oththAr mikkArai ilaiyaaya maamaayaa

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srImathE saTakOpAya namah

srImathE rAmAnujAya namah

srImathE anantArya mahAguravE namah

srIman vara vara munayE namah

 

dear bhAgavathAs,

 

smt Lakshmi had raised a question regarding oththAr mikkArai ilaiyaya

maamayaa paasuram (thiruvAymozhi 2.3.2 - oonil vAazh pathikam)-

She is correct - oththAr means "people who are equal" - and mikkAr

obviously means "people who are more than equal" - It does, on the

surface, seem redundant.

 

Many of our pUrvAcharyAs, while commenting on this line use the word -

samAdhika DhariDhran - i.e. one who does not have any equals and

no superior beings -

 

adiyEn can only speculate as to why AzhvAr uses both - maybe it is

just to make it very clear - i.e. if he had just said oththAr ilaiyaya

maaamaaya, then someone might ask a question "if perumAL has no

equals, that is fine - does this mean that He has beings above Him?" -

 

a brief aside - the pUrvAchaRya vyAkhyanam for this specific line

is extremely beautiul - svAmi thirukkurugaip piraan piLLan uses the

word - nirastha samAByaDhikanaay ; svAmi nanjIyar, svAmi periyavAchchan

piLLai, svAmi nampiLLai use the word samAdhika dharidhranaay, svAmi

vaadhikEsari azhagiya maNavALa jIyar uses samABhyaDhika dharidhranaay;

 

svAmi nampiLLai says

"sriya:pathikkum thannaal kazhikka oNNaadhapadi irupadhoru dhaaridhryam

uNdu - na tath samaschcha aByaDhikaschcha DhrshyathE enkiRapadiyE

smADhikadharidhranaay irukkum - idhenna aascharyandhaan" -

i.e. even sriya:pathi has a dhAridhriyam - this dhAridhriyam is "having

no one that is equal or above Him" -

 

 

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan,

AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam,

Thirumalai anandAnpiLLai varadhan