thiruk kaNNan kudi - part 8 - "vanga mA munneer" - thirumangai pAsuram

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Sri MaNavALa mAmunigaL did mangalA sAsanam at this divya dEsam.

Sri Pillai perumAL iyengar has also delivered his pAsuram on this

Lord. Thirumangai AzhwAr is the only AzwhAr who delivered prabandhams

on this Lord among the 12 AzhwArs. Thirumangai delivered 10 pAsurams.

 

 

vanga mA munneer vari niRap periya

vAL aravin anai mEvich

changamAr angaith thadamalar unthich

sAma mAmEni en thalaivan

angam ARau ainthu vELvi nAl vEtham

arum kalai payinRu eri moonRum

sengaiyAl valarkkum thuLakkam il

manaththOr thiruk kannan kudiyuL ninrAnE

periya thiru mozhi (9-1-1)

 

 

Vangak kadal : An explanation: Vanga in tamil means white or

veNmai. It is the color of the milk and hence it is called in

sanskrit as sheera sAgaram and in tamil as pArk pakal (pAl means

milk).

 

vangak kadal kadaintha mAthavanai - means one who churned the

sheera sAgaram or thirup pAr kadal (paR or pAl here is denoted by

vangam or white) during His koorma avathAram as Lord Sri Koorma.

 

vangam also means thooymai in tamil ie., cleanliness or purity.

 

vangam also has two other meanings in tamil that are not related to

the current context.

 

The term vanga dEsam and the adjacent sea known as vangak kadal or

bay of Bengal is a term that was derived in the later years.

 

vangam also means ship in tamil. munneer means kadal or ocean.

In this pasuram vanga ma muneer means at surface level a similar

sea like bay of bengal where huge ships float. AzhwAr draws

parallel to this ocean and transforms the scene in this pasuram in

the inner layer of meaning to sheera sAgram or thirup pARk kadal

by showing the similarity of the ocean. One should not mistake that

there are huge ships that are floating in thirup pARk kadal.

 

 

meaning: There are huge ships (vanga) that floats in the high

sea. In such similar sea, ie thirup pARk kadal thiru anantha

azhwAn Sri Adi sEshan, appears with beautiful lines or stripes on

HIS thiru mEni. On Such adisEshan, our lord is appearing with HIS

Sri Changam and Sri Chakram and the lotus in HIS naabi or navel.

Such Lord appears in HIS shyAmala vaNNam (ie blue in color).

There are anthanars or brahmins who are knowledgable in six angams

(six vedAngams) and ithihaas (Srimadh rAmAyanam and Srimadh

bAgavatham) and who are also experienced in conducting the five

yAgAs (vELvi). They pray all the three agni as prescribed in four

vEdAs. Such mahAns who have unwavering or unflinched mind

(thulakkam il manatthOr) towards the Lord live here in thiruk

kaNNan kudi and our Lord appeared there in the midst of such

mahAns and is living there in nitya vAsam.

 

There is a reason to choose this pAsuram among the 10 pAsuram

delivered by thirumangai on this Lord. This is the first in the

decad. And also that our next part will deal on an encounter that

thirumangai and his parivAram had during their journey to this

place with the mariners of Sea Trading. Thirumangai delivers the

last decad of the 7m patthu (7th centum) on Lord thiruk kaNNa

mangai and then proceed to thiruk kaNNa puram and delivers a whole

100 pasurams on the Lord Sowri Rajan of thiruk kaNNa puram. On

completion of this, AzhwAr delivers the first decad of the 9th

centum (9m patthu) on the Lord of thiruk kaNNan kudi. This is a

coastal belt on bay of Bengal and must have been scenic as AzhwAr

passed through this belt. He delivers about the beauty of the sea

first that his vision captured and identifies the shipping trade

(due to his citation as "many boats") that took place during his

era. Sea trade or kadal vANibam took place even much prior to

thirumangai's era(**). We must not stray our thoughts on the basis of

modern historians who may deal very little about bhAratha kandams

historical truth that were *recorded* in our sAthvika purANams.

Instead we must have faith in our poorvAchaAryAL'S vyAkyAnams

and follow them.

 

Sri lOka nAyaki samEtha Sri lOka nAyakan thiru vadikaLE

saraNam

Sampath Rengarajan

 

 

note: (*) There are always controversies that are raised by the

historians on the actual period of AzhwArs incarnation. There was

a historian who tried to identify that ANDAL must belong to 8 th

century AD as the lines "veLLi ezhunthu viyAzhan urangiRRu". ie,

as per some westerner this level of astronomical knowledge was

available only after 8 th century AD. By saying so the western

view point totally missed to take into account the entire Indian

purAnic and mythological explanations of the Indian astronomical

nyAnam. The verse of ANDAL was about the Venus and Jupiter

positions on the early morning sky when these pasurams on the

paavai nOnbu was sung by HER.

 

Unfortunately it is believed that this led a famous late

Indian politician to publicly question that the thirup pAvai was

sung by periAzhwAr and not by ANDAL. Our Sri Putthur Swami gave

such a hard hitting reply to which the questioner believed to have

withdrawn his question and accepted Sri putthur swami's

explanation. adiyEn have privately explained this to a few last

December when the same was raised in this forum. In this authorship

question What was quoted by some as "authentic truth" as similar to

announcement in "sanga kAlap palakai" turned out to be "untrue". This

issue on authorship of thirup pAvai was set to rest by Sri Putthur

Swami more than twenty years ago. One can find such explanations of

Sri Putthur swamigaL from his publications. Due to my own owe and as

well due to the fact that the politician is not alive, I donot want

to write the details about this in the net. Please forgive me for any

apachArams committed by bringing out this truth.

 

 

(**) As per Tamil Historians the shipping and trade across the seas

of chOla sEra pAndiyan kingdoms took place many many centuries ago.