The Name Kidampi

[Guest guest]

Dear BhakthAs :

the question has come up number of times before

on the origin of the name Kidampi , which is

spelled in a number of ways .

 

I cam across a posting from U.Ve.Sri SrivathsAngAcchAr

Swamy , which will be of interst to you all.

 

There was a vamsam of kainkarya parALs at

the ancient shrine of YathOkthakAri, who

incarnated before Lord VaradarAjan to

protect BrahmA's Yaj~nam at Hasthi Giri.

 

They performed Theertha Kaimkaryam

( Thriumanjanam ). They gathered sacred

water ( thooya neer/appu ) in GhaDams

( vessels/kudams) and sereved the Lord there.

Therefore they were called AppuLLAr ( appu+

uLLAr ). GhaDa ambhu darALs . hence the name

should be GhaDaamBi instead of KidAmbhi or

KidAmpi.

 

The name ApuLLAr is some times linked to

Garudan ( That Garudan) based on the word

PuLL standing for a bird. The appu uLLaar

sounds more convincing as a derivation

for GhaDAmbi .

 

This is a great achArya paramparai.

GhaDAmbi RaamAnuaacchAr was the prime

dsiciple of Sri MaDaipaLLi AacchAn

( Sri PraNathArTiharAcchAr /MahAnasar).

GhadamBi RaamAnujAcchAr's sishyar was

GhaDAmbi RangarAjAcchAr .His sishyar

was the uncle of Swamy Desikan : GhaDAmBi

AppuLLAr.

 

The other explanation given for the name of

KiDAmbi is linked with a village from KeraLA

near PaalakkAdu .In the old times , there were

many who migrated from this village to ThoNDai

Naadu . Their gothram is Aathryam .Hence

they are also known as AthrEya vamsattthAl.

The AaathrEya Giothra maharishi is Sage

Adhri, whose wife is the famous Anasooya of

Sriamth RaamAyaNam.

 

In this AathrEya Vamsam was born AathrEya AcchAn

or PraNathArthiharAcchAr , who served AchArya

RaamAnujA.

 

I am deeply indebted to U.Ve.Sri SrivathsAngAcchAr

Swamy for these insights on GhaDAmbi and AathrEya Vamsam .

 

NaaraayaNa, NaarAyaNa, NaarAyaNa

V.SatakOpan