tAtparya ratnAvaLi - Part 1 - Introduction.

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tAtparya ratnAvaLi - Part 1 - Introduction.

 

SrImate SrI ra'nga rAmAnuja mahA deSika pAdukAbhyAm namaH |

 

The topic of the series that is starting with the current submission

is "dramiDopanishad tAtparya ratnAvaLi". This is a work by svAmi

deSikan, and reflects on the guNa-s of bhagavAn that are described by

nammAzhvAr in his tiruvAimozhi. The current series will be primarily

based on the vyAkhyAnam for tAtparya ratnAvaLi by SrI uttamUr

vIrarAghavAcAr ya svAmi (hereafter denoted in short as SrI UV) for a

start, and will be supplemented by any other sources that might

become available in the future. Rather than a verbatim translation

of the whole book by SrI uttamUr svAmi, a summary of the contents

will be provided, constrained by aDiyEn's very limited knowledge - in

fact by the lack of any knowledge. But because of the infinite

Blessings of asmad AcAryan, I am sure that this write-up describing

svAmi deSikan's SrI sUkti in the form of tAtparya ratnAvaLi will

successfully describe emperumAn's guNa-s as described in

tiruvAimozhi, and as identified by svAmi deSikan for each pASuram,

for each tiruvAimozhi, and for each pattu (group of 100 pASuram-s).

 

tAtparya ratnAvaLi is a work in samskRt, composed in the form of

Sloka-s by svAmi deSikan. svAmi deSikan points out that his

composition lists the thousand guNa-s of bhagavAn as reflected in the

thousand pASuram-s of AzhvAr in his tiruvAimozhi, and also explains

the importance of each of these guNa-s for cetana-s like us.

 

SrI UV points out that the original palm-leaf manuscript of svAmi

deSikan's work is not available any more for this grantham, and only

a moth-eaten copy is available. The earliest vyAkhyAnam for

tAtparya ratnAvaLi is by SrI ra'nga rAmAnuja muni, also known

as `upanishad bhAshya kArar'. His work on tAtparya ratNavaLI was not

a stand-alone and full-fledged vyAkhyAnam for this grantham;

instead, he has interspersed his vyAkhyAnam for this grantham in his

work on tiruvAimozhi in samskRt (onpadinAyirappaDi). An AcArya by

name SrISaila ve'nkaTAcArya svAmi has provided a vyAkhyAnam for

tAtparya ratnAvaLi in maNipravALam. One of the parakAla maTham svAmi-

s has written a `padineNNAyirappaDi" vyAkhyAnam for tiruvAimozhi

based on SrI ra'nga rAmAnuja muni's work mentioned earlier, and thus

has attempted a vyAkhyAnam for tAtparya ratnAvaLi as part of his

vyAkhyAnam for tiruvAimozhi.

 

Based on a critical review of all the above works, SrI UV concludes

that it is unfortunately evident that even before the 16th century

work by SrI ra'ngarAmAnuja muni, the full text of svAmi deSikan's

work had been lost to us because of damage by moths etc.; SrI UV is

able to make this deduction based the following:

 

- While SrI ra'ngarAmAnuja muni has included the Sloka-s from

tAtparya ratnAvaLi in his work, he has not mapped the tAtparya

ratnAvaLi Sloka-s with nammAzhvAr's pASuram-s in a consistent manner

for all the Sloka-s. This indicates that he had difficulty in making

such a mapping, which in turn suggests that the version that was

available to him in the 16th century had already undergone some

changes compared to the original work of svAmi deSikan. A possible

explanation for this situation might be that the original manuscript

had been corrupted by moths, and some scholars must have substituted

their own words for the damaged parts, and in the process, they might

have introduced errors.

- SrISaila ve'nkaTAcArya svAmi has indicated some difficulty in

filling in the missing guNa-s in the manuscript that he had access

to, which is the same version that was available to SrI

ra'ngarAmAnuja muni.

 

Expert search for available manuscripts by a devotee at the

University of Chicago reveals that manuscripts are available for

tAtparya ratnAvaLi in libraries in India. However, I do not have the

means to access these manuscripts and benefit by them for this write-

up.

 

SrI UV has made an attempt to fill in the missing guNa-s in the

currently available copy of the original palm-leaf manuscript, and

thereby attempting a correction of possible errors in the manuscript

that was available to him. The result is what he gives us in his

work titled `sAra ratna prabhAvaLi', which is the title he has given

for his vyAkhyAnam for svAmi deSikan's `dramiDopanishad tAtparya

ratnAvaLi'.

 

All the above history has led some to question the authorship of the

original work itself. Based on SrI UV's vyAkhyAnam and the other

available limited resources that I am able to access, I am unable to

figure out the extent of the loss in the original manuscript. It is

the domain of research scholars to figure out how much of the

original text has been lost, based on the currently available version

of the original palm-leaf manuscript. However, SrI UV categorically

points out that there is no need to question the original authorship,

and that the grantham is definitely a composition of svAmi deSikan.

SrImad tirukkuDanthai ANDavan has included the Sloka-s from tAtparya

ratnAvaLi in his bhagavad vishayam vyAkhyAnam, and included a simple

word-for-word meaning for the Sloka-s. This should help in mapping

the principal guNa identified by svAmi deSikan with the particular

pASuram in tiruvAimozhi. A similar word-for-word meaning is included

by SrI P. B. aNNa'ngarAcArya svAmi in his tiruvAimozhi vyAkhyAnam as

well for the first three pattu-s. A couple of nAlAyira divya

prabandham books have the Sloka-s of tAtparya ratnAvaLi, and one of

them has a simple mapping between the guNa-s in tAtparya ratnAvaLi

with the corresponding guNa in the pASuram-s of tiruvAimozhi. A

couple of bhAgavata-s (one from the U.S. and one from India) have

tried to support me by finding resources to help me with the write-

up. However, except for SrI UV's commentary, none of the others give

a detailed vyAkhyAnam for tAtparya ratnAvaLi.

 

Just for the sake of completeness, it should be pointed that this

work of SrI UV is probably his last one before he attained parama

padam. SrI UV has noted in his Introduction that he could not

personally review the contents of his work becuse of failing health,

and there are likely to be errors because of this. In the vyAkhyAnam

itself, the level of detail included for the different Sloka-s

differs in detail (for example, some Sloka-s in the Introductory

section include word-word meanings, while others are just summaries

for the Sloka-s). This inevitably means that the level of detail in

my English presentation will also be fluctuating.

 

With this Introduction, and with my AcArya's ever-present blessings,

I commence this write-up describing the guNAnubhavam of bhagavAn as

revealed to us by svAmi deSikan that he has extracted for us from

nammAzhvAr's divine outpourings in the form of tiruvAmozhi, and as

elaborated by Sri UV as the primary source for the write-up at this

time.

 

In the next write-up, we will start looking at the ten Sloka-s that

are given to us by svAmi deSikan as the Introduction to his tAtparya

ratnAvaLi, and that describe the greatness of tiruvAimozhi in ten

simple Sloka-s.

 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

 

(To be continued)