Fw: Return of Namperumal

[Guest guest]

Dear SriVaishnavas

Adiyen forwarding a mail from Sri Vasudevan from SriRangam() about

NamperumAl's return to SriRangam , Pl go thru it and come back if you need any

further info..

 

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasan

Guna Venkat

 

- Krish Vasudevan

guna_venkat (AT) el (DOT) nec.com

Saturday, June 01, 2002 12:45 PM

Return of Namperumal

Respected Guna , Can you please publish the following article in the Ramanuja Egroup . Thanks .

 

Adiyen VAsu, Srirangam .

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Friday , May 31 2002, corresponds to the Tamil calendar day of vaikASi 17, year

chitra-bhAnu.

The calendar day of vaikASi 17 of year pareetApi of a certain cycle, Saka year

1293 bandhu-priya, corresponding to 1371 AD, ~~ this was the blessed day on

which nam-perumAL and the ubhaya-nAcchimAr were brought back to the Great

Temple of SRIRANGAM after a grievously long exile of 48 years. And, as the

Great Temple chronicle 'kOyil ozhugu' records it, the Lord never thereafter

deserted His own seat of 'bhU-pAla-rAyan'.

 

The Lord's exile was occasioned by the savage southern raids of Malik Kafur and

Ulugh Khan (later known as Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq), specially targeting the

ancient temples. This occasioned carnage in diverse "artistically cruel" (to

quote Dostoevsky) ways of the unfeeling raider-vandals.

 

Sri Pillai Lokacharya escaped with nam-perumAL and the ubhaya-nAcchimAr and the

rescue party wended its way cautiously, anxiously, distressfully towards

Jyotish-kuti (near Madurai Aanai-malai terrain), where the venerated AchArya

passed away. There were sojourns next at tiru-mAl-irum-SOlai (azhakar) hills,

thence tiru-k-kaNAmbi, kozhi-k-kODu, tiru-nArAyaNa-puram (mElkOTE), tirumalai,

Chenjee and finally, the glory be, back to Srirangam.

 

Sri Sudarsana Suri / bhaTTar (author of Sruta-prakASikA) was among those

slaughtered on the banks of river koLLiDam, the northern arm of kAvEri, and it

was given that svAmi vEdAntAchArya could smuggle out the precious work and the

two children of the victim and take them to Satyamangalam.

The most signal act of self-sacrifice for protecting the Lord came from

tiru-t-tAzhvarai-dAsar who tied himself over to the sacred Lord-and-Consorts

with a creeper and got himself lowered into an inaccessible ravine of the

tirumalai hills before the lead was severed. The raiders stayed in siege of

the foothills and carried on their fanatic search, but in vain, and the Lord

could be traced and brought out much later from the ravine hideout and

worshipped in the sannidhi of tirumalai-appan. Hence the name

'ranga-mandapam' in tirumalai temple.

 

The Vijayanagara empire was nascent at the later half of this period of exile,

and the ruler of the time was Harihara-II whose son was virUpAksha, a steadfast

devotee of Lord Sriranga. He had an able and equally committed vassal in

Gopanna Udaiyar, at Chenjee ('SinGha-rAya-puram'). Gopanna was constantly

posted with the dedicated 'human antanna', Sri tiru-maNa-t-tooN nambi, about

the movements, camping, the consolidation and decline of the savage raiders.

Gopanna discreetly moved the Lord from tirumalai sannidhi to his own capital at

Chenjee where, after biding his time, organised a quick and successful

expedition against the muslim invader-marauders, and cleared the region of the

pestilence. He, the noble Gopanna, accomplished the restoration of the Lord

to His own favoured seat bhUpAla-rAyan in the holy 'periya-kOyil-AzhvAr' of

Sriranga-vimAnam. This was in year 1371 AD, the Tamil calendar day was

vaikASi 17 of year pareetApi. And it is vaikASi 17 to-day.

