Hayagriva in Tibet!

[Guest guest]

Dear bhaktas:

 

Recently Mani wrote about the very intriguing fact of our

beloved Andal's thiruppavai being one of the traditions of

Thai royalty and the continuing existence of brahmins from

Srivaishnava descent in Thailand even today. I was quite

awe-struck with this information - even though I knew that

the Thai royalty were the patrons of "traditional" dance

which represented portions of Hindu epics and so on. Even

one of the recent Thai kings I believe, is named "prajAthipok"

- read: prajAdeepak, or the guiding light for his subjects.

 

Thanks, Mani for bringing this unique element of Thailand's

connection with ancient Hinduism to our attention. I don't have

anything to add to this information right now, but it brought to

my mind another similarly interesting fact:

 

Hayagriva in TIBET.

 

If I may quote from an article by Sri. parakalamutt's

AsthAna vidwan Prof. K.S. Narayanacharya,

 

"The Bhagavata Purana mentions that God as Vishnu, in this

Horse faced form is still being worshipped in the Bhadrasva

Varsha on the northern side of Himalayas (vide V-18-1).

 

It also gives a rare Hayagriva Mantra and a brief Hymn in

praise of this Lord's form. This territory corresponds to Tibet,

where the populace, before getting converted to Buddhism,

worshipped Lord Hayagriva, and even now continute to do

so, without giving up this ancient mode of worship, whatever

their new persuasion may be.

 

A few years ago, some dozens of Buddhist Monks from Tibet

visited the Parakala Mutt of Mysore to see and believe their

their dear Deity was being worshipped here, and the present

Pontiff [srimad Abhinava vAgIsha parakAlaswAmi (33rd Jeer)]

is witness to this rare scene!"

 

The entire article: http://hayagriva.homepage.com/significance.html

is included in the Parakala matham webpage.

 

aDiyEn,

-Srinath C.

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Mani Varadarajan <mani

Tiruppavai and Thailand

 

Dear Members,

 

I had read a few years back of a connection between

Tiruppavai and Thailand. Evidently, the Tiruppavai was

recited as part of the Thai coronation ceremony. Today,

I was searching the Net for information corroborating

this when I stumbled across this astonishing bit of news:

 

From "Dr.N.Kannan" <nkannan

 

If it might interest you, several centuries ago, Sri

Vaishnava Brahmins from Srivillippuththur area of

Ramanathapuram District, migrated to Thailand.

 

Their descendants are still in Bangkok. They are known

as the Thai Brahmin community.

 

They are the Royal Preceptors (RajaGurus) of the

Thai kings. It is to be noted that the Thai kings although

claim descent from the Solar Royalty and Sri Rama, are

now Buddhists. But the Royal Guru happens to be the

Sri Vishnava Thai Brahmins.

 

There is a very strong tradition of Thiruppaavai hymns in

Thailand. The hymn, "VaaraNam Aayiram suuzha valam

vanthu" is still sung in Tamil. But of course without

understanding the meaning. There are about 2000 Brahmins

in Bangkok.

 

If anyone has more info about this, I would love to hear it.

 

Mani

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