Ezhil chandhaviruththamum azhagiya andhAdhiyum!

[Guest guest]

“makAyAm makarE mAsE chakrAmsam bhArgavOtbhavam maheesAra purAdheesam bhakthisAra maham bhajE”

 

In the previous posting we enjoyed the greatness of our dear

thirumazhisai Azhvar and now we will highlight the greatness of his

two prabhandams. Sri BhakthisArar has two excellent prabhandams to

his credit. Both of them written in two different types of poetic

structure, in Tamil literature. One of them is

Thiruchandhaviruththam, as the name suggests the type of “pA vagai”

as per Tamil literature is chandha viruththam. In this prabhandam,

azhvar gives a number of mathematical calculations (“punilAya

iyindhumAi punarkan nindra nAngumAi….”). But that is no reason for

us to ignore this prabhandam to be tough and beyond our knowledge.

It has such divine meanings, which clarifies all our doubts. Not all

paasurams are tough instead there are so many sweet and anubhavam

filled paasurams in this prabhandam also (“kondai konda Kodhai

meedhu…..”).

 

The second prabhandam of Azhvar is “nAnmugan ThiruvandAdhi”. This

prabhandam is in AndAdhi style. Today the game of anthAkshari is

very common among the young folks. One sings a song and the other

continues to sing with the word the previous one ends. This was

formally derived only from Andhadhi structure of the Tamil literature

and the mudal Azhvars were the first to make such poems. There are

two advantages in such poetry. First thing is, no insertions

(edaiserugal) can be made. So the essence of the poem is maintained

and secondly it is easy to by heart them, as it is easy to remember

the order of paasurams. The andhAdhis of the mudal Azhvars were

called as mudal, erandhAm and moondrAm thiruvandhAdhi’s considering

the order of the Azhvars who sung it. But how did this prabhandam of

thirumazhisai azhvar get this name? There is also one another andhAdhi

prabhandam of nammazhvar it is called “Periya thiruvandhAdhi” why

should it be called so? The interesting fact is that the number of

paasurams in Periya thiruvandhAdhi is only 87 while compared to the

other thiruvandhAdhis it should only be called “siriya

thiruvandhAdhi”. On the contrary it is called Periya thiruvandhAdhi.

Here this thiruvandhAdhi of thirumazhisai pirAn is called as nAnmugan

thiruvandhAdhi while the whole prabhandam talks only about the

greatness and parathvam of Sriman Narayana. Azhvar declares himself

to be “marandhum puram thozhA mAndhar” but see the irony his

prabhandam is named “nAnmugan thiruvandhAdhi”. Why?

 

Generally, prabhandams are either named after the azhvar who did it

viz, periyAzhvar thirumozhi, nAchiyar thirumozhi etc or with some

highlighting point in the prabhandam viz., Periya thiruvandhAdhi etc

or with the starting letter of the prabhandam viz., nAnmugan

thiruvandhAdhi, amalanAdhipiran, kanninun siruthAmbhu etc. So this

prabhandam derives its name from its starting word. Azhvar starts

the prabhandam as follows: “nAnmuganai nArAyanan padaiththAn…”.

Though not pertaining to the subject just as a matter of fact let us

see why Periya thiruvandhAdhi is called so. In Periya

thiruvandhAdhi, 75th paasuram azhvar challenges perumal for

superiority. “puviyumiruvisumbhum ninnagaththa nee enseviyin

vazhipugundhu ennullAi-avivindri yAn periyan nee periyai enbhathanai

yArarivAr voon parugu nEmiyA vullu”. Oh! My lord you are ubhaya

vibhoothi nAthan but then now you have gone through my ears and is

staying inside my heart. Now who will understand who

is superior among us? Or another interpretation is that azhvar

confirms that he is superior and questions “yan periyan! Nee periyai

enbhathanai yAr arivar?” Only due to this nammazhvar’s andhAdhi was

named as “Periya thiruvandhAdhi” though it has less number of

paasurams and even today Azhvar is sometimes referred to as “periyan”

in azhvar thirunagari side.

 

In the next posting we will start enjoying the paasurams in “nAnmugan thiruvandhAdhi”.

Alwar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

 

Adiyen rAmAnuja dAseeSumithra Varadarajan

 

 

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