Sri Ramanuja and Soodi koduththa nAchiyAr

August 6, 2002

Srimathe RamanujAya namaha

Sri Vara Vara munaye namaha

Pranams,

Today is ThiruvAdirai, monthly thirunakshatram of our beloved acharya Sri

Ramanuja. This is month of Adi and in many of the divya desams in India the 10

day thiruvAdi Pooram festival is grandly celebrated now. The festival has

special significance in the birth place of goda devi, srivilliputtur and in

srirangam, her inlaws place. And in divya desams like thiruvallikeni also

these ten days are celebrated specially. Though we miss the enjoyment of the

adi poora utsavam sitting in a far of place away from our homeland let us all

just have the anubhavams sitting right here.

We all know about andal, soodi koduththa nAchiyar and her story. So let us now

just see the relation between andal and Ethirajar. When adiyen says relation

many of you may wonder how can andal being an azhwar and Sri Ramanuja being

born just nearly 1000 years back as an acharya, be related. At this stage

adiyen would like to bring to memory the vazhi thirunAmam of andal which says,

“Perumbhoodur mAmunikku pinnAnAl vAzhiyE!”. Here andal is referred to as the

younger sister of perumbhoodur mAmuni, Sri Ramanuja. How is this possible?

Let us just look into the story of Sri Ramanuja. Our beloved acharya went to

thirumAliruncholi to have darshan of Azhagar. He started doing mangalAsAsanam

to azhagar with Sri andal’s nAchiyar thirumozhi paasurams on thirumAliruncholi

perumal. When he recited the 6th pasuram,

“ nArunarum pozhil mAlirunchOli nambikku nAn

nooru thadAvil vennai vAinErindhu parAvivaiththEn

nooru thadA niraindha akkAravadisil sonnEn

AruthiruvudaiyAn endru vandhu evai kollungolO?”

Sri Ramanuja realized that though andal has vowed to give 100 thadAs of butter

and 100 thadAs of akkaravadisal to azhagar if he makes her union with

ranganatha possible, after her union with bhagavan she never returned back to

do the same. So emperumAnAr decided to do the same on behalf of goda devi. He

did the same and then after finishing his mangalAsAsanams on the way to

srirangam he visited Srivilliputtur. When the entered the temple, Sri andal

came to welcome him and called, “nam koil annanO!”(Is it my elder brother from

srirangam?) and from that day Sri ramanujar is regarded as the elder brother of

nachiyar. Why did andal select this relation of all relations? That is because

brother sister relation is one such blood relation which has a speciality. The

brother alone cares for the wishes of the sister and vice versa to the extend

no other relation can care. That is why andal selected this relation.

EmperumAnAr was also called as “Thiruppavai Jeeyer” due to his high involvement

in the arthas of thiruppavai. Though emperumAnAr wrote Bhashyams to gita and

the Brahma sutras, he had a special love towards andal’s thiruppavai. Then why

didn’t he write a vyakhyanam for it? It is because he himself was a vyakhyanam

for thiruppavai. Daily during unjavriththi emperumAnAr used to recite

thiruppavai. For Srivaishnavas thiruppavai is under the nithyAnusandhanam and

not reserved just for margazhi mAsam. One day when emperumAnAr went to

unjavritti and stood in front of his acharyan periya nambi’s thirumAligai with

his thiruppavai anusandhanam, periya nambi’s daughter andal came out with rice

and opened the door. EmperumAnAr fell into her feet. Andal who was a young

girl and who used to call emperumAnAr as Anna was taken aback and hence she ran

to tell this to her father. Nambigal came out and asked emperumAnAr, “vundu

madagalittran anubhavamO?”(where you reciting the vundu madagalittran pAsuram).

For which emperumAnAr replied yes. Such was the understanding between the

acharya and shisya. What actually happened was, when EmperumAnAr recited the

verses, “kandam kamazhum kuzhali kadai thiravAi” at the same time andal also

opened the door so emperuman immersed in the pAsura anubhavam considered andal

to be nappinai piratti and fell into her feet. From this day emperumAnAr was

called as “Thiruppavai jeeyer”. Such was the closeness between andal and

emperumAnAr.

Sri thiruvarangaththamudhanAr in his Ramanuja noorthanthadhi says,

“ThAzhvondrilla marai thAzhindhu *thalamuzhudum kaliyE

AlgindranAl vandaliththavan kAnmin * arangarmowli

Soozhgindra mAlaiyai soodhikkoduththaval thollarulAl

Vazhgindra vallal* erAmAnusan ennum mAmuniyE”

In this kali yugam even the Vedas which never have a fall is illtreated and the

kali rules over. But Sri Ramanuja took birth to fight over the kali. He is

bestowed with the divine grace of the soodi koduththa nAchiyAr, whose garland

the lord ranganatha likes to wear.

