tiruvaNpuruDOttamam - Periya tirumozhi 4.2.8 vALaiyAr taDangaN

[Guest guest]

SrIH

SrImate ra’ngarAmAnuja MahA deSikAya namaH

 

tiruvaNpuroDottamam (tirumangai AzhvAr’s Periya tirumozhi 4.2) – tirunAngUr

divyadEsam

 

A short note on the letter scheme used for samskRtam and tamizh words in these

postings:

 

Grammar dictates that all proper names should begin with capital letters. Both

saMskRtam and tamizh have small [mellinam in tamizh] ‘ra’ and capital

[vallinam in tamizh] ‘Ra’, this distinction will be made wherever

appropriate. Because of the necessity to show this distinction [rAma begins

with small letter ‘r’, not ‘R’ for RAma], all proper names will begin

with small letters to avoid confusion, sometimes justifiably. Same logic applied

for ‘na’ and ‘Na’ (nArayANa instead of NArAyaNa).

 

saMskRtam –

- has only elongated ‘e’ [neDil in tamizh]; no separate short ‘e’

[kuRil in tamizh]. ‘dEvi’ will be written as ‘devi’;

- only elongated ‘o’ [neDil]; no separate short ‘o’ [kuRil]. Hence,

capital ‘O’ will not be used for saMskRtam words [‘rAmo na paSyati’].

 

tamizh –

- has both short ‘e’ (‘ettanai’) and elongated ‘E’ (‘Ezhai’);

- has short 'o' (‘tol’) and elongated 'O’ (‘pOip pukku’).

 

Use of letters – ‘A†and ‘a’, ‘D’ and ‘d’, ‘T’ and

‘t’, ‘U’ and ‘u’, ‘S’ and ‘s’, ‘I’ and ‘i’, ‘L’

and ‘l’, ‘M’ and ‘m’, ‘H’ and ‘h’ - is self-explanatory.

 

(Please set your encoding to Unicode UTF-8)

 

SrImad ANDavan tiruvaDigalE SaraNam,

kalyANi kRshNamAcAri

=================================================

tiruvaNpuruDOttamam - Periya tirumozhi 4.2.8 vALaiyAr taDangaN:

 

vALaiyAr taDangaN umai pAngan van

Sapam aRRu adu nInga

muLaiyAr sirattu aiyam mun aLitta em

mugilvaNNan uRai kOil

pALai vAL kamugUDu uyar tengin van

pazham vizha veduvip pOi

vALai pAi taDam SUzh taru nAngUr

vaNpuruDOttamamE.

 

A. SrImad tirukkuDandai ANDavan:

pArvatI has very brilliant, broad eyes. Sivan gave half of his body to her and

received the name, ardhanArISvaran. For some reason, he plucked one of the five

heads of brahma and got afflicted by brahma’s curse. The skull of the nipped

head of brahma got glued to his hand. A divine voice announced that only when

he receives alms in that skull and it gets filled up and falls down, he will be

liberated from his curse. SivaperumAn was getting alms [with no luck] and one

day, he came to tirumAl, who gave alms in the form of the nectar that sprung

from His chest. The skull got filled up, broke into a hundred pieces and fell

off Sivan’s hand. The perumAn who emancipated Siva from his curse

lives.eternally in this tiruvaNpuruDOttam.

 

In this place, tall areca trees have grown and towering high. In between there

are palm trees. Ripe coconuts fall from these trees onto the ponds. This

frightens the fish which swim away to a different place. Such kinds of ponds

are surrounding the place. vaNpuruDOttamam is such a divine place.

 

B. SrI PVP:

em mugilvaNNan - the cloud-hued emperumAn that helps me

 

van SApamaRRU adu nInga – in order to give liberation from the horrid curse

 

muLaiyAr sirattu aiyam mun aLitta - gave alms in the skull of the head (dry

without any blood/flesh) held by Sivan,

 

vALaiyAr taDangaN umai pAnkan - who had offered half of his body to the shining,

wide-eyed pArvatI

 

uRai kOil - that emperumAn (who removed Sivan’s curse) lives in this temple

everlastingly.

 

pALai vAL kamugUDu uyar tengin van pazham vizha veduvip pOivALai pAi taDam -

coconuts are falling from coconut-palm trees that appear in between lofty areca

(arecaceae) trees, on to the ponds below

 

SUzh taru nAngUr vaNpuruDOttamamE.– nAngUr vaNpuruDOttamam has a lot of these

ponds encompassing the place.

 

C. SrI UV:

As ardhanArISvaran, Sivan gave half his body to pArvatI, who has beautiful eyes.

Since he tweaked off one of the heads of brahma, who is the creator of the whole

world and who is his father, the baneful sin made the skull get affixed to his

hand. The relief from the curse would occur only when the skull becomes full

with alms. No matter how much Sivan tried, the skull never got filled up. So,

he was lamenting along with pArvatI. In bhadrikASramam, nArAyaNan cut His own

tirumEni and filled that skull with His own blood ; the skull broke into bits

and pieces and Siva was cured of the curse.

 

The mugilvaNNan (the cloud-hued One) lives here. Because of that showering

cloud, the ponds are filled up with water and areca and coconut-palms do not

wait for someone to pluck their fruits and hurl them out at unexpected times.

 

vALaiyAr – since AzhvAr is taking about ‘vALai –fish’ in the second

part, here, it is taken to mean ‘vAL ai’ = brilliance and beauty; ‘Ar’ =

filled with (pArvatI’s eyes were brilliant and beautiful)

 

taDankaN umai – refers to pArvatI. She is said to give advice by uttering the

letter ‘u’ with great sadness and then uttering the word ‘mA’ = Do not

do. Her constant advice is, ‘Do not commit this grave sin’. [probably

refers to her advice to her father, dakshan, who was insulting Siva or it may be

in general terms]

 

pangan – Sivan had mAnabangam [his honor insulted] because of her [by

attending her father’s yAgam, disobeying her husband]. The situation is – he

is such that she became dishonored.

 

D. SrI PBA:

Sivan removed one of brahma’s five heads, thinking that if both of them had

five heads, confusion would arise.

 

When Siva reached bhadrikASramam begging for alms (to get relief from his

curse), emperumAn said ‘akshayam’ [let it be inexhaustible] while giving

alms and broke his curse.

 

The fish in the pond are jumping and looking for a different place when the

coconuts fall on them; they think that some creature has come to eat them.

 

‘asthAne bhayaSankai paNNik kalangum parivargaLinpaDikku pOla ennalAm’.

 

" asthAne bhayaSankai " means misplaced suspicion and fear. (Examples are 1.

nandagopan wielding sword and jumping on even an ant fearing that it may hurt

perumAL 2. periyAzhvAr's mangaLAsAsanam to perumAL fearing something will happen

to

Him 3. When SrIrAma had to fight kara dhUshaNa, he had no support and SrI

kulaSekarap perumAL summoned his army to go and help Him ).

 

‘parivargaLinpaDikku’ – those who are affectionate towards Him. It can

be said that the fish jumping in fear when the coconuts fall and moving away is

similar to the situation of misplaced suspicion and fear for the Lord by those

who are affectionate towards Him.

========

Abbreviations:

PVP = periyavAccAn piLLai

UV = uttamUr vIrarAghavAcAriyAr

PBA = P.B. aNNangarAcAriyAr

-------

End of periya tirumozhi 4.2.8 on tiruvaNpuruDOttamam

----------

To be continued …..