Divya kshetram No. 1 - kumbhakONam.

[Guest guest]

tirukkudandai - The divya kshetram par excellence.

 

I have now gotten around to really get in the act. The kshetra purANam of

tirukkudandai is found in brahmANDa purANa, pAdma purANa, bhavishya purANa

etc. So what I am including below is not some folklore, but is based on

authentic sources.

 

My initial reasons for not voting for tirunvE~nkaTattAn are pure

selfishness. Whenever I have gone there, He does not make it easy for me to

get into His residence. Once, He even used His door keeper to keep me out

by saying that I have girdhA (whatever it means, since I did not

intentionally have it - I just did not worry about how I looked, and He

decided this was sufficient reason to blame me with a girdhA!).

 

ara~ngan is catching up with tiruvE~nkaTattAn in not being a friendly host

also. Even when there are not too many people waiting in line, He uses His

servants to kick us out of His sannidhi of late without allowing us time to

enjoy His darSanam.

 

This is not the case with my ArAvamudhan, and I hope He will not ever become

an unfriendly Host. So on purely selfish grounds, I will vote for

ArAvamudhan. But there are also very sound reasons why He is No. 1.

 

tirukkudandai is where tiruppati ve~kaTAcalapati and triuvara~ngam's

ran~gaSAyi ended up ultimately. First is the story of how SrInivAsa ended

up in triukkuDandai. Lakshmi got angry that Her husband put up with bhr*gu

maharshi's kick on the chest, and left SrIvaikunTham and came down to this

earth. SrIman nArAyaNa could not live separated from Lakshmi in

SrIvaikunTham, descended down to earth, and came to tiruppati, but here He

met PadmAvati and married Her. When Lakshmi found out that SrInivAsa got

married to padmAvati, she got furious and came to tiruppati looking for Him

And SrInivAsa did not want to face Lakshmi and so He came to tirukkuDandai

and took refuge in a cave in the temple of ArAvamudhan (the sannidhi in the

temple in tirukkuDandai is called the pAthALa SrInivAsar sannidhi).

 

Lakshmi became sad that She could not find Her Lord in tiruppati, and

decided to do penance in the hema pushkariNi in triukkuDandai, and so

appeared on a lotus flower in the pushkariNi. Bhr*gu maharshi who had

committed the apacAram of kicking the Lord on the chest in SrIvaikunTham,

which started this whole episode, decided to do severe penance in

tirukkuDandai as hema maharshi to get Lakshmi as his daughter so that he can

serve her and thus remedy his sin. When he found this beautiful child in

the lotus flower, he was overjoyed and took the child with him and brought

her up.

 

When SrIvaikunTha nAthan came to KumbhakONam, He assumed the name of

ArAvamudhan and married kOmaLavalli and decided to rest here in His serpent

bed.

 

For those of you who are pitching in for tiruve~nkaTam as the No. 1 divya

deSam, just be aware that tiruve~nkaTattAn just had an intermediate stop in

tiruppati, but then proceeded to kumbhakONam, where He assumed the name of

ArAvamudhan, and got united with Lakshmi in the form of kOmaLavalli. This

is confirmed by tirumaZhiSai AzhvAr in tiruc-canda viruttam -

 

"Sezhu~nkozhum perum pani pozhindiDa uyarnda vEi

vizhundu ularndu ezhundu viN puDaikkum vE~nkaTattuL ninRu

ezhundirundu tEn porundu pUm-pozhil tazhaik-kozhum

Sezhun-taDam kuDandaiyuL kiDanda mAlum allaiyE".

 

Also remember that tirukkuDandai is where Goddess Lakshmi decided to take

Her incarnation in the form of kOmaLavalli, and tirukkuDandai is where

bhr*gu maharshi (assuming the name of hema maharshi) decided to wait for

nArAyaNa to become His son-in-law. By now, it should be obvious what divya

deSam is No. 1. Just to give additional reasons, we will look at more

data.

