Ezhil chandhaviruththamum azhagiya andhAdhiyum!

[Guest guest]

Sri Parthasarathi thunai

SrimathE rAmAnujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha

 

“makAyAm makarE mAsE chakrAmsam bhArgavOtbhavam

maheesAra purAdheesam bhakthisAra maham bhajE”

 

In the previous posting we enjoyed the greatness of our dear thirumazhisai

Azhvar and now we will highlight the greatness of his two prabhandams. Sri

BhakthisArar has two excellent prabhandams to his credit. Both of them written

in two different types of poetic structure, in Tamil literature. One of them is

Thiruchandhaviruththam, as the name suggests the type of “pA vagai” as per Tamil

literature is chandha viruththam. In this prabhandam, azhvar gives a number of

mathematical calculations (“punilAya iyindhumAi punarkan nindra nAngumAi….”).

But that is no reason for us to ignore this prabhandam to be tough and beyond

our knowledge. It has such divine meanings, which clarifies all our doubts.

Not all paasurams are tough instead there are so many sweet and anubhavam filled

paasurams in this prabhandam also (“kondai konda Kodhai meedhu…..”).

 

The second prabhandam of Azhvar is “nAnmugan ThiruvandAdhi”. This prabhandam is

in AndAdhi style. Today the game of anthAkshari is very common among the young

folks. One sings a song and the other continues to sing with the word the

previous one ends. This was formally derived only from Andhadhi structure of

the Tamil literature and the mudal Azhvars were the first to make such poems.

There are two advantages in such poetry. First thing is, no insertions

(edaiserugal) can be made. So the essence of the poem is maintained and

secondly it is easy to by heart them, as it is easy to remember the order of

paasurams. The andhAdhis of the mudal Azhvars were called as mudal, erandhAm

and moondrAm thiruvandhAdhi’s considering the order of the Azhvars who sung it.

But how did this prabhandam of thirumazhisai azhvar get this name? There is also

one another andhAdhi prabhandam of nammazhvar it is called “Periya

thiruvandhAdhi” why should it be called so? The interesting fact is that

the number of paasurams in Periya thiruvandhAdhi is only 87 while compared to

the other thiruvandhAdhis it should only be called “siriya thiruvandhAdhi”. On

the contrary it is called Periya thiruvandhAdhi. Here this thiruvandhAdhi of

thirumazhisai pirAn is called as nAnmugan thiruvandhAdhi while the whole

prabhandam talks only about the greatness and parathvam of Sriman Narayana.

Azhvar declares himself to be “marandhum puram thozhA mAndhar” but see the irony

his prabhandam is named “nAnmugan thiruvandhAdhi”. Why?

 

Generally, prabhandams are either named after the azhvar who did it viz,

periyAzhvar thirumozhi, nAchiyar thirumozhi etc or with some highlighting point

in the prabhandam viz., Periya thiruvandhAdhi etc or with the starting letter of

the prabhandam viz., nAnmugan thiruvandhAdhi, amalanAdhipiran, kanninun

siruthAmbhu etc. So this prabhandam derives its name from its starting word.

Azhvar starts the prabhandam as follows: “nAnmuganai nArAyanan padaiththAn…”.

Though not pertaining to the subject just as a matter of fact let us see why

Periya thiruvandhAdhi is called so. In Periya thiruvandhAdhi, 75th paasuram

azhvar challenges perumal for superiority. “puviyumiruvisumbhum ninnagaththa

nee enseviyin vazhipugundhu ennullAi-avivindri yAn periyan nee periyai

enbhathanai yArarivAr voon parugu nEmiyA vullu”. Oh! My lord you are ubhaya

vibhoothi nAthan but then now you have gone through my ears and is staying

inside my heart. Now who will understand who is superior among us? Or another

interpretation is that azhvar confirms that he is superior and questions “yan

periyan! Nee periyai enbhathanai yAr arivar?” Only due to this nammazhvar’s

andhAdhi was named as “Periya thiruvandhAdhi” though it has less number of

paasurams and even today Azhvar is sometimes referred to as “periyan” in azhvar

thirunagari side.

 

In the next posting we will start enjoying the paasurams in “nAnmugan

thiruvandhAdhi”.

 

Alwar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

 

Adiyen rAmAnuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 

 

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