked battar, "How could a man as great as Prahladha

think of the mere wealth and a country as of any worth? Why did he

give that kind of a 'saapa'?" To this replied battar, "How does one

punish a dog? By removing the shit the dog likes to eat. Likewise

the best way to punish Mahabali is to remove from him the country

and the wealth, he so highly thinks of. The right punishment for a

Prince is to deny him the sandalwood paste and 'veRRilai'."

 

"pOvadhE nOyadhaaki" - Just like piLLai thirunaRaiyoor araiyar gave

his life for our Lord in thiru naaraayaNa puram, one should die if

they happen to hear people abusing our Lord. If one is too afraid

of dying, one should at least go away from that place.

 

kurOr yathra pareevaadhO nindhaa vaayapi pravarththE |

karNow ththra pidhaathavyow ganthavyam vaa thathOyanyatha: || (manu 2-200)

 

[Manusmrithi says that one should shut their ears where aacharyas

are abused or one should at least try to go away from that place.]

 

"kuRippenak kadaiyumaakil" - If one can not take away ones own life

or go away from that place as said before, if one gets the

opportunity to destroy the enemy. "kuRiththal" - To think of doing

an act and getting a chance to execute the act. "koodumEl" - if it

is possible to destroy the enemy - ie., if it is possible to

destroy the enemy without getting destroyed in the process. The

suffix "El" denotes that this job is not very easy.

 

"thalaiyai aangE aRuppadhE karumam" - The right thing to do is to

cut of the heads of those who have abused our Lord. "karumam" - An

act for the good of a person. Since cutting off the head of the

abusers prevents them from doing further 'bhagavan nindhai', we can

escape from listening to the abuses, so it is good for us. This act

is even good for the abusers because they can not abuse Him further

and increase their 'papaa'. Sastras say that, in the agneekshOmeeya

yaga, both the sacrificial animal as well the person who sacrifices

that animal go to heaven. Likewise, here, this is good for both the

killer and the killed.

 

"kaNdaay" - no one will listen to me if I tell them this. But, you

- the Lord who destroyed the enemies of the sages in the

dhaNdakaaraNyaa - will understand. That is why I am telling you!

 

"aranga maa nakaruLaanE" - The reason you have incarnated in this

form in Sri Rangam is to avenge your enemies, right? Therefore it

is your duty to destroy the enemies like Jains and Saivites.

 

How can an ultimately kind and calm person who follows the dharma,

aazhvaar talk about "killing" ? Further, even the vEdhaas which are

kinder to people than even ones own parents prohibit 'jeeva himsai'

as

 

na himSyaath sarvaa bhoodhaani [yajur 2-5-5]

[no living organism should be killed]

 

have prescribed sacrificing a cow in yagas like agneekshOmeeyam for

the benefit of the entire humanity. Likewise, our aazhvaar too

talks about killing in the interest of the abusers of our Lord.

Therefore, it is not wrong. There is no relation whatsoever between

those who praise our Lord and those who abuse him. Did not

thirumangai aazhvaar say

 

"eNNaadha maanidaththai eNNaadha pOdhellaam iniyavaaRE"

[periya thiru 11-6-7]

 

--

 

-----------------

S.Badrinarayanan

Graduate Student

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Cornell University

-----------------