nammALHvAr - shrInivAsaH

by Prof. A. Srinivasa Raghavan
October 1, 1974

Source: TW

0 Prefatory Note

Nammalvar is revered as a saint and his works have been accorded the authority of scriptures. The task of interpreting him began some seven hundred years ago and has resulted in commentaries some of which have now almost as much validity as Nammalvar’s words. To cover all that the great commentators say within the space available here is impossible, and is not attempted. Besides, it may not be of much interest to the non-Tamil general reader for whom this book is intended. So, many details of a purely theological nature have been omitted and only what was thought essential to a brief general survey has been retained.

A certain amount of overlapping in the matter presented has been unavoidable; clarity demanded it; it has, however, been kept down to a minimum.

A word about the translation. Every effort has been made to steer a middle course between literalness and freedom. Passages (sometimes only portions of stanzas) have been chosen and translated with an eye mainly on their illustrative value.

I am grateful to my friends Sri A. N. Makara Bhushanam and Sri K. Pakshirajan, Advocates, Tirunelveli, for going through the manuscript of the book as it was being written and for offering valuable suggestions. Both of them are competent scholars in Tamil and earnest and devoted students of Nammalvar and they have been most helpful. My friend Sri A. K. Gopala Pillai, Advocate, Tirunelveli, served cheerfully as the first non-Tamil reader and his comments and reactions have helped me to set the tone of the book.

Tuticorin A. Srinivasa Raghavan October 1, 1974

1. The Alvars

The great Hindu revival that took place in Tamil Nadu between the fifth and the ninth centuries A.D. ¹ saw the emergence of Tamil as a powerful instrument that carried the old faith to the masses and at the same time served as a resplendent medium of expression to the bhakti or love of God that was the chief characteristic of its resurgence. Buddhism and Jainism that had spread earlier in the South had shown the way by their use of Tamil as the language of religious propaganda, and also of poetic expression in the two Tamil epics Manimekalai and Silappadikaram; Hinduism followed, not so much because the Buddhist and Jain had done it before, but as a consequence of the fervour that animated a few saintly souls and found natural expression in their mother-tongue. The Hinduism that revived took two main directions, and the two movements crystallised in course of time into what were later identified as two distinct faiths, each one of which claimed absolute validity, leading much later to the theological wrangles and acrimonious controversies that generally follow an era of genuine spiritual uplift. To this period of Hindu religious expansion belong the Nayanmars and the Alvars,² the Nayanmars representing Saivam and the Alvars serving as the poetic voice of Vaishnavam. The Alvars are twelve in number. Eleven of them have sung of God and one, Madhurakavi, of his spiritual preceptor, Nammalvar. The chronological order in which they appeared, as accepted by the Ramanuja school of Vaishnavam, is still a matter of controversy and historical research. Tradition places them roughly between 4200 and 2700 B. C. Historical, linguistic and literary research however, assigns to them a period from the fifth or the sixth to the ninth century A.D.

Details of their lives and the dates of their birth and death are lost in the mists of time. The months and the stars under which they were born are given in some accounts. Vaishnava tradition places Nammalvar as the fifth among the Alvars in order of birth but gives him the foremost place in sanctity and hails him as “Kulapati”.³ It considers all the other Alvars as limbs and Nammalvar as the body and has raised him to a place of worship as one who intercedes with God for saving the souls of men. Nammalvar (literally “Our Alvar”) is the name by which he is generally known now and is an indication of the reverence in which the Vaishnava world holds him.

Voluminous commentaries in manipravala, a mixture of Sanskrit and Tamil, have been written on Nammalvar’s works and elaborate and learned attempts have been made to link all that he has written with the theology of Sri Ramanuja. ⁴ These commentaries are a marvel of scholarship and theological acumen. They are not insensitive to the essentially human in Nammalvar and to the poetry in which it finds expression. The commentators, though their vigilant eye is on theology, do often bring out the suggestions and overtones of the poetry in a manner that an aesthete might well envy. Nevertheless, their main purpose is theological.

And they start on the basis that Nammalvar is a saint, not a man who struggled towards Reality but a realised soul even from birth, an avatara or descent of one of the aspects of God. They believe that he is the incarnation of Senai Mudaliar, the Chief of Hosts of the Lord. It is also said that he is the avatara of God himself. If this is accepted, the yearning and the travail that Nammalvar’s works record, seem strange for if he was born a realised soul, and was aware as such of the purpose of his descent from God, where is the need for all the agony of the seeking that breaks out from him? One of the explanations given is that though in himself he was in touch with God, he put on voluntarily the predicament of the human spirit in bondage and worked out the various stages of the way of liberation for the world to see and follow. In other words, all the experiences in the long journey to the Real that find a place in Nammalvar’s works are to be consi dered as presentations by a saint who descended to the human condition by divine dispensation, of all the struggles of man in his march to Reality as though they were his, though they were not. Viewed thus, all Nammalvar’s works are a piece of drama portraying the progress of a soul to the Ultimate.

This may be true. But one cannot explain away the intensity that is Nammalvar’s poetry in terms of drama and vicarious or imagined experience. We may well consider Nammalvar’s life as a being as well as a becoming. His being a man did not militate, though it stood in the way for a time, against his final vision of God. If we accept this line of thought, we will see Nammalvar’s works as the first personal singular in all its trials, failures and achievements, in its despair and hope, and final merging with what transcends the individual personal, what transforms it from its questing self-ness into a sesha, a willing and perfect instrument that has no will except that of God. To approach Nammalvar’s work in this way is not to lessen his saintliness but to realise in full the evolution of a saint from a man, the flooding in of Reality into apparently unavailing human hands. Herein lies Namm alvar’s true greatness, the special reach of his poetry, that they are a testament not merely of his saintliness but also of human destiny. Nammalvar’s passion left the earth to lose itself in the sky, it is true, but it started from here and expressed itself only through the language of the earth.⁵ To deny this is to forget that for all its symbolism which makes for dramatic form its puranic imagery and its philosophic thought, Nammalvar’s work is a lyric cry. This book is an attempt to interpret it as such.

2. Nammalvar’s Life

Of the life of Nammalvar, as of the lives of the other Alvars, the chief sources are Divya Suri Charitam in Sanskrit by one Garudavahana Panditar, a contemporary of Sri Ramanuja,⁶ and Guru Parampara Prabhavam, (the Six Thousand), a work in Sanskritised Tamil prose by Pinpazhagiya Perumal Jeer. There are a few other works ⁷ which give Nammalvar’s life and though there are some differences of minor detail among them, they agree in the main. The story of Nammalvar’s life as now current in Ramanuja Vaishnava tradition may be summed up as follows: Maran, later known as Nammalvar and by other names like Satagopa, Parankusa, etc., was born as the avatara of Senai Mudaliar (God’s Chief of Hosts).

