thiruppavai day seventeen song seventeen

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THIRUPPAVAI - DAY SEVENTEEEN - SONG SEVENTEEN

 

Transliteration

 

amparamE thannIrE corE aRam ceyyum

emperumAn nanthagOpA eLunthirAy

kompanArkkellAm koLunthe kula vilakkE

emperumAtti yacothAy eLunthirAy

amparam Utu aRuththOnki ulalaLantha

umparkOmAnE urankAthu elunthirAy

cempork kaLaLatic celvA palathEva

umpiyum nIyum urankElOr empAvAy.

 

Translation

 

Our Lord Nantakopa! Wake up!

You administer clothing, water and food.

Our Lady Yesotha! Wake up!

You are the tenderest of the tender leaves of the creepers,

The auspicious lamp of the herdsmen clan.

Our God of gods! Wake up!

You tore the skies to measure the world of gods.

Baladeva! With your brother, wake up!

The golden anklets of valour adorn your feet.

 

The six songs (17-22) make up another cluster within the Tiruppavai. Obviously,

between the sixteenth and seventeenth songs, the maids have gained admittance

into the abode of God. Songs 17-22 may be said to make up an invocation of God’s

grace in the name of waking Him up from his sleep.

 

That Hinduism is polytheistic is public knowledge. But that the word polytheism

does not bring out the essence of the structural aspects of Hindu theology has

to be acknowledged.

 

The Vedic polytheism considered Brahma as the God. On various occasions, one

particular god or the other was invoked and offered prayers for certain boons

they can grant. Thus Vasudeva came to be a deity in Vedic religion while Brahma

was the God Absolute. Such gods who were invoked on particular occasions were

known as atistana devata – the god invoked.

 

The later Hindu pantheon goes beyond such a simplistic explanation of

polytheism. While Siva became the God Absolute for the Saivas, Narayana became

the God Absolute for the Vaishnavas. Such theism can best be called

personalistic holistic apperception of God. Should Being or Transcendence or God

be regarded as personal or impersonal in nature? In answering this question, it

has to be remembered that the inner passage traversed by the human consciousness

is filled with an overwhelming of worthlessness of being unrelated to God. God

should, in other words, be of such a nature as to be consciously related to

man’s being in the world so as to dispel his sense of despair, worthlessness or

loneliness and create in their place a sense of hope, worth and inner

companionship. Such a nature cannot be ascribed to the Transcendence or Being or

God if it is conceived in purely impersonal terms. Hence it would be reasonable

to suppose that Being or Transcendence or God bears a personal character so as

to enter into communication with human consciousness which has become intensely

religious at the point of meeting God and yearns to have a dialogue with Him.

The religious dialogue takes the forms of devotional music, poetry, prayer and

ritualistic worship. These would be meaningless of the God is impersonal and

incapable of responding to such religious appeals. Therefore the Being

encountered by man’s religious consciousness will have to be conceived as

profoundly personal so as to make man’s personal relationship or commitment to

it really meaningful and worthwhile. This concept would then be in conformity

with man’s religious consciousness which has developed through an inner

psychological process of longing for hope and worthfulness. The Transcendence or

Being or God which can thus be so related to man in personal terms cannot itself

be anything less than a personal God.

 

When God came to be so personalised, a number of gods were held to be in

particular relationship with the God. Thence the temple iconography developed

into an art in itself. The temples were structured in many layers that were in

concentric squares the innermost of which is the sanctum sanctorum.

Circumambulating each layer, the devotees offered their prayers to each god in

the layer.

 

It is in the context of such a temple structure that one has to look at the

songs 15-22 in the series of Tiruppavai.

 

Having gained admittance into the precincts of God’s abode, after the fifteenth

song, the maids attune the praise of Nandagopa, Yesodha and Balarama along with

God in the sixteenth song.

 

Nandagopa is Krishna’s foster father and the Chief of the herdsmen. The word

‘aram’ in the first line of the poem is usually interpreted as the benevolent

gifts given away by Nandagopa in the form of clothes, water and food. A better

perspective would be to look at the word as indicating the administration of

clothing, water and food in tune with the responsibilities of the Chief.

Therefore the translation, “you administer” rather than “you give away”.

 

Secondly, Yesodha, Krishna’s foster mother is addressed. The women of ayppati

are tender as creepers and the best of them is Yesodha. Besides she is also the

auspicious lamp of the clan. It is to be noted that in Hindu society as well as

Hindu pantheon, a certain place of dignity is assigned to woman. Invariably, the

consorts of God are seen as the most sympathetic towards the devotees. In fact

the appeal to God’s grace is routed through the consort or the mother. Natually,

Yesodha falls in place in this song.

 

Though the ultimate appeal is to God, this songs makes an appeal from the outer

square of the temple to God Himself in the name of one of his exploits – that of

Vamana who measured all the worlds in two strides. The picture evoked with just

a phrase – ambaram utu aruttu onkiya – is graphic. God grew in magnitude to tear

through the sky and measure the world of Gods.

 

Baladeva, Krishna’s brother, is also invoked in this song. The terms of

invocation are those of valour. The reference is to a kind of anklet worn by

men. The anklet is said to have been made of pure gold.

 

Traditional interpretation will metaphorically explain the attributes to

Nantagopa. God is the clothing, water and food to the devotees – the source of

their sustenance and dignity. Nantagopa has bestowed on the maids the gift of

God who is everything to them. The cross reference is interesting. – unnum coru,

parukum nir, tinnum verrilaiyum ellam kannan – Kannan is to the Alwar the rice

he eats, the water he drinks and the betal leaf he munches.

 

Yeshodha is seen as lying between Nantagopa and Krishna. Traditional

interpretation would speak about the duality of motherhood. On the one side is

the husband who is hugged so tight as to make him feel the pressure of her

breasts on his chest. On the other side is the baby to be offered her breasts

for milk. Yesodha is also called the tender tip of a creeper with fresh leaves.

Any harm to the creeper will be reflected by the drooping of the tender leaves

first. Any difficulty in the family will affect the womenfolk first. Therefore

is Yesodha called the fresh leaf of the tender creeper.