nAcciyAr tirumozhi IV-kUDal izhaittal 4.9

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SrI:

SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

 

nAcciyAr tirumozhi IV-kUDal izhaittal

pASuram 4.9 (fourth tirumozhi - pAsuram 9 koNDa kOlam)

 

 

A. Translation from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

 

In this pASuram, ANDAL recalls the vAmanAvatAra incident.

 

BhagavAn came as vAmana in the form of a brahmacAri

wearing the sacred thread, deerskin, pavitram and tanDu

(stick), to the great yAga bhUmi of mahAbali. He got 3

feet of land as a charity from mahAbali, and measured

with His one foot the higher worlds, and with another

the lands below. ANDAL appeals to kUDal to give a good

omen to her signifying that this trivikraman will be

united with her.

 

koNDa kOlam kuRaL uruvAic cenRu

paNDu mAvali tan peru vELviyil

aNDamum nilanum aDi onRinAl

koNDavan varil kUDiDu kUDalE

 

B. Some additional thoughts:

 

aDi onRinAl: SrI PVP translates this to mean "ovvOr aDiyAlE"

- in other words, one foot for upper worlds and one for

lower worlds. SrI PBA explicitly says that "aDi onRinAl"

should be taken to mean "aDi ov-vonRinAl".

 

SrI PVP also has the anubhavam that He is more beautiful

when He appears as vAmana than when He is in SrIvaikuNTham.

In fact, may be this is how godai felt, and this is why she

is singing about vAmana here.

 

In vAmana incarnation bhagavAn asked for, and got three feet

of land. This is referred to in "trINi padA vicakramE" -

yajurvEda 2-4-51 (He pervaded all the worlds with 3 measures

of His feet) and periyAzhvAr's prabandham - "mUnRadi nimirttu"

(periyAzhvAr tirumozhi 4-7-10). However, ANDAL is referring to

only two, not three measures - aNDAmum nilanum. This raises

the interesting question as to why ANDAL talks of only two

dimensions.

 

SrI PVP explains this by pointing us to SrI jIyar's words

recalling SrI BhaTTar's aruLicceyal on this question.

SrI BhaTTar quotes the yajurveda (2.8.16) in this context:

 

"paro mAtryA tanuvA vr*dhAna |

na tE mahitvamanvaSnuvanti |

ubhE tE vidma rajasI pr*thivyA: |

vishNo dEva tvam paramsya vitsE |"

 

(Oh great vishNu! You took a big form; but, nobody was

able to understand your greatness; we all know the two feet

with which you measured the upper worlds and the lower worlds

including the earth; but the third dimension of your great Self,

You alone know its limits". The reference here is that

bhagavAn's greatness (his paratvam, sauSIlyam, soulabhyam,

vAtsalyam, etc.) - His third dimension - cannot be understood

by anyone other than Himself.

So it looks like ANDAL stops with describing the two dimensions

that we can all comprehend.

 

peru-vELvi - The yAga by mahAbali could by itself deserve

to be considered great, but what made it truly great was that

bhagavAn blessed it by His personal appearance. This is what

made it "peru" vELvi.

 

koNDavan - The anubhavam here is that we are all His

belongings, and He was not going to let anyone own His

belongings, and will get them back by hook or crook. In this

case He came as a dwarf brAhmaNa and "got" it all back from bali.

 

 

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

 

adiyEn,

Kalyani Krishnamachari