His father Kariyar belonged to Tirukkuruhur on the banks of the Tamraparni in the Tirunelveli district. For the first sixteen years of his life, Maran remained without food and drink, with his eyes closed, under a tamarind tree (the avatara, it is believed, of Adisesha, the serpent on which God, Sri Narayana, reclines), near the temple of Lord Adinatha at Tirukkuruhur. He opened his eyes and spoke for the first time when one Madurakavi, who later on became his disciple, put a question to him: “When what is little is born in the dead, what will it eat and where will it lie?” Nammalvar answered the question thus: “It will eat the dead and lie on it.”

Even after this, Nammalvar never left the shade of the tamarind tree. He remained there singing his hymns. All the deities of the hundred and eight divya desas (the divine shrines) came to Tirukkuruhur, it is said, to give him “darsan”. When he had finished the four works attributed to him, the call came and he joined the feet of the Lord for which he had yearned all his life.

It will be seen from this brief account that Nammalvar’s life as it was lived in the light of common day, with all the details of the earth that he touched, is not available to us. The first account of it in Sanskrit was written a few centuries after him, and according to its claim, more than nearly forty centuries after him. It is no doubt a theological if psychologically true version, for by the time it was written, Nammalvar had been accepted by Vaishnavas of the south as a saint, as the saint of saints at whose word the transcendent state opens to man.

Modern biographical and historical research trying to get at what it would call the facts of Nammalvar’s life stands baulked. Time has swallowed the factual details and what is now presented is the idealised account given in Divya Suri Charitam and Guru Parampara Prabhavam. This account, though it may not satisfy seekers of Boswellian documentation, is true to the inward life – and that is what matters – so variedly and movingly recorded in Nammalvar’s words. The long years of his silence and his detachment from all things earthly which are the most significant points in the traditional account of Nammalvar conform to the experience of mystics the world over. The first years of his life were spent, we may well believe, in the search for the `God within’ in a single-pointed contemplation that by a divine dispensation came to him from birth. The miracle of his life lies here. When he emerged from this in-drawn state, he had touched the Ultimate. His works chronicle this as also the various stages of his journey to God. That journey, as his words reveal, is marked by the initial alienation from the earth, the beginning of the search for significance, the darkness that sets in on the way, its sudden removal and as sudden return, the passion and agony of the seeking and the joy of realisation, in fact all the states through which one passes.

“When that which came from out the boundless deep Turns again home.” Since Nammalvar spoke only after the first sixteen years of his life, if we consider this period of silence as occupied by his search for Reality, we have to infer that portions of his works were a turning back and a recollection, a fresh experience, to change Wordsworth’s phrasing, recollected in the tranquillity of realisation.⁸

3. Nammalvar’s Works: Tiruviruttam

Nammalvar’s works are four in number: (i) Tiruviruttam (Tiru Viruttam) (ii) Tiruvasiriyam (Tiru Asiriyam) (iii) Periya Tiruvantati (Periya Tiru Antati) (iv) Tiruvaymoli (Tiru Vaymoli)

The ‘Tiru’ that serves as prefix in the names of the four works means ‘good’, ‘auspicious’, ‘divine’. ‘Viruttam’ and ‘Asiriyam’ are two kinds of verse; the first two works, therefore, are named after the verses in which they are written. ‘Periya’ in ‘Periya Tiru Antati’ means ‘great’ and ‘antati’ is a characteristic of a certain kind of Tamil verse in which the last word or syllable of a stanza is taken up as the opening word or syllable of the next stanza. ‘Vaymoli’ in ‘Tiru Vaymoli’ means that which is uttered. ‘Tiru Vaymoli’ means therefore ’the Divine Word’.

TIRUVIRUTTAM [Text]

‘Tiruviruttam’ (Tiru Viruttam) is a poem of a hundred four-lined stanzas. Each stanza is a ‘Kattalai Kalitturai’, a special type of verse, each line having five feet and all the four lines in the stanza rhyming initially. Viruttam, besides denoting a kind of verse, means a message or an event. It is generally held that the poem is a submission made by Nammalvar to God of an event, the event of his falling in love with Him.

The first stanza of the poem indicates this: To save us from false knowledge, From evil ways and the dirt of the body, To save us from coming again and again, To all these, And to give us Life, Thou, Lord of the Immortals, Camest down here, Taking birth in many a womb, And accepting many a form. Hearken, Lord, to my submission true. 1 The poem takes the form of a dramatic sequence in which a few characters figure in what may be called a play on love, the love of God being presented in terms of the earthly love between a man and a woman. It is natural for the human soul to identify itself in this symbolism with the woman who loves and to view God as the all-loving, eternal lover. In a number of stanzas in the poem, Nammalvar’s yearning for God expresses itself through a woman’s love-tossed heart. O my poor heart, you went alone After the fiery bird that He rides, 2 He who wears the cool tulasi 3 and the flaming discus, Will you come back to me? Or will you stand there gazing in wonder At Lakshmi and the goddess of the earth, And the lovely-haired maid of the cowherds, 4 A triple glory, clinging shadow-like to him? 5 Through the reference to the three who are inseparable from His glory, the Alvar expresses his own longing to share their nearness to God. Winter comes, the dark rain clouds gather in the sky, or is it winter? Massed and blown by the wind, Flinging the good rain, Are they fierce dark bulls Battling it out in the sky? Or has winter really come to torment me, Winter, dark, bearing His loveliness, Seemingly cool, flowery, But cruelly probing my wounds, The agony of being away from Him? 6 The mood changes and the woman in love wonders how the rainclouds managed to acquire the dark sheen of her Lover:

Tell me, clouds, How did you acquire the yogic powers To look like my Lord? Is it through the penance you have done through His grace, Wandering far and wide, your hearts in pain, Bearing your heavy, bountiful burden of rain To save all life here? 7 The same question arises as the woman in love looks at the lilies in the lake near-by: How comes it That these water-lilies are dark-blue like my Lord? … Is it because they forsook the forest and the earth And took to the water, Standing there, legs unflinching in penance? 8 The passion grows and wherever she turns, she sees the witchery of her Lover’s eyes:

