nacciyar thirumoli day four

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Day Four - Nacciyar Thirumozhi

First Thirumozhi

 

Song One

 

Through the month of Thai did I

Clean the ground and build an altar.

Through the month of Masi did I

Decorate the streets with fine sands

For your regal march.

O God of Love!

I stood there offering prayers

To you and your brother,

Hoping to be redeemed.

Assign me then to the service

Of the Lord of Venkata,

Holding the scorching Discus

Spitting sparks of fire.

 

Song Two

 

Decorate do I the streets

With fine white sands;

Bathe do I in the pond

Well before the dawn.

Offer do I faggot without thorn

To the sacrificial fire on the altar.

Thus do I observe my holy vow.

Make do I a bow of honeyed flowers

Write do I the name of the Ocean-Hued.

Take me then to go and join

The Lord who tore apart

The beak of the monster crane.

 

Song Three

 

Offer do I at your feet always

The fragrant Umathai and Murukkai flowers.

Lest you should be discounted as the Formless,

Make do I a bow of flowers in bunches.

Wear do I the name of Govinda on my breasts.

Take me then to the Lord of Venkata

The wonderful Lamp.

 

Song Four

 

O Lord of Love of Lore!

Write do I your name on the walls.

Hold do I your flag with fish inscribed.

Dedicate do I to you

Horses, maids and the bow of sugarcane.

Resolved have I been in my love for Him

>From the days of my youth

That my full swelled breasts are meant

Only for the feel of the Lord of Dwaraka.

Pray do I unto you, Lord of Love,

To take me to Him.

 

Song Five

 

Listen, O Lord of Love!

The brahmin makes offering at the altar,

To the gods in the heavens.

Should ever a wild fox pass by sniffing it?

My breasts swell in passion

For the feel of the fnigers of the Noble

Who holds the conch and the discus.

I cannot hold on to this life of mine

If ever these breasts are spoken

As meant for any human touch.

 

song Six

 

O Lord of Love!

Making Obeisance to the Shapely and the Young,

To the Virtuous and the Skilled in the Scripture of Love,

I observe my holy vow with a clear heart,

Planting myself on the street

Every morning in the month of Pankuni,

Well within the grace of your passing glance.

Grace me to be blessed

With the graceful glance of my Lotus-Eyed Lord,

Dark-Cloud Hued; Hued like the Kaaya Flower;

Shiny black like the Mica.

 

Song Seven

 

O Lord of Love!

Worship do I with chants devised

By the clear-toned;

By Well-versed in the Scripture of Love.

Offer do I cooked fleshy-green rice

Mixed with jaggery, rice and aval.

Make Him who once measured

All worlds in three strides,

Feel with His fingers,

My bright slant of the naval to the thighs,

My soft and full breasts,

To bless me with renown everywhere

In the wide world.

 

Song Eight

 

Reputed to bring lovers together

My Glorious Lord of Love!

Ignore do I my dusty unwashed body.

Ignore do I the betal to make my lips shrivelled.

Ignore do I my meal for the day.

Remember this my vow in prayer to you!

I have an appeal to you.

The very sustenance of my feminity

Is the fortune of pressing the feet

Of the Noble Kesava in devotion.

 

Song Nine

Worship do I thrice a day.

Offer do I pure flowers at your feet.

If every I have to forego

My flawless services to th Ocean-Hued Lord,

The onus of making me cry in despair

Will fall squarely on your shoulders.

Will ever the plough-share bull

Be chased away empty stomached,

With the very yoke it has to bear?

 

Song Ten

 

Blessed are those devotees who chant

The ten songs of the daughter of Vittucitta of Villiputtur

Worshipping the feet of the Lord of Love,

The sugarcane bowed and flower arrowed,

To make her dedicated to the Love of Manivannan

Who broke the tusks of the monster Elephant,

Who tore the beaks of the Monster Crane,

Who is carbuncle-hued.

 

 

If one has to appreciate the ten songs above from the right perspective, one

should be aware of the following:

 

Kama or Lust has remained an archetype in Tamilnadu. Associated with it,

there had been two rituals - Kaman nonpu (The Obeservance of Kama Vow) and

Kaman Vizha (The Celebration of Kama).

 

Kaman Nonpu is observed by virgins in worship of the God of Love seeking his

blessings for the right kind of husband. In Cilappathikaram, there is a

reason ascribed for the separation of Kannaki from her husband. She is said

to have failed to take up the Kaman Nonpu in her previous birth. In the

songs of Andal and in Perunkathai this nonpu gets an exploratory form.

 

This Kaman nonpu can be considered to be associated with the ritual of

bathing in the month of Thai (thainneeratal) of the days of the Canka

literature. The young unmarried women went about a ritual in the month of

thai (January/February). Paripatal describes it as "thavathaineeratal" (the

Holy Bathing in Thai). In Kalithokai, the lover is made to ask the lady love

if she would take up the holy vow of thainneeratal. This ritual is observed

in prayer for the right kind of husband. Akananuru provides us with details

of the procedures of the obserance. Young women are supposed to don their

waists with tender mango leaves. As they along with the swaying hips of the

women, they are supposed to have gone to the bathing pond. Music from

conches accompanied their ceremonial march. They carried with them the clay

doll they had themselves made. This clay doll was immersed in the waters of

the pond. They then bathed in the pond and danced on the banks later praying

to the God of Love to bless them with the right kind of husband.

 

This ritual of the period of the Sanga literature became associated with the

Deity of Love, Kama, Manmatha, Ananka, as he is variously called. That was

an added ritualistic aspect which transformed the earlier Sanga ritual into

one oriented towards the worship of a personal God.

 

It is in the background of the aforementioned information that the first ten

verses in Nacciyar Thirumoli are to be explained in the next posting.