 

After the paTTAbhisheka, SrI rAma gave away the ancestral ArAdhana vigraha

to vibhIshNa as a parting gift. vibhIshaNa rested the vigraha on the ground

in SrIra~ngam, but could not take it back from the ground again, bhagavAn

having assumed His reclining pose as Lord ra~naganAtha. But He told

vibhIshaNa that He planned to proceed to tirukkuDandai with half of His

vimAna (the vaidika vimAna) to marry Lakshmi (komaLa valli) and bless hema

maharshi. Then He proceeded to KumbhakONam and assumed the name and form of

ArAvamudhan and married kOmaLa valli. Thus, ArAvamudhan is none other than

ra~nganAtha, who also ended up in kumbhakONam because kOmaLavalli decided to

reside in kumbhakONam.

 

It should be noted that our thAyAr is a paDi-thANDAp pattini in every sense

of the term. Even for kanup-piDi, when the thAyArs from other temples come

to the poRRAmarai tank just outside the temple, our thAyAr stays inside the

entrance and does not come out of the door to the tank which is literally 10

feet away from the door. Such is Her devotion to the service of Her Lord.

 

The chariot of perumAL in tirukkuDandai was given to perumAL by none other

than tiruma~ngai AzhvAr (as found in the account by SrI A. ethirAjan in his

account of the 108 divya kshetra-s), and is one of the largest in South

India. The AzhvAr's composition tiruvezhukkURRirukkai, the words of which

can be arranged like a chariot (you can see it in the temple when you visit

the place), is on this perumAL.

 

This emperumAn's role in the revelation of the nAlAyira divya prabandham

should be well known to bhakta-s. It was here that nAthamunigal got his

directive from bhagavAn for restoring the nAlAyiram. Thus, our ArAvamudhan

is credited with giving us back the divya prabandham. He is also called

ArAvamudha AzhvAr for this contribution of His.

 

tirukkuDanthai is a svayam-vyakta kshetram like kA~nci, SrIra~ngam and

tiruve~nkatam. This is also the place which was drenched by the nectar of

creation that spilled from the pot (kumbham) soon after the waters of

pralaya subsided, and in this sense kumbhakONam (tirukkuDanthai) is the

nucleus of creation.

 

kumbhakONam is also the place where bhAskara (Sun) performed intense penance

to regain the luster that he lost in a battle with sudarSana cakra, and

Sar~ngarAja ultimately acceded to bhAskara's request that kumbhakONam may

also be remembered as bhAskara kshetram.

 

The vaiDika vimAnam in which ArAvamudhan resides in kumbhakONam is one of

three vimAna-s in which bhagavAn appeared in response to the penance by

brahma and Surya (the second one is the praNavAkAra vimAnam in SrIra~ngam

and third is the SrIvaikunTha vimAnam).

 

Even the corridor of ArAvamudhan's residence is sung by periAzhvAr (tU-nilA

muRRattE pOndu viLaiyADa...). Of the 108 tiruppati-s, the corridors of only

three kshetra-s are sung by AzhvAr-s: that of ArAvamudhan, ra~nganAthan, and

nIla meghap perumAL.

 

There are 54 pASurams on this perumAL by our AzhvAr-s - bhutattAzhvAr,

pEyAzhvAr, tirumazhiSai AzhvAr, nammAzhvAr, periyAzhvAr, ANDAL, tiruma~ngai

AzhvAr, kamba nATTAzhvAr, and a Slokam by svAmi deSikan in tAtparya

ratnAvaLi (Slokam 66).

 

I could go deeper into the meanings of the outpourings of the AzhvAr-s on

ArAvamudhan, but even without that, the point is made in my opinion on why

His kshetram is the foremost one.

 

-dAsan kr*shNamAcAryan

[Guest guest]

SrimathE NArAyaNAya Namaha

 

Dear Bhagavathas,

 

Though I said I am stopping, I couldn't resist asking this question in

favour of my Arangan.

 

Sri Krishnamachari wrote :-

-------------------------Quote---

 

This is not the case with my ArAvamudhan, and I hope He will not ever become

an unfriendly Host. So on purely selfish grounds, I will vote for

ArAvamudhan. But there are also very sound reasons why He is No. 1.

