A Peep into Periya ThiruMozhi 193

[Guest guest]

The Smoke -Industry, Divine and Fragrant.

 

Lest you get the impression that Azhundoor was a purely pastoral

locality, Sri Kalian tells you that Industry too flourished. The

smoke from several sugarcane crushing plants, small and big, rose up

in the sky to blot out the sunlight, says Azhwar—“Aalai pugayaal

azhal kadirai maraikkum veedi Azhundoore”. Some of you must have

visited these sugarcane plants—not the unseemly giants of today which

spew out toxic smoke, but the smaller ones, which emit not only

non-polluting, but also extremely fragrant smoke. It is this type of

environment-friendly smoke that rose up in Azhundoor and the

cumulative emissions from all these mini-factories was enough to

serve as a blanket over the Sun.

 

Was this the only source of smoke at Terazhundoor? No, says Sri

Parakala. Smoke emanated from several sources, all of them, of

course, non-toxic and fragrant.

 

The smoke caused by offering Aahutis of pure ghee in the sacrificial

fire, to the accompaniment of the relative Veda mantras like “Agnaye

svaahaa, Somaaya svaahaa” etc., covers the entire divyadesam of

Tiruvazhundoor, remarks Sri Kalian -

“anthanar tam aahutiyin pugayaar selvatthu ani Azhundoore”

 

At Terazhundoor, smoke emanating from burning akil (a fragrant wood

which gives off extremely sweet-scented smoke) is so widespread and

the manors from which it emanates so tall, that the smoke seems to

mingle with puffy clouds populating the sky-

 

“akilin pugayaal mugileykkum

aniyaar veedi Azhundoore”

 

The smoke is so dense and so pervasive that it resembles rain-bearing

clouds, giving an impression of imminent precipitation.

 

Thus, three sources of fragrant smoke have been identified by Sri

Parakala, as indicated above--that originating from sugar factories,

that emanating from the sacrificial fires of Yagas and Yagyas and the

third from akil burned by women for drying and perfuming their hair.

 

This paasuram gives the lie to the popular impression that all

industry in India has developed only after the Industrial Revolution

that occurred in England. Even during Azhwar’s times, there appear to

have flourished huge factories for crushing sugarcane and for

extraction of sugar. As if to attest to this, for miles around

Terazhundoor and its environs, we find that the principal crop is

still sugarcane, till today. The smoke billowing out of these

cane-crushing plants effectively shuts out the rays of the hot Sun

and makes the weather quite cool, says Sri Tirumangai Mannan.

 

Srimate Sri LakshmiNrisimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri

Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

dasan, sadagopan