So in this day of thiruvadirai, during the Adi poora utsavam let us all sing the

praise of both our beloved nAchiyAr(who is both an azhvar(only female azhvar)

and a nAchiyar) and our beloved acharya emperumAnAr. EmperumAnAr though called

as the ponnadi of Maran, Sri Nammazhvar he always had a special soft corner for

his sister andal in his mind. That is why in sriperumbudur, andal gets a

special attention. During the pagal pattu utsavams in all divya desams andal

never accompanies the other alwars but always stays as a thayar. But only in

sriperumbudur(in her brother’s place) she is given the special right to take

part in the ghosti of the alwars. Ladies are generally not allowed in the

ghosti but emperumAnAr who has always been a reformer has reformed this too and

even today in sriperumbudur andal is part of the adhyayana utsava ghosti.

Andal thiruvadigalE saraNam

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan

Health - Feel better, live better

August 13, 2002

srImathE rAmAnujAya namaha

Dear Smt. Varadarajan:

Thank you for your wonderful write up on our beloved emperumAnAr and

godha pirATTi. It eloquently brings out the close association extant

(nerungiya sambandham) between Swamy and gOdhA pirATTi.

I have a minor bone to pick in this article though :-)

> ramanuja, sumithra varadarajan <sumivaradan> wrote:

> So in this day of thiruvadirai, during the Adi poora utsavam let us

> all sing the praise of both our beloved nAchiyAr(who is both an

> azhvar(only female azhvar) and a nAchiyar) and our beloved acharya

> emperumAnAr.

Sri Velukkudi varadachar swamy would say that ours is the only

sampradAyam which provides multifarious paths to reaching perumAL and

mOksham, and in that step wise progression, the path to perumAL's

ugappu is represented in terms of bhakti -- prapatti - sharaNagathi -

AchArya abhimAnam (thiruvaDigaL)

The essence of kaNNinuN siruthAmbu and thiruppAvai is the importance

of charama parva nishTA (the ultimate vazhi to perumAL) as

exemplified by the spirit of swamy madhura kavi AzhwAr and AnDAL's

ariLiccheyals. It is a spirit that holds bhAgavatha sEshatvam as the

ultimate upAyam and purushArtham, to getting to perumAL. It is in

this context that swAmy maNavALa mAmunigaL identifies only ten

azhwars (mudhal AzhwArgaL) in upadEsa rathnamAlai, only because the

ten azhwArs pursued bhagath sEshatvam and bhagavath kainkaryam as the

chosen vazhi, where as both madhura kavi Azhwar and AnDAL (mEleyAr

seyvanagaL) held bhAgavatha sEshatvam to be superior to bhagavath

sEshatvam.

And that is why, within the orthodoxy of srI vaishNavam, there are

only ten Azhwars. Just because swamy madhura kavi or AnDAL are not

amongst the ten in no way lessens their standing. In a sense, swamy

maNavALa mAmunigaL's thiru uLLam would probably be offended, because

he held them at a paDI (step) above that of even the mudhal AzhwArs.

In the vaDakalai sampradAyam, somehow, this essential (and critical)

difference (mEnmai) of charama parva nishTA has been over looked, and

the Azhwars have been numbered as twelve. Further, several then-

Acharya upanyasakas, just to keep with the times, tend to use the ten

or twelve azhwars number depending on the audience and the occasion.

However, in order to lend credence and respect to something every sri

vaishNava chants every day (poyyilAdha maNavALA mAmuni pundhi vAzhi

pugazh vAzhi vAzhiyE), it is appropriate, at least within the

orthodoxy of our sampradAyam, to not include AnDAL or madhura kavi

Azhwar amongst list of Azhwars (who will always be only ten)

There is a separate (thani siRappu) state of exaltedness to madhura

kavi Azhwar and soodikkodutha nAcchiyAr, one that captures the

essential spirit and soulabhyam of srI vaishNava siddhAntham.

aDiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,

sridhar

ramanuja, sumithra varadarajan <sumivaradan> wrote:

>

> Sri Parthasarathi thunai

>

> Srimathe RamanujAya namaha

>

> Sri Vara Vara munaye namaha

>

> Pranams,

>

> Today is ThiruvAdirai, monthly thirunakshatram of our beloved

acharya Sri Ramanuja. This is month of Adi and in many of the divya

desams in India the 10 day thiruvAdi Pooram festival is grandly

celebrated now. The festival has special significance in the birth

place of goda devi, srivilliputtur and in srirangam, her inlaws

place. And in divya desams like thiruvallikeni also these ten days

are celebrated specially. Though we miss the enjoyment of the adi

poora utsavam sitting in a far of place away from our homeland let us

all just have the anubhavams sitting right here.

>

August 13, 2002

Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Dear Sri Sridhar,

Adiyen accepts your valuable point whole heartedly. According to our mAmunigal

and our sampradayam Sri Nachiyar and Madurakavigal due have a special place and

also in all our hearts.

pataps

wrote:srImathE rAmAnujAya namaha