Like lotus pools, wide-stretching On the broad brow of a dark hill, Wherever I turn His eyes weave beauty, The eyes of my Lord, dark and lovely, Lord of the good, of the heavens And of the world girt by the swelling waters. 9 ‘Oh, but they are lotuses,’ she cries, ‘His eyes, His hands, His feet, all are lotuses, lotuses’ 10

Then a sudden misgiving assails her. Could she, so ill-equipped, speak in mere words of His beauty? Who can conceive of it The lovely dark of my Lord? Is it within the reach Even of the those whose thought Crosses the sky and beyond To the world eternal? 11 ‘No, it is not possible,’ she concludes; with a touch of elation over her Lover’s infinitude and a sense of sadness at her own inadequacy: Who can speak of them, His color, beauty, His name, His form? They would talk, however, As though they know, Those men who pursue jnana and dharma. But however far they go, Wherever they reach, In the blaze of light that He is, Maybe, they learn a little But how could they ever attain to it, My Lord’s greatness? 12 The implication is that knowledge and righteousness will fall short of realisation and that only love can reach Him. She loves, of course, but the Lover has not come and the pain of being alone grows. The west darkens, the crescent moon shows itself and the night-wind stirs. It is night, With the crescent moon, That milk-mouthed child, Clinging to her waist, The west is lamenting Her loss of the sun. Here is the cool wind stirring Searching, seeking To steal from us What He has given us, The yearning for his tulasi. 13 ‘Yes, but the wind is no longer cool,’ says the woman in love, ‘it is a cruel wind and it burns. It is invisible, we know not its form nor can we trace its foot-steps. It goes about whispering scandal and tormenting me ceaselessly.’ 14 The night darkens and lengthens into an age as thought bent on destroying her. 15 The young moon rises. Has it come to save her, to break the unshrinking darkness encircling night? 16 Let it, but it burns too. The loud, unceasing lament of the bird, anril, from the grove and the voice of the restless sea stealing into the land through a hundred creeks torture her throughout the night.’ 17 ‘Does the sea call to me to give up my poor bangles of conch shell’ she wonders in pain, ‘unable to get back the amrita 18 that it yielded when the Lord churned it ? 19 When morning comes and the sun rises over the hill, it seems as though her lover is before her and she rejoices that all evil and suffering are at an end. 20 But that is for a moment. The sense of being away from Him breaks in and she cries out: ‘When, when will I reach him?’ and adds heavily: O Lord of the discus That destroyed the asuras, 21 It is a wonder to me How I got this human state: Who knows how long I did penance for it? Having got it, Through being Thy slave I thought I could reach Thee. But that is not to be, And the long, long time of waiting Does not die. 22 Still her faith remains unshaken, and her heart will turn to none else but Him. 23 Her poor heart has however, turned wilful and has failed her: Believing in my heart. Thinking it guileless, and mine, I sent it after Him… And till today, It has not returned. Self-willed now and uncontrollable, it has forsaken me And wanders, I know not where. 24 She sends the swans and the storks after her heart: O good swans and storks, You are flying somewhere, Let me beseech you, forget not, Go first to Vaikunta 25 And if you find my heart there, Mention me and ask it Whether it has still not gone to Him, And if it has not, Ask it whether this tardiness is right. 26 She gets no reply from the birds and she turns to the clouds thinking they will be more helpful:

O clouds, bright with lightning, Starting towards the high strong-based peak Of Venkatam lit with gems and gold, Will you carry my message to him? “No” they say. Will these clouds If I pray to them And ask them to place their feet On my bowed head? 27 Thus, in a number of stanzas in the poem, Nammalvar speaks of his passion for God. The love-lorn woman in the poem is Nammalvar himself. There are a few other characters in this drama of love that the poem presents. Nammalvar does not mention them specifically but the context and the words given to them reveal their identity. If we call the chief character, the woman in love, as nayaki or talaivi (that is, the heroine) as is generally done, the other characters are the nayaki’s maid and friend, her mother and her foster-mother, the lover himself and His friend, and a Kattuvichi, a woman whose advice is sought on the supposition that the nayaki is possessed. The function of the nayaki’s friend is to sympathise with and console her and also to comment on her forlorn condition. Let us hear her: I think That the unswerving writ Of the Lord who is like rain-cloud Has veered today How else could the wind By nature cool, Throw about fire here, And the wide eyes of my poor friend Whose heart has gone after his tulasi, Rain tears ? 28 She gets so sore over her friend’s condition that she blames the Lover as though He is before her: The dark sea roars pitiless As though challenging, Unmindful that she is a woman, And her agony grows. Nothing can save her Except Thy grace. Is it right on Thy part, Lord cloud-hued, reclining on the serpent couch, To delay further? 29 She speaks to the nayaki of her Lover’s greatness and the infinite grace that made him descend to the earth, suggesting that the same grace would save her: Ascetics sleepless in their penance Seek Him to escape the toils of birth. He is unknowable Even to the Immortals. That is His infinitude. But do not be troubled. Great indeed is His way of mystery. Did He not come to the earth And endure the reproach That He stole butter? 30 The nayaki’s foster-mother wonders why she, so young and immature, should give room to this passion and also ovet what the world will say about this strange infatuation: Her breasts have not come out full. Her curls, dense and soft, are still short, Her sari stays not at the waist And her speech halts indistinct Like a child’s. Her eyes gleam restless More precious than land and sea. Is it proper for this child To con the words: “Is Venkata the Lord’s hill?” 31 The nayaki’s mother is distressed over her daughter having gone away with Him to His city and over what she would have suffered on the way in the wild desert where cruel men roam and the sound of their drums fix the air. 32 This is strange because going away with her Lover is just what the nayaki yearns for and it has not so far happened as the rest of the poem indicates. If the nayaki has gone away, why should the Kattuvichi as the poem records later, be sent for and her opinion on whether the nayaki is possessed be obtained? The Kattuvichi diagnoses the nayaki’s condition as being due to her love for the Lord of the Immortals and suggests as a remedy the tulasi that He wears. ‘A garland of tulasi or some leaves of the plant’, she says, ‘a branch or root, ’even a piece of the sod on which it grows will do’. 33 Equally strange is the Lover figuring in the poem though till the end of it except in one stanza. 34 He does not appear before the nayaki. That one stanza records how the Lover crossing a desert along with the nayaki tells her not to be troubled by the wildness of the land and assures her that His city is near. In another stanza, the Lover asks his charioteer to hasten because his beloved is waiting and pining for Him. 35 Again, He appears before the nayaki’s friend and on the pretext of finding out whether the elephant He has been hunting has gone that way, puts questions to her which she disapproves. 36 In another stanza, He speaks of the fragrance of His beloved’s curls and asks the bees whether in their wide experience of flowers, they have seen anything sweeter. 37 He speaks to His friend of the lovely dark eyes, wide as the sea, of His beloved and affirms that no one who has seen them will blame him for having fallen in love with her. 38 The Lover’s friend goes and sees for himself the beauty and deserving of the nayaki and on returning tells the Lover that he now realises how blind and mistaken he has been in thinking of his friend’s love as unjustified. 39 One cannot help feeling that the simple, original symbolism of bridal mysticism, the soul in love with God and longing to be united to Him, has become complicated if not confused by the introduction of the other characters, the situations devised for them and the words given to them. All these appear to a student of Tamil poetry to be modelled on the love poems of the Sangam age and though they extend the poetry of the story of love, they blur the significance of the symbolism of the Lover and the beloved as God and the human soul. Towards the end of the poem, Nammalvar himself discards the symbolism as when he says: To be born, to die, Age after age, age after age, To die and to be born, Those who can see And laugh at this futility, Surely, they will long to end it By turning in love To Him, the Origin, Round whom the Immortals gather in worship, How can there be any sleep for them? 40 Or when he gives up the symbol of the lover and calls God father and mother: Entering a body: Being wedged in it, being unwedged, Thus the soul struggles endlessly, So betimes, somehow, I will turn To Him who is my mother and my father, And the Lord of liberation. 41 Or when he speaks of all the religions and all forms of worship as His creation and all the gods as His forms. 42 But the mixing up of the symbol and what is symbolised, the extension of the symbol beyond the limits of the logic of symbolism, the coming in of other symbols, and a sudden giving up of symbols and entering into direct utterance are characteristics that generally mark mystical poetry and ‘Tiruviruttam’ illustrates them. It may well be that Nammalvar took the turais or the situations that the Tamil poets of the Sangam age handled in their idealisation of love and tried to pour his mystical passion into those moulds. 43 Some times, the passion overflows them and sometimes, the moulds stand in the way of the perfect expression of experience through symbol. But that is the quality of genuine mystical work. A clever artist could make a symbol serve its purpose logically, tying up the ends in such a way that reason is satisfied. But ‘reason’, as Jalal-uddin Rumi said, ‘is the shadow of God; God is the sun. Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment is intuition.’ 44 ‘Tiruviruttam’ is the poetry of intuition.

