Periazvar kanda Kannan

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Periazvar, otherwise known as Vishnuchittha was a great devotee of the Lord and the foster father of the great saint-devotee Godha, whom he found under a tulsi bush and who came to be known as Andal and sung more than 100 verses on the Lord of which the Thiruppavai consisting of 30 verses is most important and world famous. She wanted to marry only the Lord Ranganatha and she went to Srirangam and there she merged with the Lord.Vishnuchittha lived in Srivilliputthur and the story goes that Vishnuchittha was asked by his friend Selvanambi who was in the employ of the King of Madurai to come for the debate with the scholars there, the winner being promised a bag of gold by the king. Vishnuchittha did not want to go saying that he knew nothing except preparing garlands for the Lord . But the lord Himself appeared in his dream and persuaded to go saying that He was there to help Him. Thus he went and argued in the court through the sheer will of the Lord who put the words in his mouth and won the bag of gold. The king mounted him on an elephant and set him out on a procession. When he came near the temple of Koodal Azagar in Madurai, the Lord Himself appeared to witness the glory of His devotee. Seeing Him Vishnuchittha sang ten verses known as PallAndu way of warding off the evil effect of the glance of anyone who may see the beautiful form of the Lord and cast an evil eye. Hence he came to be known as Periazvar because he sang the mangalavachaka to the Lord himself and also because he later had the good fortune of getting the Lord Himself as his son in law.He composed more than 400 verse on the Lord describing His childhood till his marriage . He enjoys the Lord Krishna from his birth in each stage of childhood and describes all his exploits and hence the pasurams(verses as they are called in Tamil) are beautiful. WE shall drink the nectar of the words of Periazvar starting from this janmashtami.

 

The birth of Krishna

 

The birth of Krishna is celebrated by people in Ayarpadi by spraying fragrant oil and turmeric etc. for auspiciousness and Periazvar says that the courtyard of the house of Nanda where Krishna was born became muddy with these thrown everywhere.

The people could not contain their joy and they were running to see Krishna and also to tell each other of his arrival and fell on each other in their excitement. Some were singing and others were dancing with happiness.

Those who saw him were saying that there could be no one comparable with this infant and he was surely destined to rule the world.

In their excitement they upturned the pots tied with ropes and placed above and were throwing the ghee and curd everywhere perhaps to indicate that after Krishna's arrival there will be abundance of these in ayarpadi. They did not even bother to tie their hair falling allover and behaved as though they have gone mad.

The mother Yasodha was bathing the infant with warm water and applying turmeric and opening his mouth to clean his tongue saw the whole world in there.

(Periazvar was not a historian but a devotee. So he all the time remembers the glory of the Lord. Hence the reference to the showing of the whole world in His mouth which happened much later than the time of birth.)

 

Those who saw the wonderful sight were saying that this was no ordinary son of a cowherd but the Lord Himself. 'Ayar putthiran alla arum deivam.'

 

On the twelfth day Krishna was placed in the cradle. He has grown enough (Periazvars's Krishna is no normal infant!) to kick his legs as though he wante to break the cradle and when taken on hand kicked the side of his mother or in her stomach and Yasodha is imagined by Perazvar to exclaim that she was exhausted and lost weight because I of the overactive baby Krishna.

The first ten verses describing the birth ends with a phalaSruthi that those who know these will be rid of sin.