vinathasutha vaahanaaya

[Guest guest]

SrI:

 

Dear Sriman Vasudevan :

 

Thanks for such brilliant essays on

the sacred Naamaas of Lord Raamachandra .

We are all fortunate to benefit from your

delightful essays .

NamO SrI Raaghavaya anisam ,

V.Sadagopan

 

-

MG Vasudevan

oppiliappan ; raamabhakthi

Monday, September 22, 2008 10:35 PM

vinathasutha vaahanaaya

 

 

Post 4

Dear sri vaishNava perunthagaiyeer,

 

Raama is manOharah – not only seethaa but to all – why – that is because he is 'sringaara sekhara' – that is what we saw in earlier post. In that post 3, perhaps all would have noticed this line - varindha maravuri idaiyum nadaiyaiyum kaNdOr manadhai ellaam urukki vaarkkumE. See here, this poet aruNachalak kavi also says 'raama is manOharah' – the very vyuthpaththi of that raama naama -- ramayathi ithi raama – simply baffles the heart of one who has a look at raama – kaNdOr or kaNdavar manadhai ellaam urukki vaarkkumE – so he is 'manOharah'.

 

There is another krithi by ST 'laavaNya raama' – in raagam 'poorNa shadjam' – in this krithi ST says 'laavaNya raama kannulaara joodavE' – 'hey raama, the beauty, you see me with your full eyes' – kannulu aara. For, if we see him, we become mind-less – our mind being won by him with his beauty - manah already won by him.

 

But, if he sees us – hey – then all our aspirations etc gone in one stroke. Which is better? Our seeing him or he looking at us or seeing us with his puNdareeka visaala akshou - I leave it you, dear all, for a decision.

 

The next naama what our Sadagopan swamy gives us is – 3. vaathaaSanaari vara vaahanAya nama:". Also that naama 66 VinatAsuta VaahanAya Nama: [Jayanthasenaa] conveys same meaning as above and hence both are being dealt now.

 

This naama no 3. requires some splitting of the words involved there

– vaathaasana + ari + vara + vaahanaaya.

 

Now to get at the meaning for naama no. 3

– vaathasana in Sanskrit and telugu means 'snake'.

– Ari is enemy.

– So vaathaasana ari or snake's enemy is garuda.

Garuda granted the boon to the lord sreeman naaraayaNan to stay as his vaahanam – so in a little circuitous way this naama denotes or identifies the lord raama, naaraayaNa, or vishNu – hey raama, the garuda vaahanaa, namO namah.

 

Getting to naama no. 66 - Who is vinathaa suthan – or son of vinathaa – he is garudan – he is vaahanam to sreeman naaraayaNan – or raama – so vinathaa sutha vahaanaaya nama or vaathaaSanaari vara vaahanAya nama.

 

Kindly recall the thiruNaal Paattu for sree swamy dhEsikan – it starts 'vaathaaSanavarivarena varumaa bhaashiyam vagai peRunaL and then goes on to conclude -- uththamamana purattaasith thiruvONam enum naaLE'. Here we get that vaathaaSana ari ivar vara ena – which is same or similar to what we have from ST above.

 

We have already seen another series of article by MGV titled "raavaNa remembering garudan recently, with ref from sreemadh raamaayaNam. On this sri sadagopan swamy said – "oh raavaNa remembers garudan – and that ref is available in sreemadh raamaayaNam". In that series, we saw garuda gave that boon to the lord, for he getting boons from the lord.

 

The raagam is jayanthasenaa for the krithi vinathaa sutha vaahana - naama 66. A few lines about this raagam – taken from internet.

 

"An audava shadava janya raagam derived from the 22nd mela kharaharapriya. The notes taken by this raagam are shadja. A 'Ri' varja raga and is upanga in nature. Ga and Dha are the raaga chaaya svarams. Dheergha Dha and Ga lend beauty to this raga. Raghunatha Naik the king of Tanjore is supposed to have invented this raga. Raga Jayanth of Hindusthani Music is similar to jayantasena with the same arohana and avarohana'.

 

Getting back to main story, Garudan came to the war scene in lankaa, when both raama and lakshmaNa were hit by indhrajith's naaga paasam – when all other deputies like sugreeva and sena leaders were fallen and worried about welfare of raama and lakshmaNa, garuda relieved all troubles by making his presence there – for when once garuda appeared all snakes ran away – thus ensuring jayam to raama and his sena in the antham end. So victory to raama's army in the end – so 'jayantha sena'.

 

As I usually say the raagam selection by ST indicates to a large extent where the krithi will fit in raamaayaNam, this krithi and garuda dhvani krithi 'thathvameruga tharama' fit in this scene. [MGV has already given an article on this krithi thathvameruga]

 

There is another krithi in raagam 'hari khaambhOji' 'vinathaa sutha vaahanudai', meaning same oh garuda vaahanaa, which goes for the 'kaanchi varadhar's garuda sEvai' – wherein the lyrics of the krithi have mention of 'kaanchi varadhudu' specifically.

 

We will continue with more in next post.

DhasanVasudevan MG