NOTES

poyNNinRa NYaanamum pollaa vozhukkum azhukkudambum, in^n^inRa niirmai iniyA muRAmai, uyiraLippAn en^n^inRa yOniyu maayppiRan^ thAyimai yOr_thalaivA! meyn^inRu kEttaru LAy,adi yEn_cheyyum viNNappamE. [Back]

kuzhalkO valarmadap pAvaiyum maNmaga Lumthiruvum, nizhalpOl vanar_kaNdu niRkunkol mILunkol, thaNNanthuzhAy azhalpO ladumchakka raththaNNal viNNOr thozhakkadavum thazhalpOl sinaththa,ap puLLinpin pOna thanin^enc hamE. [Back]

NYaalam panippach cheriththu,n^an nIrittuk kaalsithainthu nIlaval lERu poraan^inRa vAna midhu,thirumAl kOlam sumandhu pirindhaar kodumai kuzhaRudhaNpUNG kaalanko lOvaRi yEn,vinai yaattiyEn kaaNkinRavE? [Back]

mEganka LO!urai yIr,thiru maalthiru mEniyokkum yOganka LunkaLuk kevvARu peRRIr, uyiraLippaan maaganka Lellaam thirinthun^an NnIrgaL sumandhun^undham aagankaL nOva, varundhum thavamaam aruLpeRRathE? [Back]

kadamaa yinagaL kazhiththu,tham kaalvanmai yaalpalan^aaL thadamaa yinapukku nIrn^ilai ninRa thavamithukol, kudamaadi yimmaNNum viNNum kulunka vulagaLandhu nadamaa diyaperu maan,uru voththana nIlankaLE. [Back]

nIlath thadavarai mElpuNda rIga nedundhadankaL pOla, polindhemak kellaa vidaththavum, ponkumun^n^Ir NYaalap piraanvisum pukkum piraanmaRRum nallOr_piraan kOlam kariya piraan,em piraan_kaNNin kOlankaLE. [Back]

kaNNumsen^ thaamarai kaiyu mavai_adi yO_avaiyE, vaNNam kariyathOr maalvarai pOnRu, madhivigaRpaal viNNum kadandhumbar appaalmik kumaRRep paal_evarkkum eNNu midaththadhu vO,embi raana thezhiln^iRamE? [Back]

niyamuyar kOlamum pErum uruvum ivaiyivaiyenRu, aRamuyal NYaanach chamayigaL pEsilum, ankankellaam uRavuyar NYaanach chudarviLak kaayn^inRa thanRiyonRum peRamuyan Raarillai yaal,embi raanRan perumaiyaiyE. [Back]

paalvaayp piRaippiLLai okkalaik koNdu, pagalizhandha mElpaal thisaippeN pulambuRu maalai, ulagaLandha maalpaal thuzhaaykku manamudai yaarkkun^al kiRRaiyellaam sOlvaan pugundhu,ithu vOr_pani vaadai thuzhaakinRathE. This is one interpretation.[Back]

enRumpun vaadai yidhukaNdaRidhum,iv vaaRuvemmai onRumuruvum suvadumtheriyilam, Onkasurar ponRum vagaipuLLai yUrvaanaruLaru Laadhavin^n^aaL manRil niRaipazhi thooRRi,n^in Rennaivan kaaRRadumE. [Back]

vaLaivaayth thiruchchak karaththengaL vaanava NnaarmudimEl, thaLaivaay naRungaNNith thaNNan^ thuzhaaykkuvaN Nambayalai, viLaivaan migavandhu naaLthinga LaaNdUzhi niRkavemmai uLaivaan pugundhu,ithu vOr_kangul aayiram UzhigaLE. [Back]

sUzhghinRa kangul surungaa iruLin karundhiNimbai, pOzhginRa thingaLam piLLaiyum pOzhga, thuzhaaymalarkkE thaazhginRa nencath thoruthami yaattiyEn maamaikkinRu vaazhginRa vaaRithu vO,vandhu thOnRiRu vaaliyathE. [Back]

pulambum kanakural pOzhvaaya anRilum, pUngazhipaayn^ thalambum kanakural sUzhthirai yaazhiyum, aangavain^in valambuL Lathun^alam paadu mithukuRRa maagavaiyam silambum padiseyva thE,thiru maal_ith thiruvinaiyE? [Back]

