PART-3: kAnchi Sri prati-vAdi-bhayankaram aNNangar-AchArya svAmi

[Guest guest]

kAnchi Sri prati-vAdi-bhayankaram aNNangar-AchArya svAmi (1891 - 1983)

PART-3 : in memoriam ~~ (by tirumanjanam S. Sundara Rajan)

 

kAnchi svAmi passed away on June 21 1983. I had visited him a little

before his end came. Stepping into the vEdAnta vAijayantee pATha-SAlA

(which he established and where he lived his later years) was like peering

into

a mine of gems, since one could just pick up at random a classic edition one

had only heard of and despaired of acquiring a copy. The wizard spirit of

this treasure-house of books did not even raise his head to look at you as he

sat in the large hall where the walls were totally screened off by racks

after

racks of books. His head was bent over a book or a sheaf of papers on which

he was writing. When I succeeded in identifying myself to the svAmi, he said,

"Oh, that's Kannan's brother, is it! Well, then, you must have brought

ball-pen refills for me ?"

 

My brother Sri Kannan had the advantage of a steady Madras posting and

could pay regular visits to kAnchi svAmi. On his repeated visits to this

doyen of Sri-vAishNavam, Kannan was mindful to take two strange 'offerings'.

 

One was a small polythene pouch of raisins, which the svAmi could chew on

without distress over his long hours of writing. The second was a packet of

ball-pen refills. The svAmi always prized these as precious gifts indeed.

 

 

I was shy of approaching the svAmi who was a scholar-phenomenon of

the century. The memory is vivid in me of his central leadership of the

astonishingly large 'adhyApaka gOshThee' that had been assembled

during the unprecedented All India vEda sammElan organised in

April 1973 in the vast Ramleela Grounds in Delhi by the tri-danDi

Sriman nArAyaNa jeeyar (Senior). A showy display of devotion to the

great personage would have been inappropriate on my part (just as any

attempt at linguistic, literary or theological assessment severally of his

writing would ever fall short of the profundity and authenticity of his

contributions.) I therefore just watched from away as he gazed on in

adoration of Lord Sri lOka-shEma rAma and His entourage (ceremonially

brought over from His shrine in Lodhi Colony) and led the recitals in a

ringing voice. It was a moment of bliss as the unfathomable spate of

paramAchArya nAthamuni's bhakti (agAdha-bhagavad-bhakti-sindhu)

washed over us all assembled at the vibrant venue of the vEda conference

-cum-festival.

 

"Keep looking at the books," the svAmi said to me, "till I finish with this."

He called me out in a while, and I approached him with an arm-load of

books I had picked up. I quickly tallied the (nominal) prices printed on

the

books and made to submit my petty payment. He had started simply giving

away his books to whoever showed interest, and hence would not accept

money. I was not overmuch into the svAmi's confidence like my brother was

and could not think of a proper manner of showing my regard except timidly

press my payment. He acceded and said, "Well, this should take care of the

'prasAdam' (cooked offering) at to-morrow's conclusion of nam-piLLai

utsavam!" He thus gave a status to a Nobody like myself, and value to my

handful of rupees.

 

And, peering at me down his thick glasses, svAmi asked, "What be the

books you picked up?" As I read out the titles one by one, he asked,

"Is that engaL-AzhvAn gloss on vishNu-purANam? Oh, can you read

nAgari ?" His eyes glinted and he was readily pleased to discover the

tiniest merit or skill in any of his visitors. In these times of wicked

neglect of Sanskrit studies, it gratified him that one could barely read off

the deva-nAgari script, even if not be literate in the language itself.

 

He got misty-eyed as he noticed me holding his Sanskrit translation

of the mudal-Ayiram (first Thousand) of the divya-prabandham.

"sundara-rAjA," he whispered to me but actually slipping into fond

reminiscence, "Once I had sent in the day's instalment of translation,

the form-proof used to come from the press just overnight, and jAmAtA

-svAmi would return the corrected proof forthwith. Day after day it

went on so, and we got the full book, you know, printed in no time!"

[jAmAta-svAmi was, of course, his elder son-in-law,

tirumalai-akkArak-kani sampat-kumArAchArya svAmi, and father of

Sri anantAzhvAn.] "That was how we worked on this, and that was

the kind of excellence of Sanskrit printing in kAnchi of those days!

To-day, of course, it is as BhavabhUti describes it!" And he fell into a

reverie as he recited the line from uttara-rAma-charitam,

"purA yatra srOtah, pulinam adhunA, tatra saritAm"

~~ the swelling current of the river has yielded to a sandy stretch!

 

In assuming that a scholar like kAnchi svAmi would ipso facto be

unapproachable to a layman like me, I had failed to store up the

benefits of exposure to a real and outstanding personage of the times.

His personal wants were few and his hidden acts of charity many.

His learning did not weigh him down and his civility never deserted

him in the keenest of his personal struggles. He had a child-like

simplicity and he used to indulge in occasional and soft teasing.

(Good jokes, someone said, bite like lambs and not like tigers!)

"You folks of chOzha-nADu are in need of tonDai-nATTu

apprenticing to speak Tamil properly!" Once, commenting on

another scholar's rickety grammar behind a faulty interpretation,

he said, "The writer has a touching trust of analogy in deriving

('samAsam') an epithet. For him, if Indra's spouse were indrANee,

then 'talahANee' it is (colloquy for talai-aNai, pillow) for the wife of

talaha (whoever that was) !"

 

His books occupy the pride of place in my collections and, despite

that I had acquired them with my two-bit payments off and on,

the books were like God's bounty, quite free. They are on the verities,

beneficient, sustaining. Like the sunshine, like the breeze, the flow of

a river, and the capacity for good memories.

He is a 'prAtas-smaraNeeyah', one to think of when you arise

from sleep at day-break.***** "Sri-ranga-nAthO jayatu !" ************