tAtparya ratnAvaLi - Part 2 - Introduction contd.

[Guest guest]

Introduction – Continued.

 

We are continuing with the Introduction, since there are some

additional points that I would like to cover.

 

We will see in Slokam 4 of the avatArikA (Introduction) of svAmi

deSikan to his tAtparya ratnAvaLi, that he profusely praises the

tamizh language, and gives various reasons for its greatness. And

yet he has taken the effort to write a summary of the tamizh

tiruvAimozhi in the samskRt language in the form of tAtparya

ratnAvaLi. This leads one to wonder about the reason for this work.

One writer notes that the reason might be found in the relative

status accorded to the two languages at the time of deSika. samskRt

was the common language used for communicating religious and

philosophical ideas at that time. This was even more true at the

time of rAmAnuja, partly explaining why he had used samskRt as the

sole language to communicate his ideas and philosophy, especially to

his advaitic opponents. The samskRt language had established itself

as the language of the royal courts throughout the country. svAmi

deSikan wanted to share the divine joy given to us by nammAzhvar,

with the community of devoted scholars, especially non-vaishNavaite

scholars, who did not understand tamizh. This could also explain why

he extracted the essence of tiruvAimozhi into a condensed form (one

Slokam for each decad, with one phrase in the Slokam for each pASuram

of tiruvAimozhi giving the key guNa that is enjoyed in that pASuram),

and presented it in the form of tAtparya ratnAvaLi.

 

As much as svAmi deSikan chose the samskRt language to communicate

the message of nammAzhvAr's tiruviAomizhi to the devoted that were

non-tamizh knowing people, he probably also had as his target those

who did not accept tamizh as a valid language for praising the

Lord. SvAmi deSikan's vociferous defense of the appropriateness of

the tamizh language for praising the Lord, as expressed in Slokam 4

of the avatArikA that we will study in the near future, confirms that

this latter view was prevalent at his time. He uses the language

that they considered `appropriate' - samskRt, and praises the

devotional outpouring of nammAzhvAr in the tamizh language as the

dramiDopanishad – the upanishad in the tamizh language, and gives it

the status of vedAnta. He has also referred to tiruvAimozhi

as `samhitA', and as `dramiDa nigama', in different places. In fact,

svAmi deSikan has expressly stated that he has found that AzhvArs'

SrI sUkti-s (divine outpourings) have helped him clarify many points

of doubt in the vedic texts.

 

In addition to tAtparya ratnAvaLi, svAmi deSikan has composed another

companion work called dramiDopanishad sAram. As the name conveys,

this is a further level of extraction (sAram) of the bhagavad-guNa-s

(attributes of bhagavAn) conveyed in tiruvAimozhi, perhaps for the

benefit of those who may not find the time to go through and enjoy

the guNa-s extracted from each pASuram and conveyed through tAtparya

ratnAvaLi. While tAtparya ratnAvaLi consists of 130 Sloka-s, the

dramiDopanishad sAra consists of only 26 Sloka-s. In this work,

svAmi deSikan only describes the guNa conveyed by each `pattu' (the

group of approximately 100 pASuram-s). For each groups of 100

pASuram-s, he has allocated two Sloka-s. The first one describes the

guNa sung in the given pattu (group of 100), and the second Sloka

gives the connectivity between this pattu and the previous one. We

will get into the details of the organization of the Sloka-s when we

deal with the dramiDopanishad sAra, after completing the tAtparya

ratnAvaLi.

 

SrI azhagiya maNavALa jIyar has also composed a work in samskRt,

titled dramiDopanishad sa'ngati, consisting of one Slokam for each

tiruvAimozhi (each decad). However, this gives only the sequence of

the theme in each tiruvAimozhi, and does not identify the key guNa of

emperumAn that is praised in each pASuram.

 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

 

(To be continued)