malaikoNdu maththaa aravaal suzhaRRiya maayappiraan. alaikaNdu koNda amudhamkoL Laathu kadal,parathar vilaikoNdu thandhasaNG gam_ivai vErith thuzhaaythuNaiyaath thulaikoNdu thaayam kiLarndhu,koL vaanoth thazhaikkinRathE. [Back]

thirumaal uruvokkum mEru,am mEruvil sencudarOn thirumaal thirukkaith thiruchchak karamokkum, annakaNdum thirumaal uruvO davansinna mEbithaR Raan^iRpathOr thirumaal thalaikkoNda nangatku,eNG gEvarum thIvinaiyE? [Back]

thalaippeythu yaanun thiruvadi sUdun^ thagaimaiyinaal, n^Ilaipeytha aakkaikku nORRavim maayamum, maayamchevvE n^ilaippey thilaatha nilaimaiyuNG kaaNdO Rasurar_kuzhaam tholaippeytha nEmiyen^ thaay,thollai yUzhi surungalathE. [Back]

surunguRi veNNai thoduvuNda kaLvanai, vaiyamuRRum orungura vuNda peruvayiR RaaLanai, maavalimaattu irunguRaL aagi isaiyavOr mUvadi vENdichchenRa perungiRi yaanaiyal laal,adi yEnn^encam pENalathE. [Back]

madan^enca menRum thamadhenRum, Or_karu mamkarudhi, vidan^encai yuRRaar vidavO amaiyum,ap ponpeyarOn thadan^encam kINda piraanaar thamadhadik kIzhvidappOyth thidan^enca maay,emmai nIththinRu thaaRum thirikinRathE. [Back]

annamsel vIrumvaN daanamsel vIrum thozhudhirandhEn munnamsel vIrgaL maRavElmi NnOkaNNan vaigundhanO dennenci NnaaraikkaN daalennaich cholli avaridain^Ir innancel lIrO, ithuvO thagaven Risaimin_gaLE ! [Back]

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isaimin_gaL thoodhen Risaiththaa lisaiyilam, en_thalaimEl asaimin_ga LenRaa lasaiyinko laam,ampon maamaNigaL thisaimin miLirum thiruvENG kadtthuvan thaaLsimayam misaimin miLiriya pOvaan vazhik koNda mEgangaLE ! [Back]

iRaiyO irakkinum IngOr_peN daal,ena vummirangaathu, aRaiyO! enan^in Rathirum karungadal, InghivaLthan n^iRaiyO iniyun thiruvaru LaalanRik kaapparithaal muRaiyO, aravaNai mElpaLLi koNda mugilvaNNanE! [Back]

thuncaa munivarum allaa thavarun^ thodaran^inRa, encaap piRavi idar_kadi vaan,imai yOr_thamakkum thansaarvi laatha thanipperu mUr_ththithan maayamsevvE n^encaal ninaippari thaal,veNNe yUNennum InachchollE. [Back]

mulaiyO muzhumuRRum pOnthila, moypUNG kuzhalkuRiya kalaiyO araiyillai naavO kuzhaRum, kadalmaNNellaam vilaiyO enamiLi rungaN NivaLpara mE!perumaan malaiyO thiruvENG kadamenRu kaRkinRA vaasagamE? [Back]

kodunkaal silaiyar niraikO Luzhavar, kolaiyilveyya kadunkaal iLaiNYar thudipadum kavvaiththu, aruvinaiyEn nedunkaala mumkaNNan nINmalarp paadham paravip peRRa thodunkaa losiyu midai,iLa maansenRa soozhkadamE. [Back]

vaaraa yinamulai yaaLivaL vaanOr thalaimaganaam, sEraa yinatheyva nannO yithu,dheyvath thaNNandhuzhaayth thaaraa yinumthazhai yaayinum thaNkomba thaayinumkIzh vEraa yinum,n^inRa maNNaayi NnumkoNdu vIsuminE. [Back]

naanilam vaaykkoNdu nannI raRamenRu kOthukoNda, vEnilaNY chelvan suvaiththumizh paalai, kadanthaponnE! kaaln^ilan^ thOyndhuviN NOr_thozhum kaNNanveq kaavudhu_amboon^ thEniLaNY chOlaiyap paaladhu,ep paalaikkum sEmaththathE. [Back]

oNNuthal maamai oLipaya vaamai, viraindhun^anthEr naNNuthal vENdum valava! kadaakinRu, thEnn^avinRa vaNmuthal naayagan nILmudi veNmuththa vaasigaiththaay maNmudhal sErvuRRu, aruvisey yaan^iRkum maamalaikkE. [Back]

kombaar thazhaikai siRun^aa NeRivilam vEttaikoNdaat tambaar kaLiRu vinavuva thaiyar_puL LUrumkaLvar thambaa ragaththenRu maadaa thanadhammil kUdaadhana vambaar vinaachcholla vO,emmai vaiththathiv vaanpunaththE? [Back]

vaNduga LO!vammin nIrppU nilappU maraththiloNpU, uNdukaLiththuzhal vIrkkon Ruraikkiyam, EnamonRaay maNthuga Laadivai kundhaman NnaaLkuzhal vaayviraipOl viNdugaL vaarum, malaruLa vOn^um viyalidaththE? [Back]

pulakkuN dalappuNda rIkaththa pOrkkoNdai, valliyonRaal vilakkuN dulaakinRu vElvizhik kinRana, kaNNan kaiyaal malakkuN damutham surandha maRikadal pOnRavaRRaal kalakkuNda naanRukaN daar,emmai yaarum kazhaRalarE. [Back]

maippadi mEniyum sendhaa maraikkaNNum vaithigarE, meyppadi yalun thiruvadi sUdum thagaimaiyinaar, eppadi yUra milaikkak kuruttaa milaikkumennum appadi yaanumson NnEn,adi yEnmaRRu yaathenbanE? [Back]

ezhuvathum mINdE paduvathum pattu,enai yUzhigaLpOyk kazhivathum kaNdukaN deLkalal laal,imai yOr_kaLkuzhaam thozhuvathum sUzhvathum seythollai maalaikkaN NaarakkaNdu kazhivathOr kaathaluR Raarkkum,uN dOkaNgaL thuncuthalE? [Back]

yaathaanu mOraak kaiyilpukku,aNG kaappuNdum aappavizhndhum mUthaavi yilthadu maaRum uyirmunna mE,athanaal yaathaanum paRRin^ING kumvira thatthain^al vIduseyyum maathaa vinaippithu vai,thiru maalai vaNanguvanE. [Back]

4. Tiruvasiriyam

[Text] ‘Tiruvasiriyam’ is a poem of 71 lines in seven unequal sections, the first of fifteen lines, the second, third, fourth and seventh of nine lines each, the fifth and the sixth of ten lines each.

