Sri Ranga's diverse abodes.

[Guest guest]

Friends of 'bhakti list',

 

I had missed the 'sAmpradAya' reference for the name <Hema Rangan of

Thirukkudanthia>. I wd be grateful if someone cd supply it.

 

"hEma-rangan", for me, is from stanza 35 of irAmAnuSa-nooRRantAdi which

refers to emperumAnAr as the one who goes into a trance at the mere

thought of Sriranga who is all of gold

("A-praNakhAt suvarNam", as chhAndOgyam has it) ~~

"ponnaranGam ennil mayalE perukum irAmAnuSan".

This stanza which describes the spell-binding nature of ponn-arangan's

name on Sri Ramanuja must have been inspired by koorat-t-Azhvan's like

description of the golden-lotus feet of Achyuta: our Guru, Ramanuja,

was ever under their spell and held everything else ('tad-itarANi trNAya

mEnE') as trifle.

***************

<5. The fifth one is between Srirangam and Thirukkudanthai.

I can not trecall this dhivya desam quickly. Other BhakthAs might be

able to add this information.>

 

The reference is perhaps to the divya-dESam 'tiru-p-pEr nagar' where the

Lord reclines on ananta-couch. The divya-dESam has acquired two

colloquial names, 'appa-k-kuDattAn' and 'kOyil-aDi', and is situated at

the northern end of the ancient dam 'kal-aNai' across kAvEri, and about

45 minutes to the east of Srirangam.

"pinnai-maNALanai pEril kiDantAnai" of periyAzhvAr is but one of the

several divya-prabandham hymns dedicated to this renowned 'kshEtram'.

***************

'Shivana Samudram' is (or was, way back in 1991 when I visited)

an utterly tranquil islet in river Kaveri, situated in the

dense verdure of Malavalli taluq in district Mandya, Karnataka.

[Malavalli nestles close to Kollegal, the haunt of private operators

'promoting' the fragrant wood!]

 

The name 'Shivana Samudram', as one can see, is utterly inappropriate

for the exclusive site of a Vaishnava temple,

and must have been foisted during the rule of the later Hoysala rabid

king, BallaaLa-III who was responsible for converting the Vishnu shrine

into Saivam at the place which to-day bears the non-name of

tiru-vaNNA-malai. (What a fall, from the ancestor biTTi-deva /

vishNu-vardhana who sheltered Sri Ramanuja, and who, at the desire of

Sri Ramanuja, got Sri mudali-ANDAn to supervise the construction of five

magnificent Vishnu temples!)

 

The shrine at 'Samudram' of Malavalli is dedicated to a very cute

ananta-nArAyaNa, evidently an early Hoysala crafting, about five

feet in all. You could hear the gurgle of the river's flow in the

pervasive tranquility. [This place was so deserted that some insurgents

had taken shelter there.] Each and every Sri Vaishnava shrine anywhere

in has come under such subversive and, now raucous, assault: how fragile

is beauty, how feeble peace !

**************

It is really not possible to list out all the diverse abodes of Sri

Ranganatha. It is as well as to remember that 'ranga-nAtha' is the

common iconographic identification of Sriman Narayana reclining on the

serpent-couch of 'ananta' (meaning 'time infinity'). I have a Tibetan

buddhist work of the 15th century which gives the name, Ranganatha, to

yathOkta-kAri perumAL

of the Kanchi divya-dESam, tiru-ve~h-kA.

 

It is this manifestation of the Lord reclining on the ananta-couch which

is held most precious in our exegetic ('vyAkhyAna') tradition; hence

the primacy of Lord Sriranga among all such manifestations. It is this

manifestation which has earned the foremost mention in the first Rk of

the mahA-nArAyaN-Opanishad

which describes the 'panchAvasthA' of the Lord ~~ param, vyUham,

vibhavam, archA and antaryAmitvam: ('ambhas-yapArE', the One who rests

across the shoreless waters ~~ a description which is echoed in the

Bible book of Genesis 1:2 as "the Spirit of God that moved upon the face

of the Waters"). And this is how the Lord is

in Srirangam.

 

The 'Adi- madhya- antya-' Rangam identification rests more in popular

fancy and understanding of the sacred sites ("ukandu-aruLina nilankaL")

than in 'vyAkhyAna-paramparA'. Considered in time coordinates,

Srirangam happens to be the most ancient seat of the Lord and hence

stands as THE Adi-rangam. Nevertheless, one may assign the ordinals,

first, middle

and the terminal, according to the geographic situation of the

'kshEtram' down the course of the river. It is a pleasurable exercise

to chart down the course of our dear river Kaveri and to stick

colour-pins to mark the sites of temples dedicated to Sriranga !

