Sampradayam Books in English

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhagavatas,

Adiyen likes to bring to your kind notice the excellent work being

done by SRI Sampradaya Sabha, Malleswaram,Bangalore founded by Sri B.S.S

Iyengar. Its president is Prof B.R.Seshadri Iyengar. Under the auspices of

SriSampradaya Sabha, they have published very valuable books.

Sri B.S.S.Iyengar has written and published full Tiruvaymozhi with

English transliteration with standard diacritical marks and meaning in

lucid English. The review of the book was published in The Hindu, dated

5th Sept 2000 and is reproduced here for the benefit of the readers. The

book is available with Sri B.S.S.Iyengar at the address given below and

can also be arranged to be available at US. It costs Rs200/$15.

Sri B.S.S Iyengar has written and published Acharya Hridayam with English

transliteration and lucid and essential meaning in English. This book has

been kindly blessed by Sri UVe Velukkudi Krishnan Swamy and Sri UVe

Bhuvarahacharya Swamy. Study of AcharyaHridayam is essential for a

complete understanding of Tiruvaymozhi. This book costs Rs 80/$5. Sri

Iyengar's English version of SriVachanaBhooshanam is also getting ready

for publication in the near future.

 

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The review of the book in The Hindu dated 5-9-2000

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Grandness of Tiruvaymozhi

MYSTICISM SUPREME

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Tiruvaymozhi of Nammalvar: B.S.S.Iyengar; Belavadi Apartments, 13th

Cross, Malleswaram, Bangalore-560003.

 

 

NAMMALVAR WAS a great mystic poet. He shines like a sun in the firmament

of Srivaishnavism. He has been revered both as an Alvar and an Acharya

 

Tradition holds that other Alvars are only Angas - components, while

Nammalvar is Angi - the whole of Vaishnavism.

 

 

Of his four Prabandhas, being grand literary creations, indited in

anaphoric sequence, a rare feat, and formng more than one-fourth of the

entire corpus of the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, the Tiruvaymozhi stands

supreme, as his magnum opus.

 

This text contains more than 1000 poems and has been celebrated to be the

ocean of Dravida-Veda by Nathamuni and Vedanta Desika.

 

It has been richly commented by erudite scholars including Tirukkurukai

Piran Pillan, the disciple of Ramanuja, Nanjeeyar, Periyavachanpillai and

his successors.

 

Nammalwar's supreme mystical experience has been elegantly and effectively

communicated in the Akam poems, involving bridal mysticism. As a bride to

the eternal groom, unable to bear the pangs of separation, he sends forth

various species of birds, wind and his own heart as messengers, to project

the plight of separation and for speedy reunion with the Supreme.

 

In some poems, he becomes the mother of the heroine and speaks in the vein

of the Gitacharya stating that the Lord is all the animate and inanimate

beings, as their creator, sustainer and immanent principle. He is also

transcendent.

 

Though Hooper, Ramanujan and others have made successful attempts to

translate the hymns of Alvars into English, the book under review is

undoubtedly a labour of love not by an academician, but by an electrical

engineer whose erudition, insight and experience are transparent in every

page of this volume.

 

First, he presents the poem in transliterated form and its substance in

English, followed by notes, explicating the rare usages.

 

In appendix I, he has enlisted the Divyadesas. celebrated by the mystic

poet. In appendix II, the decad of Madurakavi, who adored only his

preceptor, Nammalvar, and attained salvation, has been rendered into

English.

 

This volume is a milestone in the annals of the modern study on

Srivaishnavism.

 

 

S.N.KANDASWAMY