raama ashtothram 17

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Post 17

 

Dear sri vaishNava

perunthagaiyeer,

 

Taking up the comments on naama,

"Sree pathayE nama:" the krithi is in naagasvaraavaLi raagam. As I usually say thyaagaraaja

often uses a raagam, which automatically points out or give clues to some

incident in raamaayaNam – so to look into that --

 

Naagam is elephant, or snake, or a serpent demon as

per Monier Williams Sanskrit dictionary.

Also it means the 'best or most excellent of any kind'.

svaram is musical notes.

aavaLi is a garland or medley.

 

Does it mean - The snake or an elephant has sung

'svara' notes to form a chain or a garland and offered to raama – so that

thyaagaraaja took this as his raagam name for his krithi 'sree pathE'. Is there

any such incident in raamayaNam – elephants or snakes offering a garland to

him?

 

Elephants - May be or likely in the paataabhishEkham

scene – but as we all know, all arrangements made but that crowning did not

take place. So, there is no question of an elephant garlanding raama, etc. Is

it later? – after killing of raavaNa – ok, this is acceptable.

But then, why or where from this 'oh raama remove

distress' pleading as in the krithi, in that grand paataabhishEkam occasion or

scene of raama. Who is there to make such a pleading? For every body was very

happy in that occasion, and nobody to have any grudge or need to plead 'remove

my distress'. As I said

in previous post, can it be vibheeshNa, sugreeva and vaali – no pointing to

this threesome – for they did not garland raama even in pattabhishEkham scene –

hence they are ruled out.

 

Or is it the best or most excellent 'swara aavaLi'

musical garland to raama – yes, but thyaagaraaja will not plead to remove

distress. So it must connect to some incident in raamaayaNam and if so what is

it?

 

Further snakes make hissing sounds only. And does

that become a music to raama - like krishNa's flute – as in raasa kreeda - to

bind even 'achEthana vasthu' – re 'naavalam theevil' padhikam of periyaazhvaar.

 

 

Dear sirs, this krithi is related to 'kabhandhan' episode and so raagam

'naaga swara aavaLi'. Kabhandhan had two long arms, a yojana in length, and

body ws so huge and out of shape to look like an elephant, so a naagam – an

elephant or snake or a combination of these two at the same time.

 

He was eating and living by grabbing whatever is stuck between the arms

and lifting to his mouth using those two long arms. Since his two arms were

moving like snakes, in between the arms he caught the two brothers, raama and

lakshmaNa and set to eat them. At that stage raama and lakshmaNa cut the arms

at shoulder level. So an elephant like body having snake like arms and forming

a garland to the two. So naaga aavaLi.

 

He spoke in such howling voice first. And later when he got his

original body [dhanu, son of a gandharva], his words were sweet music to the

two – raama and lakshmaNa - for he only guided them to seek friendship with

sugreeva and asked to go to pampaa to meet sugreeva. All combined – naaga

aavali to raama, and later the best svara aavaLi to guide raama to find

seethaa.

 

Thus we have a beauty of a krithi.

And that starts sree pathE – for kabhandha was sure and could foresee

raama uniting with that sree, lakshmee, seethaa, so thyaagaraaja addressed

raama as 'sree pathE'.

 

But that also raises few questions --

Was kabhandhan thinking about raama

always – yes – sreepathE nee padha chinthanE jeevanamu [sree]. for he was

already told by the rishi sthoolasira, 'when raama cuts of your arms and burns yours body, you will

be relieved of your curse. So he was awaiting raama's arrival - like

sabari, later.

 

Is kabhandhan

a 'para dhEsi' here in the forest, where raama was searching his wife

seethaa – yes please. 'nE para dhEsi' - for he was belonging indhra lokam.

 

 

Did

kabhandhan plead to raama to remove distress – yes - naa gaasi baapavE chanuvuna

dhaya chEsi – already by cutting my arms I was relieved of the shackles,

relieve me of this body further by burning me, so please burn me, to

enable me get my original roopam.

 

Did he say about the ravi, soma, and

indhra etc 'poojinchi ninnu indhraadhulu dhigraajulai velaya

lEdhaa' so that thyaagaraaja also

adds same in his krithi – yes please.

 

Since

the length puts a brake let us continue with references from vaalmeeki in next

post please.

 

Dhasan

-- Vasudevan MG