The first fifteen lines of the poem speak of the glory of the Lord as he reclines on the primordial serpent, Adi Sesha (the first servitor):

Like a glowing emerald hill, red-veined, Clothed in a bright, red cloud, Wearing on its crest the fiery sun And the cool white moon and the stars, Reclining on the waves of the sea, Thou dost rest aware, O Supreme Lord incomparable, On the primordial serpent Whose poison-hoods bend down, Thou dost recline, With ruby lips and lotus eyes, Wearing a cloth of red gold, A diadem and countless jewels, Worshipped with folded hands By Siva, Brahma, Indra, And all the gods, O Thou with the lotus navel And feet that measured the three worlds. [1] The second nine lines are an address to God, telling Him that the wise will never, for the sake of the pleasures of the earth, give up the sweetness of yearning for Him:

O Lord, Creator, O Thou who takest into Thyself All the worlds, Will they who are clear-eyed and wise Give up the honey-sweet, Nectarean flood That springs and flows from love of Thee, Give up turning to Thy shining, ankleted feet In an ecstasy of yearning, spirit melting? No. Let them who savour The things of the earth cling to them. But will the wise Ever look at the gift of deathless strength, Or of the three worlds, and all their riches, Even of the House Eternal, Offering freedom absolute, And give up the infinite sweet of longing for Thee? [2] The third section of the poem refers in vivid details to the ‘puranic’ story of the churning of the milky sea by Lord Narayana. Nammalvar asks of Him the boon to serve his devotees for ever and ever:

Of the three gods He who is supreme, To whom the world bows in worship, He whom the Vedas praise, Who sees that his writ runs true, He, the effulgent one, With the hooded serpent-king as rope, Whirled the mountain-churn in he sea; And waves mountainous rose Crashing thunderous, Far-flung over the deep, And the great hills shook in fear. He, the peerless one, Will He grant us the boon Of serving His devotees Aeon after aeon without a break, For ever and ever? [3] The fourth movement of the poem expresses Nammalvar’s desire to worship the Lord, the Creator, Origin of all tings and all life:

For ever and ever, without a break, Will it be given to us To turn in worship to Him Saying “All the glory to Thee”? When the worlds were not And no life anywhere, At the time of the dark void, He, the Origin of Origins, the primordial Seed Of all things that are, Put forth a sprout the four-faced Brahma From the lotus of His navel And gave us Siva and all the gods. The feet of this Transcendent One, This mystery, Will it be given to us To worship for ever and ever? [4] The fifth part describes ‘Trivikrama avatara’ and the way in which He measured with two foot-steps earth and sky and all the worlds, and ends with the question to whom else the world would bow in homage:

One foot poised, an inverted bud, Over all the earth And covering it, spreading over it, Burgeoning into a cosmic flower, The other foot flashing out to fill the sky, The world of Brahma Wondering and rejoicing, and all the gods In proper order worshipping. He, the Great Origin, stood, a riot of lotuses, With eyes like flowers and rosy fruit-lips, With His thousand crowns, a thousand suns and moons, His thousand arms Kalpaka [5] groves numberless. To whom but to this Infinite One Will the world bow in homage? [6] The next section speaks of how the world in its foolishness is indifferent to its Creator and Sustainer and is drawn into the mire of the senses:

Oh, but what a world! When the mother that gave it birth Is at hand, It pours ablution on a piece of dead wood. He who created, lifted, Took in and spat out the worlds, He, the knower, the provider, The Primal Cause, the Transcendent, When He is Waiting, To turn to various other gods, To revel in perverse blindness and parade it, To kill, and to sink in unrighteous deeds, And get caught in the endless web, The dark of the senses, To wallow in it, Oh, what a world! [7] The last part of the poem refers to ‘Pralaya’, the day of dissolution, when all the worlds and all the gods and everything are drawn into Him:

The god with the cold moon On his matted locks, And the god, four-faced, And the chief of the Devas, Bright as a tendril, Earth, the waters, fire, air, The sky with the flaming sun and the moon, All the worlds, all life and everything Were drawn into Him, He kept them hidden within Him And lay on a banyan leaf, He, the infinite mystery, Will we turn ever To any god but to Him? [8] The poem, though short, is rich in imagery and reveals Nammalvar’s imagination lighting up ‘puranic’ lore and his abiding faith in the great mystery that God is.

NOTES

1. Tiruvasiriyam, lines 1-15.

sekkarmaa mugiluduththu mikka senchudarp parithisoodi, anchudar mathiyam pooNdu palasudar punaintha pavaLach chevvAy thigazhpasuNY chOthi maragathak kunRam kadalOn kaimisaik kaNvaLar vathupOl pIthaga aadai mudipooN muthalaa mEthagu palkalan aNinthu, sOthi vaayavum kaNNavum sivappa, mIthittup pachchai mEni migappa kaippa nachchuvinaik kavar_thalai aravinamaLi yERi eRikadaln^aduvuL aRithuyil amarnthu sivaniya Nninthiran ivarmudha lanaiththOr theyvak kuzhaangaL kaithozhak kidantha thaamarai yunthith thanipperu naayaga moovula kaLantha sEvadi yOyE! [Back] 2. Tiruvasiriyam, lines 16-24.

ulagupadaith thuNda enthai, aRaikazhal sudarppoon^ thaamarai sooduthaRku, avaavaa ruyirugi yukka,nEriya kaathal anbi linpIn thERal, amudha veLLath thaanaam siRappuvittu, oruporutku asaivOr asaiga, thiruvodu maruviya iyaRkai, maayaap peruviRa lulagam moonRi Nnodun^alvIdu peRinum, koLvatheNNumO theLLiyOr kuRippE? [Back] 3. Tiruvasiriyam, lines 25-33.

kuRippil koNdu neRippada, ulagam moonRudan vaNangu thOnRupugazh aaNai meypeRa nadaaya theyvam moovaril muthalva Nnaagi, sudarviLaNG kakalaththu varaipurai thiraipora peruvarai veruvara, urumural olimali naLir_kadaR padavara varasudal thadavarai suzhaRRiya, thanimaath theyvath thadiyavark kinin^aam aaLaagavE isaiyungol, oozhithO RoozhiyO vaathE? [Back] 4. Tiruvasiriyam, lines 34-42.

