thiruppavai day twenty six song twenty six

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TIRUPPAVAI - DAY TWENTYSIX - SONG TWENTYSIX

 

Transliteration

 

mAlE manivannA mArkaLi nIrAtuvAn

mElaiyar ceyvanakaL vEntuvana kEttiyEl

jnalaththai ellAm natunka muralvana

pAlanna vannaththu un pAncha canniyamE

pOlvana cankankal pOyppAtu utaiyanavE

cAlap perumpaRaiyE pallAnticaippArE

kOla viLakkE kotiyE vithAnamE

Alin ilaiyAy arulElOr empAvAy.

 

Translation

 

The Noblest! Carbuncle Hued!

Conches as white as pancha canya booming

To make the whole world tremble;

Large and broad drums;

A hoard of singers hailing You!

Auspicious lamps flags and canopy –

Grant us such implements for the pavai,

As are pressed into service by the pious.

Thou who layest on the banyan leaf at the Deluge.

 

The two songs, twenty-six and twenty-seven, contain specific prayers. While

the twenty-sixth song refers to requirements for the ritualistic observance

of pavai, the twenty-seventh song refers to more personal bestowal as prayed

of God.

 

God is addressed ‘mal’ at the beginning of the song that literally means

‘the greatest’ or ‘the noblest’. The greatness or nobility attributed to God

is however distinct in that it is a greatness that makes greatness otherwise

no greatness at all as Nammalvar has said:

 

Uyarvara uyarnalam utaiyavan.

 

Manivannan is another very familiar name. It refers to the carbuncle.

Narayana is dark skinned and is associated with rain clouds, flowers and

carbuncle which are associated with black or blue.

 

The prayer in this song is for specific implements pressed into service

during the pavai observance. The maids ask of Krishna to grant them conches,

drums, lamps, ensigns and canopy along with the company of devotees hailing

God. These contribute to a certain ritualistic character to the pavai

observance.

 

In a casual conversation with Dr.M.R.P.Gurusamy, one of the renowned Tamil

scholars in this part of the country, Ramani asked him if any connotation is

to be attributed to the implements prayed for. He has said that it is always

possible to extend literature to suggest more than what it obviously says.

But such extension has to be more natural rather than far-fetched. In fact,

such far-fetched interpretation will more often be at the expense of the

literary sensibilities to be discerned.

 

Earlier, there was a reference to mirror and fan as items prayed for:

‘ukkamum tattoliyum tantu’. Traditional interpretation extends the fan for

the dispeller of delusions. Though such interpretation does not lend itself

to disputation, it will be enough to look at the fan as part of the

paraphernalia of a royal guest and as such part of the pavai observance in

which God is invoked. Similarly, the mirror is extended to a symbol of the

soul that has shed all its impurities and has become as clear as a mirror.

In the same lines, the items prayed for in the twenty-sixth song, namely the

conch, the drum, lamp, ensign, canopy can be given extended meaning.

However, to take them as implements incidental to pavai observance is a

simple enough reading of the song.

 

Andal literature has a special aspect about it. Alwars in general sing about

the grandeur of God, no doubt. Personalising the experience of the Divine is

also an inseparable part of the Alwar literature.

 

In fact, each of the twelve Alwars is considered a manifest form of the

various insignia associated with God like the conch, the katha and others.

Andal is the manifest form of God’s consort, the Goddess of Earth. As such,

her songs are full of the regalia of the celebration of God, of which the

twenty-sixth song also bears witness. Traditional interpretation will

attribute it to recollection of her days with God. In a way, this explains

the unique sensuousness element in Nacciyar Tirumoli. Metaphorically too,

there is a point to make. The soul has had its grand association with God

but has subsequently lost it when it came to be associated with bodily

existence. It is the longing for the lost grand association with God that is

to be fulfilled by the pavai observance in which the royal paraphernalia of

conch, drum, ensign, lamp, canopy, throne, fan, mirror and others fall in

place. Thus while taking the implements for the pavai observance just as

implements and not as loaded with metaphoric overtones, a plausible

explanation is still obtained.