Inputs for CD ROM : XII.1-- Thirumangai AzhwAr's Six prabhandhams

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Dear BhakthAs:

 

Thirumangai AzhwAr was the last of the Twelve AzhwArs .

His Taniyan is:

 

KaarthikE KrittikA Jaatham chathushkavi SikhAmaNim

ShaDprabhandha kruthaM Saarnga-mUrthim kaliyamAsrayE

 

Thirumangai AzhwAr known as Kaliyan, ParakAlan was born

in Nala samvathsaram , VriscchikA Maasam , PourNami dinam.

It was a Thursday and KritthikA Nakshathram was in ascendance.

His place of birth is Thirukkurayaloor near ThiruvAli-Thirunahari.

His given name at birth was Neelan.He was born in Chathurtha

VarNam and he mastered svakula Vidhyai of DhanussAsthram .

With his mastery of archery and weapons handling , he was

formidable in fights. He became a chieftain of a district

in the kingdom of ChOLAs and served the ChOLA king. He had

four ministers with the names of ThALUthuvAN , Neer-mEl

NadappAn , Nizhalil MaRaivAn and ThOlA Vazhakkan .With their

help and the carrying power of his horse with the name of AadalmA ,

Neelan was able to drive away many enemies of the ChOLA king

and enjoyed a honored status in the ChOLA Kingdom.

 

Meanwhile , in a nearby village , there was a female child born

as BhUmyamsai in an Aambal pond ( Kumuda saras) and a Vaisyan

took that child home and adopted it as his own.This child grew

to be a beautiful maiden named Kumudavalli. The parents were worried

about finding a suitable bridegroom for their daughter. Friends of

Neelan mentioned to him about the extraordinary beauty of

Kumudavalli .Neelan rushed to the house of the parents of

Kumudavalli and requested the father to give his daughter

away as his bride. The father asked his daughter about her

consent and she replied that any one whom she could marry

should have VishNu Chinhams (SamAsrayaNam ), VishNu Bhakthi and

should in addiiton perform TadhiyAraadhanams for the BhagavathAs.

 

Neelan was smitten with love for Kumudavalli and agreed to

her conditions. He went to the Sannidhi of ThirunaRayUr PerumAL

and prayed for SamAsrayaNa BhAgyam. ThirunaRayUr Nampi consented

and pressed the disc and conch on the shoulders of Neelan ,

presented ThirumaNN Kaappu and initiated Neelan into

the meaning of Thirumanthiram . All of these happenings

were not visible to the archakAs and the sEvArthis of

ThirunarayUr Nampi . Neelan was blessed to receive

SamAsrayaNam from the very hands of the Lord and

returned home as a Sri VishNavan , wedded Kumudavalli

and began the TadhiyArAdhana kaimkaryams .

 

The spies of ChOLa RaajA reported that Neelan was

spending a lot of the revenues due to the king in

TadhiyArAdhanams .The angry king ordered his soldiers

to capture Neelan and bring him to the court.Thirumangai

Mannan confronted the soldiers sent by the king and drove

them away .The king himself came to fight Thirumangai Mannan

and prooved to be no match for his heroic commander . The king

also had to withdraw from the battle . The king however tricked

Thirumangai with conciliatory words and had him imprisoned.

Thirumangai was very sad over the interruption to his

TadhiyArAdhana Kaimkaryam and during his dream inside

the prison , Lord VaradarAjA appeared before him and

instructed him to come to Kaanchi to recover buried

treasure close to His temple and gain his release from

the prison.

 

Next Morning , Thirumangai proceeded to Kaanchi with

a court servant , worshipped Lord VaradarAjan and dug

up the treasure pointed out by the Lord . He returned

the funds used from the treasury of the king for

TadhiyArAdhanams and used the rest of the funds for

the future Kaimkaryam .

 

Soon the extra funds from Kaanchi were used up and

Thirumangai had shortage of funds to carry on his

TadhiyArAdhanam . With the counsel of the ministers

(asAdhubhyO arTam aadhAya Saadhubhyas sampracchathi),

Thirumangai appropriated funds from avaishNavAs and

fed the VaishNavAs.Thirumangai did not touch any

VaishNava dhanam .One day , Thirumangai did not

encounter any avaishNavAs to gather money for

the TadhiyArAdhanam and was very sad about

the interruption to his Kaimkaryam.

 

The dhivya Dampathis saw the plight of their

Bhakthan and appeared before him as a rich avaishNava,

newly-wedded couple. Thirumangai was happy to see them

adorned with rich jewelery and ornaments. He robbed them

and put all his plunderings in a box and tried to lift that

box so he can go back to his village . Thirumangai could

not lift that box , however much he tried. He was angry

and thought that the bridegroom had cast a spell that

made the box unliftable. Thirumangai drew his sword

and demanded that the bridegroom reveal to him the manthram

that he (the Bridegroom) had used to make that box

super heavy. The bridegroom laughed and addressed

Thirumangai as " Namm KaliyA " and asked Kaliyan to come

closer so that he can repeat the manthram in to Kaliyan's

ears. Lord Sriman NaarAyaNa recited the Moola Manthram

in the ears of Kaliyan and blessed him with His Sevai

with MahA Lakshmi and His parijanams. Thirumangai Mannan

became at that instant Thirumangai AzhwAr and performed

SaraNAgathi at the sacred feet of the Dhivya dampathis.

The AanandhAnubhava PravAham of Thirumangai found its

release through Six Prabhandhams , which serve as

the six angams for the four Tamizh vedams of Swamy

NammAzhwAr .These Six prabhandhams set in the four

modes of poetry known as Aasu, Chithram , Madhuram and

Vistharam and earned him the name of Naalu Kavi perumAL.

These six prabhandhams extolling Bhagavath GuNAnubhavam,

SaraNAgathi and Bhagavath-BhAgavatha kaimkaryams are:

(1)Periya Thirumozhi (2) ThirukkuRunthANDakam

(3)ThirunedumthANDakam (4) ThiruvEzhukkURRirukkai

(5) SiRiya Thiumadal and (6) Periya Thirumadal.

 

Thirumangai AzhwAr performed MangaLAsAsanam for

86 of the 108 dhivya dEsams . He performed many

kaimkaryams such as the building of the ramparts

for the Srirangam temple, construction of

the dasAvathAra sannidhi at Srirangam and the creation

of the Thiruadhyayana Uthsavam at Srirangam .

He ascended to parama Padham from the dhivya desam

of ThirukkuRunkudi.

 

Let us reflect upon one of the ThirukkuRungudi

Paasurams at the conclusion of this short celebration

of the vaibhavam of this great AzhwAr:

 

NinRa Vinayum Thuyarum keda Maamalar-yEnthi ,

senRu paNimin yezhumin Thozhumin ThoNDIrkALL ,

yenRum iravum pahalum vari vanDu isai paada ,

kunRin Mullai ManRidai nARum KURUMKUDIYE

 

Thirumangai Mannan ThiruvadigaLE Saranam

Daasan, Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SatakOpan

 

P.S: We will continue with short descriptions of

the six prabhandhams of Thirumangai in the subsequent

postings and refer there to archived postings on the lists

about them for detailed studies by the BhakthAs.