------------------------Unquote--

 

Please go to the divya dEsams like Navathiruppathi near and around

AzhwAr Thirunagari and many other not so popular (when I say popular

it is with respect to discussing it as no.1 against any other divya

dEsam) divya dEsam. I would say, the emberumAns in these divya dEsams

will rather come out even to the "oor ellai" to receive you as They

hardly have any devotees thro out the years, excepting the one or two

local fellows and the Archakar. Go to the PravALa vaNNar sannidhi in

Kanchi. Here also, the case is same. Like wise there are many other

divya dEsams. If the no. 1 position is to be accorded on this basis

then there are other divya dEsams which begs the no.1 place on this

grounds. Any way, Sri Krishnamachari does not claim Thirukkudanthai as

No.1 purely on this basis. So with this in mind let me ask the other

question.

 

------------------------Quote------

tirukkudandai is where tiruppati ve~kaTAcalapati and triuvara~ngam's

ran~gaSAyi ended up ultimately.

 

...........(some portion deleted)

 

 

For those of you who are pitching in for tiruve~nkaTam as the No. 1 divya

deSam, just be aware that tiruve~nkaTattAn just had an intermediate stop in

tiruppati, but then proceeded to kumbhakONam, where He assumed the name of

ArAvamudhan, and got united with Lakshmi in the form of kOmaLavalli. This

is confirmed by tirumaZhiSai AzhvAr in tiruc-canda viruttam -

 

"Sezhu~nkozhum perum pani pozhindiDa uyarnda vEi

vizhundu ularndu ezhundu viN puDaikkum vE~nkaTattuL ninRu

ezhundirundu tEn porundu pUm-pozhil tazhaik-kozhum

Sezhun-taDam kuDandaiyuL kiDanda mAlum allaiyE".

 

-------------------------Unquote

 

I don't know the exact vyAkhyAnam of this pAsuram. However let me

agree to this pAsuram as it looks like confirming that

thiruvEngadamudaiyAn had finally ended up at Thirukkudanthai and also

because I am not defending the case of ThiruvEngadamudaiyAn as No.1.

After this Sri Krishnamachari gives an account of How Arangan came to

Thirukkudanthai.

 

--------------------------Quote

 

After the paTTAbhisheka, SrI rAma gave away the ancestral ArAdhana vigraha to

vibhIshNa as a parting gift. vibhIshaNa rested the vigraha on the ground in

SrIra~ngam, but could not take it back from the ground again, bhagavAn having

assumed His reclining pose as Lord ra~naganAtha. But He told vibhIshaNa that

He planned to proceed to tirukkuDandai with half of His vimAna (the vaidika

vimAna) to marry Lakshmi (komaLa valli) and bless hema maharshi. Then He

proceeded to KumbhakONam and assumed the name and form of ArAvamudhan and

married kOmaLa valli. Thus, ArAvamudhan is none other than ra~nganAtha, who

also ended up in kumbhakONam because kOmaLavalli decided to reside in

kumbhakONam.

------------------------Unquote-

 

Is there any supporting pAsuram or vyAkhyAnam for any other similar

pAsuram to validate this claim. I heard that very clearly

ThiruppANAzhwAr says in his 3rd pAsuram.

 

"mandhi pAi vada vEngada mAmalai, vAnavargaL sandhi seyya ninrAn -

arangatharavinaNayAn"

 

meaning, Arangan, when he decided to come down to BhoolOkam came and

first stood there at Thirumalai for the "VAnavargaL" to do their

"Sandhi".

 

Like wise where is the account that Arangan then came to

Thirukkudanthai to marry KOmaLavalli.

 

After this whatever Sri Krishnamachari said is just the Kshetra

Mahimai and does not play any role in getting the no.1 spot for this

divya dEsam.

 

Again, as I had indicated in my earlier post, a particular divya dEsam

could be dearer to anybody but the no.1 is always one and only one

which indeed is Srirangam undoubtedly.

 

 

Sri RanganAyaki thAyAr samEtha Sri RanganAthan thiruvadigaLE saraNam

 

adiyEn RAmAnuja dAsan

 

Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh