Guest guest Posted August 26, 2001 Report Share Posted August 26, 2001 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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