oozhithO Roozhi Ovaathu vaazhiyE! enRu yaamthozha isaiyuNG kollO, yaavagai yulagamum yaavaru millaa, mElvarum perumpaazhk kaalaththu, irumporut kellaa marumpeRal thaniviththu, oruthaan aagith theyva naanmugak kozhumuLai InRu, mukkaN Isanodu thEvupala nuthalimU vulagam viLaiththa unthi, maayak kadavuL maamutha ladiyE? [Back] 5. A tree in Swarga, the region of the immortal Devas, supposed to grant all one’s wishes. [Back]

6. Tiruvasiriyam, lines 43-52.

maamuthal adippO thonRukavizhth thalarththi, maNmuzhuthum agappaduththu, oNsudar adippOthu onRuviN selI_i, naanmugap puththEL naaduviyan^ thuvappa, vaanavar muRaimuRai vazhipada neRI_i, thaamaraik kaadu malarkkaN NOdu kanivaa yudaiyathu maay_iru naayiRaa yirammalarn^ thanna kaRpagak kaavu paRpala vanna mudithO Laayiram thazhaiththa nediyOyk kallathum adiyathO vulagE? [Back] 7. Tiruvasiriyam, lines 53-62.

O_O! ulagina thiyalvE InRO Lirukka maNain^I raatti, padaiththidan^ thuNdumizhn^ thaLanthu, thErnthula kaLikkum muthaRperuNG kadavuL niRpa pudaippala thaanaRi theyvam pENuthal, thanaadhu pullaRi vaaNmai porunthak kaatti, kolvana muthalaa allana muyalum, inaiya seygai yinbu thunbaLi thonmaa maayap piRaviyuL nIngaa panmaa maayath thazhunthumaa naLirnthE. [Back] 8. Tiruvasiriyam, lines 63-71.

naLirmadhich chadaiyanum naanmugak kadavuLum thaLiroLi yimaiyavar thalaivanum muthalaa, yaavagai yulagamum yaavarum agappada, nilan^Ir thIgaal sudariru visumbum malarsudar piRavum siRithudan mayanga, oruporuL puRappaa dinRi muzhuvathum agapppadak karanthu_Or aalilaich chErnthavem perumaa maayanai yalladhu, orumaa theyvammaR RudaiyamO yaamE? [Back]

5. Periya Tiruvantati

[Text] `Periya Tiruvantati’ (periya tiru antAdi) is a poem of eighty-seven stanzas, each stanza a venba, a special kind of four-lined verse in Tamil. Why the poem is called Periya Tiruvantati has been already explained.

To trace a definite logical link between stanza and stanza the poem will be difficult, perhaps unprofitable, though theology may desire and has attempted it. Each stanza may be considered as an independent lyric, and each is a gem, revealing one mood or state of being of Nammalvar. All the stanzas are connected, however, by association resulting from singleness of theme which is the love of God, and the trials, the failures and the successes of that journey of love.

Quite a number of verses in the poem are addressed by Nammalvar to his own heart. Here are some of them and it will be seen that they express different moods ranging from stern disapproval and misgiving to elation. The first is an invitation by the Alvar to his heart to join him in praising God:

Why, my heart, Labouring under your burden, Why do you still run ahead of me? Come, tarry a little, join me. Together we will fashion Words running soft and sweet on the tongue, Words of praise to Him Who is dark as the Kaya 1 flower. 2 Alvar wonders at his own greed in trying to reach God.

What are we before the gods, The eight Vasus, The eleven Rudras, And the twelve suns Who worship Him? To think of reaching Him indeed, What a sin! Do you realize, my good heart, How over-weening our greed is? 3 The Alvar feels worried over his wayward heart:

Who is it who ever tries To push me deep and deeper into sorrow and suffering? It is you, my heart, What is the good of advising you? Wayward, irascible, you would never listen to me. Come, turn in praise to His feet. There, that is what we should do. 4 The Alvar encourages his heart telling it that words of praise to God, however weak, will not lessen His infinitude:

Learn this first, my heart. He reclines aware, eyes closed, on the sea, The loud waves caressing His feet. You can sing His praise again and again. Brushing aside our miseries. Do you imagine, foolish one, Our paltry words will erode His greatness? 5 The Alvar pleads with his heart to speak of God always even if it were in mockery:

There is not a moment to rest, my heart. You could speak of Him in dispraise, Laughing if you like At the Lord of Mystery, He of the sweet tulasi wreath, At how he was beaten By a woman of the cowherds. You hang back even from that. That is your curse. 6 The Alvar is distressed that divine grace has not reached him:

His Grace lifted high the Govardhana hill To protect even the mute cows. 7 How comes it then That He does not relent, Does not reveal His form Though I stand begging all day, every day? Is the earth where we stand So steep, my heart, That even his Grace cannot flow upward here? 8 The world of man is sweet,’ says the Alvar, but far sweeter the world of God’:

Sweet are the days of friendship, Sweet one’s family branching wide, Sweet is the love of kinsmen, Sweet are the uses of noble birth. Yet, my good heart, Do taste the limitless sweet of His praise, He whose divine bow is ever bent To protect those who love Him. 9 The poem ends with an appeal to the heart that it should ever try to dwell on His praise. It seems however, that as he confesses early in the poem, the Alvar did succeed in persuading his straying heart to walk the straight and narrow path:

Yea, we have agreed, my heart and I. We have beaten with the Grace Of our Lord dark-hued, All our evil Karma And driven it into the wild. 10 There are moving direct appeals to God in the poem:

Tell us, Lord. What thou dost think Of doing to us? Wilt Thou say “Go your way” And forsake us? Or wilt Thou reveal to us Thy form darkly bright as a mango tendril? We do not know, We have not known from the beginning of time What dost thou think of doing to us. Whatever Thy will Will we not endure it? 11 The Alvar feels helpless lacking the will to follow the right:

What is it that I can do, my Lord? I see what is good and what is evil, But it is beyond me To follow the one and give up the other. Whatever am I to do? 12 Knowing that God is beyond him, the Alvar’s love still goes out to Him:

O Lord, whose infinite good is a heady drink, O Thou too subtle to be seen by us, Sinners that we are, We know neither the way to Thee Nor how to near Thee. Yet our love for Thee flows, a rising tide, Tell us how or why. 13 The Alvar asks of God only one boon, not to forget Him:

O Lord, infinite in Thy glory, I have ripened and lost myself In Thy grace, Do not change, I pray Thee. I do not desire freedom from birth, Nor to be Thy servitor in Heaven. All the wealth I want Is not to forget Thee. 14 Though in many places in the poem, Nammalvar speaks of the suffering and apparently unavailing nature of his quest, there are verses that indicate the joy of fulfilment:

When I see The poovai, the kaya, the neelam and the kavi flowers, Unworthy though I be, My weak spirit and my body thrill and grow In pride and joy That all these are but the Lord’s form. 15 This is enough,’ Nammalvar says, To love Him is more precious to me than even the Heaven that is His final gift.’ 16

Who is more worthy of praise than I? Whose praise is greater? I have given my heart wholly away To the Lord, dark as the sea, To His infinite, dark glory and grace. 17 This love of his has been, Nammalvar records, amply rewarded. He has come into my heart,’ the Alvar cries, There is nothing more to wish for’:

He the divine cowherd So distant from us, He who changes his form so, That no one can near Him, He the infinite mystery Who on that distant day Measured the worlds with His feet, Has today come to me. How, I do not know, And life is Passing sweet. 18 The Alvar wonders who is greater, he or God:

The earth and the far-flung sky Are within Thee. But Thou hast entered through the ear Into my heart and remainest there ever. Think of it, Lord of the discus That savours the blood of evil ones, Who can know who is greater, Thou or I? 19 In range and in moving quality, Periya Tiruvantati' is almost an epitome of the Alvar's magnum opus, Tiruvaymoli’.

NOTES

1 A dark blue wild-flower. [Back]

2 Periya Tiruvantati 1.

muyaRRi sumanthezhunthu munthuRRa neNYchE, iyaRRuvaay emmodun^ee koodi,-nayappudaiya naaveen thodaikkiLavi yuLpothivOm, naRpoovaip pooveenRa vaNNan pugazh [Back] 3 Periya Tiruvantati 10.

irunNaalvar eerainthin mEloruvar, ettO torun^aalvar Oriruvar allaal, thirumaaRku yaamaar vaNakkamaar Epaavam nanneNYchE naamaa migavudaiyOm naazh? [Back] 4 ibid. 12.

neeyanRE aazhthuyaril veezhvippaan ninRuzhanRaay? pOyonRu solliyen? pOnNeNYchE,-neeyenRum kaazhththupathE samtharinum kaikoLLaay, kaNNan thaaL vaazhththuvathE kaNdaay vazhakku. [Back] 5 ibid. 15.

paarththOr ethirithaa neNychE, paduthuyaram pErththOthap peedazhivaam pEchchillai,-aarththOtham thammEni thaaLthadavath thaaNGkidanthu, thammudaiya semmEnik kaNvaLarvaar seer. [Back] 6 ibid. 38. The allusion is to how Yasoda, mother of Krishna, punished Him for His childish pranks.

paalaazhi neekidakkum paNpai, yaam kEttEyum kaalaazhum neNYchazhiyum kaNchuzhalum,-neelaazhich sOthiyaay! aathiyaay! tholvinaiyem paalkadiyum, neethiyaay! niRsaarnthu ninRu. [Back] 7 In Krishna avatara. [Back]

8 Periya Tiruvantati 74.

enRum orun^aaL ozhiyaamai yaaniranthaal, onRum iraNGkaar urukkaattaar,-kunRu kudaiyaaga aakaaththa kOvalanaar, n^eNYchE! pudaithaan perithE puvi. [Back] 6 ibid. 78.

thuNain^aaL perunkiLaiyum tholkulamum, suRRath thiNain^aaLu minpudaiththaa mElum, kaNain^aaNil Ovaath thozhilsaarNGkan tholseerai n^anneNYchE, Ovaatha vooNaaka uN. [Back] 10 ibid. 26.

yaanumen NneNYchum isainthozhinthOm, valvinaiyaik kaanum malaiyum pugakkadivaan,-thaanOr iruLanna maamEni emmiRaiyaar than^tha, aruLennum thaNdaal adiththu. [Back] 11 Periya Tiruvantati 6.

neRikaatti neekkuthiyO, ninpaal karumaa muRimEni kaattuthiyO, mEnaaL-aRiyOmai enseyvaa NneNNinaay kaNNanE, eethuraiyaay enseythaa lenpadOm yaam? [Back] 12 ibid. 3.

ivaiyanRE nalla ivaiyanRE theeya, ivaiyen RivaiyaRiva NnElum,-ivaiyellaam ennaal adaippun^eek koNNaa thiRaiyavanE, ennaal seyaRpaala then? [Back] 13 ibid. 8.

arugum suvadum therivuNarOm, anbE perugum migavithuven? pEseer,-parugalaam paNpudaiyeer! paaraLantheer! paaviyEmkaN kaaNpariya nuNpudaiyeer nummai numakku. Another interpretation is that God’s love for man is ever-growing. [Back] 14 ibid. 58.

maalE! padichchOthi maaRREl, iniyunathu paalEpOl seeril puzhuththozhinthEn,-mElaal piRappinmai peRRadikkeezhk kuRREva lanRu, maRappinmai yaanvENdum maadu. [Back] 15 Periya Tiruvantati 73.

poovaiyum kaayaavum neelamum pookkinRa, kaavi malarenRum kaaNthORum, paaviyEn mellaavi meymigavE poorikkum, avvavai ellaam piraanuruvE enRu. [Back] 16 ibid. 53.

onRuNdu seNGkaNmaal! yaanuraippathu, unnadiyaark kenseyva NnenRE yiriththin^ee,-ninpugazhil vaikumtham sinthaiyilum maRRinithO, neeyavarkku vaikuntha menRaruLum vaan? [Back] 17 ibid 4.

ennin migupugazhaar yaavarE, pinnaiyummaR ReNNil migupugazhEn yaanallaal,-enna karuNYchOthik kaNNan kadalpuraiyum, seelap perunchOthik kennenchaat peRRu? [Back] 18 ibid. 56.

varavaaRon Rillaiyaal vaazhvinithaal, ellE! oruvaa Roruvan pugavaaRu,-urumaaRum aayavardhaam sEyavardhaam anRulagam thaayavardhaam, maayavardhaam kaattum vazhi. [Back] 19 ibid. 75.

puviyum iruvisumpum n^inakaththa, n^eeyen seviyin vazhipugunthen NnuLLAy,-avivinRi yaanperiyan n^eeperiyai enpathanai yaaraRivaar, oonparuku n^Emiyaay! uLLu. [Back]