 

"ARRu-vari" or the lay of the river, is the very delicate poetry in the

Tamil classic 'Silap-p-adhikAram' devoted to Kaveri, it reminds one so

much of Edmund Spenser's lines dedicated to river Thames: "Sweet Thames,

run softly till I end my song."

 

The ananta-SAyee one can worship to-day at the farthest north of our

sub-continent is about 10 km to the east of Nepal's capital city of

kATh-mandu. The 15-ft image is truly a masterpiece of sculpting (not in

freize but rounded), and is in a tank built around it. This is

manifestly identified by the Sankham, chakram and gadA, and the given

name is 'buDhA neelA-kAnta' (the Ancient One, Lord of neelA),

mispronounced as 'buddha neel-kanTha'.

JUST ONE INSTANCE TO SHOW HOW BY SIMPLY MESSING UP A NAME THROUGH

ILLITERACY and/or through deliberate intention, THE VERY IDENTITY OF A

RELIGIOUS SITE or of the object of worship CAN BE ALTERED !

 

In a 'nAm-ghar' shrine in Gauhati-Assam of (vaishNav-advaiti

sampradAya of) mahApurusha Sri Sankara-dEvA, I have noticed the

'ananta-SAyee' image placed in the nAm-keertan hall, despite that the

object of worship in this cult is only the book of Srimad Bhagavatam

together with the teachings of the Guru.

Bhilwara in the State of Rajasthan, which is to-day a commercial

name, was the Padma Puranam site of 'bila-dvAram' where ananta-SAyee was

worshipped.

The famed Ellora caves have large niches for ananta-SAyee and narasimha.

There is an ananta-SAyee temple on the coastal strip connecting

Simhachalam (Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh) with Srikakulam/

Sri-koormam.

We would terminate the great ananta-Sayee trek

at tiru-vATTaru of Adi-kESava or

at Trivandrum of ananta-padma-nAbha-svAmi.

 

And the most miraculous of ananta-SAyee images are to be seen in the

culturally rich and economically impoverished State of

Orissa, known as Ut-kalA.

The two colossal and majestic (50 ft long) rock carvings of

ananta-Sayanam are:

 

(i) one on the eastern bank of river brAhmaNee at the site 'sArang' in

district Angul, Orissa.

[The sacred feet of the Lord extend to the water-rim,

and this beatific locale reminds you of

kula-SEkhara AzhvAr's lines on Sriranga ~~

"tiruvaranga-p-peru nagaruL teN-Neer-p-ponni

tirai-k-kaiyAl aDi-varuDa-p-paLLi koLLum", and

Sri Parasara bhattar's translation ~~

"kAvEree laharee-karaih vidadhati paryEti sAsEvyatAm"]

 

This is totally neglected, being exposed to weathering.

 

(ii) the other discovered about twenty feet below existing ground level

at the NTPC project site at Talcher, district Angul. Hardly 30 minutes

from the first one.

This is well taken care of by NTPC.

 

I would gladly risk comparison of these two majestic images

(in which the Lord bears his Sankham and chakram and the gadA)

to the the Abu Simbel colossi of Ramases-Nefertiti in Egypt and

(the recently vandalised) Afghanistan-Bhamian colossal Buddha.

 

 

Thus is the sweep of Sriranga over our religious cartography !

 

aDiyEn rAmanuja-dAsan

Sundara Rajan.

 

==============================================================

 

Sadagopan wrote Wed, 22 Aug 2001 20:10:57 -0400 (EDT):

 

I was not aware of an Aadhi Rangan at Shivana Samudram.

It was my understanding that the Sriranga PattaNam RanganAthan

was the Adhi Rangan.

There are 5 RanganAthans on the bank of Cauvery ( Not always in the

middle of Islands) for us. These are:

1.Adhi Rangan 2.KasthUri Rangan of Srirangam 3.Hema Rangan of

Thirukkudanthia 4.ParimaLa Rangan of Thiru Indhalur, where Cauvery

reaches its Sangamam with Samudhra Raajan

5. The fifth one is between Srirangam and Thirukkudanthai.

I can not trecall this dhivya desam quickly.

Other BhakthAs might be able to add this information.

 

Sri RanganAtha ParabrahmaNE Nama: V.Sadagopan