 

This precious regenerative event is recorded in Gopanna's lithic inscription cut

in the eastern wall of the rAja-mahEndran (second) tiru-c-chuRRu (enclosure), a

few steps from the vishvak-sEna shrine. The inscription is carried at No.286

of South Indian Inscriptions, vol.XXIV, 1982 [ Srirangam Inscriptions ] so well

edited and issued by the Epigraphy Office of the Archaeological Survey of India,

at the Mysore office.

 

The Sanskrit inscription, consisting of two SlOkam-s, is in grantha character,

and begins with

"AneeyA-neela-SRnGa-dyuti-rachita-jaGad-ranjanAm-anjanAdrEh...." The first

SlOkam is reproduced, with a minor variation, in the Great Temple chronicle,

kOyil-ozhugu as well. We owe it to V.N. Hari Rao for highlighting this

important historic and chronological record (which survives to this day) in his

research work, History of the Srirangam Temple, 1976, Sri Venkateswara

University Tirupati.

 

svAmi vEdAntAchArya must have spent all his waking moments in his Satyamangalam

exile praying for the restoration of Lord Sriranga to His abode in Srirangam,

and for the return of peace and piety in the Holiest of Holies. He composed

the prayer into the hymn 'abheeti-stavam', and beseeched of the Lord,

 

"nirasta-ripu-sambhavE kvachana ranGa-mukhyE, vibho !

paraspara-hitAishiNAm parisarEshu mAm vartaya ! "

 

[Grant so my Lord, that I reside somewhere

(even) in the approaches of any of the

divya-dESam-s (blessed sites)

which are marked by the natural bonhomie

of the devotees, and which have Srirangam as their capital !]

 

So be it that the Lord keeps our mind steady in remembrance of this precious day

of vaikASi 17. The entire town of Srirangam has this day been plastered with a

very timely, moving and succinct message issued by Sri A. Krishnamachari, on

behalf of the Divya-desa pAramparya pAdu-kAppu-p-pEravai.

Thanks are owed to him for this precious reminder and sensitisation on the most

poignant moment of our history !

 

aDiyEn rAmAnuja-dAsan,

tirumanjanam Sundara Rajan,

at Srirangam.

[Guest guest]

SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA;

APPAN THIRUVADIGALE SARANAM.

 

 

Dear Guna Venkat swamin, Accept my Pranam. Some information is

required in respect of NAMPERUMAL SOJOURN away from srirangam

during Islamic invasion of South India.

 

The Islamic invasions of south India have taken place

atleast at two times. ie.,1) 1310-1311 A.D, by Malik kafur,

general of Alla udin Khilji 2) 1327.A.D. by Ulugh Khan

(Thuglak).

 

Namperumal was taken away from Srirangam southward by Sri

Pillai Lokachariar. When did this happen? in the year 1311 or

1327?

 

Sri Pillai Lokachariar is said to have born in KRODHANA YEAR i.e,

1205 A.D or 1265A.D. According Srivaishna.org web site it is 1205

A.D. and he is said to be 63 older to Swami Desikan. In that case,

he should be 106 years old in 1311; propable; because he is said

to be too old at this time and said to have attained Paramapadam

at Joythiskudi during the Sojourn. But, another Web site claims

that Namperumal was taken out in 1327 only and during the first

invasion in 1311 only gold articles of Sriranganatha was lost. In

this case, Sri PLA owuld have been 122 years at that time Is this

Correct ? When did he attain Paramapadam ? Again, historical

records lay emphasis on invasion of Madurai only by Malik kafur

and attack on Srirangam is not mentioned. What is this correct

position?.

 

Is Joythiskudi is the name of the place where Namperumal was

taken or has it been changed. Where is it situated ?

 

Sri Vedantha Desikar has gone out of Srirangam to

Satyamangalam at that time. He is said to have lived upto

1368/1369/1370 and returned to Srirangam later. Namperumal

returned in 1370/1371. Sri Vedantha Desikar is said to have lived

in Srirangam for some time. How long did he live and what is his

contribution to Namperumal? Adiyen will be pleased to have

informations on these doubts.

 

Adiyen Parthasarathy dasan.

 

On Mon, 03 Jun 2002 Guna Venkat wrote :

Find that article at:

http://www.radioramanuja.com/docs/mag.htm