Source: TW
An anecdote by the late Ki. Va. Jagannathan on his legendary guru, shrI U. Ve Swaminatha Iyer, who literally knocked on thousands of home doors in TN to obtain the sangam manuscripts in precarious states, decipher & publish them in printed form before they could be lost forever.
Since he is in the position of an AcArya, it is not wrong to pay reverence to him as a mANuSya-matsyadeva who revived the veda from the ocean-bed. shrI Ki. Va Ja’s anecdote gives an insight into his character as well. A picture of U. Ve Sa reading his obtained manuscripts.
shrI Ki. Va Ja speaks of how his guru (shrI U. Ve Sa) would take a morning walk around the shiva temple (tiruvETTIshvarar at Chepauk) & on his way back home, he will buy idlis from the old lady at the street corner for the Rickshaw riders! As he bought the idlis for the rickshaw riders who would crowd around him to ask him to buy for them, the old lady would say to him, “magarAsan nallA irukkanam” (maharAja (a term of affection) should be well/happy).
Born as a bhUSaNa of the aSTasahasra division of the tamizh smArta brAhmaNas, he studied tamizh under the great vidvAn, shrI mInAkSI sundaram piLLai & was very close to many of the shaiva maThas. Endowed with both knowledge & godliness, he manifested immeasurable tejas.
One can only hope that his legacy continues to inspire tamizh people to pursue that old, great tamizh heritage of scholarship combined with devotion; intellectual refinement as part & parcel of spiritual edification. Unfortunately, the less said about this hope, the better.
Ingratitude
The best way (for tamizh Hindus) to show your gratitude to shrI U. Ve Sa’s legendary efforts is to read the sangam texts he struggled so much to retrieve & revive for posterity; even giving commentaries for a few.
We are so lucky to have these texts online. For free. But what does the average tamizh youth do? Especially those with proper homes & decent facilities. Garbage movies; degenerate TV shows….168 hours in a week & not even 3 or even just 2 can be spent for reading.
At least in TN, Tamizh children should have been given an education that enriches them with knowledge & an appreciation of such luminaries & legends as role-models.
It was the evil genius of the Dravidianists to not only destroy the communities which historically contributed to the edification of the tamizh mind & intellect but also destroy any inclination whatsoever of all tamizhs to learn transforming a whole race into a profoundly anti-intellectual, cinema-loving, alcohol-addicted, retarded human baboons.
Speaking of the legend’s works; his blood, sweat & tears (that is, tears of joy at finding those precious manuscripts), they are all here:
- If you are blessed enough to be able to read daiva (godly) tamizh, please honor him by at least checking it out. Source: TW
- As list in previous link doesn’t contain all of his sangam publications, I link them here, individually. Most important imho is the puRa-nAnURu (“outer” 400; ‘puRam’ in tamizh means “outer”, referring to themes like war, cattle raids, kingly feasts, etc): Source: TW
- The kuRuntokai (kuRu-short, tokai-collection), like the puRanAnURu, is one of the “eight collections” (eTTu-tokai), a body of works in sangam literature: https://archive.org/details/Tamil-Kuruntokai-U-Ve-Sa-1st-edition-1937
- The ainkuRunURu (aiG/ain–five, kuRu-short, nURu-hundred; five short hundreds, five hundred short poems), another of the “eight collections”: https://archive.org/details/book-tamil-ainkurunuru-u-ve-sa-4th-edn-1949
- paripATal (One of the most important of the eight collections and contains a significant number of songs for skanda (addressed as murugan) & viSNu (addressed as tirumAl): https://archive.org/details/paripaadal
- patiRRupattu-Ten tens, last of the 8 collections: A collection of 100 poems; unfortunately, the 1st & last 10 have been lost forever. The entire work is dedicated to the glorification of the chera dynasty. U. Ve Sa revived this unique & priceless work: https://archive.org/details/PathirruPaththu
Apart from the eight collections, there is another body of sangam texts called the pattu-pATTu (ten songs). Will link later the ones which shrI U. Ve. Sa published with commentaries. shubharAtri.
1st of the pattupATTu, tirumurukARRuppaTai of shrI nakkIrar. (Unique sangam work that is included in the 11th book of the tirumuRai, the tamizh shaiva canon). https://archive.org/details/ThiruTamilMurugaaRRuppadaiUVeSa3rdEdn1931
2nd of the pattupATTu, porunarARRuppaTai, again with the commentary of madurai-Asiriyar bhAradvAji naccinArkkiniyAr (a bhAradvAja gotra brAhmaNa of madurai who was devoted to shiva & is the one & only classical commentator of many of the sangam texts): https://archive.org/details/TamilPorunaaRRuppadaiUVeSa3rdEdn1931
3rd of the pattupATTu: siRupAnARRuppaTai: https://archive.org/details/Tamil-Sirupaanaatruppadai/ 4th of the pattupATTu: perumpAnARRupaTai: archive.org/details/Tamil-… 5th of the pattupATTu: mullaipATTu: archive.org/details/mullai… 6th of the pattupATTu: maduraikkAnci: archive.org/details/TamilM… Tamil Maduraikkanchi U Ve Sa 3rd Edn 1931 : m kamalakannan : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Maduraikkanchi, Maduraikkaanji, https://archive.org/details/TamilMaduraikkanchiUVeSa3rdEdn1931 7th pattupATTu: neTunalvATai (Long, good breeze)-In the pretext of love poetry, it takes one on a tour, describing, supposedly, among other things, the pANDya king neTu~nchezhiyan’s palace & referring to yavana-made female statues in the queen’s chamber!! archive.org/details/TamilN… Tamil Nedunalvadai : m kamalakannan : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Nedunalvadai of Tamil Sangam literature Pattuppattu https://archive.org/details/TamilNedunalvadai/ 8th of the pattupATTu: kurincipATTu: archive.org/details/Kurinj… 9th of the pattupATTu: paTTinappAlai: archive.org/details/Pattin… Pattinappalai : m kamalakannan : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive tamil sangam classic pattinappalai https://archive.org/details/Pattinappalai 10th & last book of the pattupATTu: malaipaTukaTAm: archive.org/details/dli.jZ… பத்துப்பாட்டினுள் பத்தாவதாகிய மலைபடுகடாம் : மூலமும் உரையும் : நச்சினார்கினியர் : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Source: Tamil Digital LibraryBook ID: jZY9lup2kZl6TuXGlZQdjZhek0Qy https://archive.org/details/dli.jZY9lup2kZl6TuXGlZQdjZhek0Qy.TVA_BOK_0004284/