It gives us great pleasure to place before the Sanskrit-loving public the first part of a fine classical poem in praise of the All-India revered Rangji in the ancient and holy shrine of Srirangam. The Sri Vaishnava community, of which the author Sri Parasara Bhattar is a most revered guru, has not during the past eight centuries cared to broadcast this exquisitely fine poem by publishing it in the Nagari.
Sri Vedanta Desikar, a great Indian poet, whose poetic genius had to be revealed and published to the world by Sri Appayya Dikshitar, the leader of a different religious school, by writing, on the command of his Sovereign, a wonderfully critical and appreciative commentary of his long Mahakavya of 24 Cantos, was a great admirer of Parasara’s poetry, so much so that he took pride in saying that his diction took after the manner of the son of Kuresa which was the name of Bhattar’s learned and holy father.
Born to a large fortune in and around the village of Kuram six miles from Conjeevaram, the father was reputed as the Alwar of Kuram on account of his extraordinary piety comparable only to that of the Alwars immersed in perpetual devotion. He was a contemporary and a close relation of Sri Ramanuja and was an ocean of Sanskrit learning. Both the father and [[ii]] the son were deeply read in the Vyakarana of which they were masters.
The father’s poems known as the Panchastavas are exquisitely fine songs of rapturous devotion and the flow of the learned Sanskrit diction is something marvellous. Bhattar kept to his father’s model and Desikar kept to the model of both. The poetry of all the three Acharyas is classical and cannot fail to command an universal appeal. The poetry and the language are of a high order and afford exquisite enjoyment to the Sanskrit scholar.
Kuresa became a devoted disciple of Sri Ramanuja and migrated with him to Srirangam and settled there with his family. His descendants still live there in the old stone Thirumaligais and hold the hereditary connections with the temple starting from the days of their ancestor Kuresa. Bhattar calls himself the Purohit of Rangji.
Kuresa wrote a long Mahakavya on Lord Krishna known as Yamakaratnakaram and he also wrote a very learned commentary on it himself. The commentary contains a wealth of interesting grammatical discussions in defence of the author’s use of words supported by quotations from books on grammar not now available. Although the poet laboured under the severe constraint of the relentless rules of Yamaka, the [[iii]] poem is of a fairly easy flow and rich in ideas. It will compare even favourably with the Nalodayam which is a great production, and is passionately admired by its English metrical translator.
It is recorded of Kuresa that sternly refusing to budge an inch from the asseveration of the supremacy of his own Deity he cheerfully submitted to the penalty of the deprivation of his eyes in those troublous days of intolerant fanaticism and cruel persecution for the holding of religious opinions contrary to those of the powers that be.
Kuresa predeceased Ramanuja and his infant son was brought up under the immediate eye of the Holy Acharya who foresaw the great Spiritual promise in the child and bestowed his personal attention on him. The education of the child was entrusted to a scholarly disciple of the guru known as Govindacharya or Embar. Bhattar died very prematurely at an age below thirty-five but his short life was one of strenuous spiritual and literary work.
His aesthetic sense was perfect. His daily oral expositions of the songs of the Alwars in Rangji’s temple attracted large concourses of learned disciples and other hearers. He is reputed to have been so beside himself with rapture during the preaching time that a long surgical operation for a carbuncle on [[IV]] his back was performed then without his being aware of it.(5)
His wonderfully rapturous learned and fascinating exposition of a song of Thirumangai Alwar on that famous day, which has been recorded, is a wonderful book in itself, the like of which it will be difficult to find in any language.(5) The gist of his expositions of the Alwars’ Prabhandams has been faithfully and excellently recorded by his Apostollic successors in Sanskri to Tamil language known as Manipravalam and commands the admiration of all readers.
Bhattar has also written an excellent commentary on the Vishnu Sahasranamam interpreting each of the thousand names in a logical sequence and the string of 1000 names as a connected whole. The exposition of each name is charming and is supported by a wealth of quotations from various sources. The book had the good fortune to be printed very excellently by the Venkateswara Press in Bombay and is therefore known and respected universally.
The long prose introduction to the book attests to the author’s greatness as master of Sanskrit Prose. His prose is just after the manner of the great Vachaspathi Misra.
Various other works of the author are referred to there, but they are not now available. His unfinished work of Tattvaratnakaram is quoted frequently by Desikar, but nothing remains of the work beyond the fragmentary quotations.
The Vaishnava community with its proverbial exclusiveness, its genius being mainly for needless and often unseemly internecine feuds tearing the small community to pieces, has failed to do justice to these three great Poetic Heroes by publishing their works in Devanagari with critical commentaries bringing out the poetical charm and making them accessible to the entire Sanskrit world.
But for the appreciation of Desikar’s poetry by the Madras University which prescribed portions of the Yadavabhyudayaın and Hamsasandesa as text-books, Desikar’s poetry would not have been even as much known as it is now. Twelve Cantos of Yadavabhyudayam have still to be printed in Devanagari. A great service can be rendered to the cause of Sanskrit literature by publishing the poems of these three great authors with suitable annotations in Sanskrit and English by competent scholars. If the works are put before the Sanskrit-knowing Public, they are sure to become very popular.
Yamunacharya’s lovely lyric, the Stotraratna, attracted the attention of Dikshitar who quoted one sloka from it in his Kuvalayanandam. Panditharaja Jagannatha’s attention was drawn to the lyric when he read the Kuvalayanandam for writing his Rasagangadharam. His Karunalahari, one of the sweetest songs in the world’s literature, is out and out an echo of the Stotra [[vi]] ratna. The similarity in ideas, language and method are striking, and it can fairly be inferred that he fell in love knew it by heart.
The poem of Bhattar is with Yamuna’s Stotra and Almost every word in this pregnant with fine suggestions of lovely ideas. The language though learned is sweet. No pains have been spared to follow the poet’s mind and interpret it with all the charms meant by him. If our efforts have achieved any success in that direction, we most gratefully assign it to the saintly Poet’s Grace, which was visibly felt to flow in abundance.
This commentary was written years ago, and there has been great delay in its publication owing to the fact of our ‘ploughing a lonely furrow’ as observed by a distinguished sympathetic friend. The book was submitted to the critical examination of a great many eminent Pandits and commended universally as a true exposition of the poet’s mind. If the Sanskrit public would read this poem and the commentary and form their own estimate of the Acharya’s poetry, we should have found the full reward for our pains.
The deeply devotional song of Sri Sankara “Idam Hi Rangam” is recited as part of the daily prayer by his followers throughout the length and breadth of the country. The great author of the Nyayamritam dedicated the work [[vii]] to the Seshasayi at Srirangam. Desikar conceived Rangam as a celestial theatre for pious souls to dance with joy and also as a theatre for the dance of the Divine Muse, (Bharati Nritta Rangam).
Bhattar appears to have meant Sri Sankara’s Sloka “Idam Hi Rangam”, as conveying the idea of wonder at the Transcendental Innermost Ananda-God-Head beyond human ken in Its unbounded grace exhibiting itself before us as ‘This’ (IDAM). The fundamental ultimate of the Asmat-Pratyaya miraculously transforms itself into an Idam-Pratyaya. The subject in the overflow of grace makes itself an object for us mortals to see and enjoy. Desikar puts this forcibly in the words ‘The inner jyotis become seeable in Rangam’.
We cannot fail to acknowledge our deep debt of gratitude to the family of the late Doctor Raja Ramanatha Reddiar of Rangoon whose generous promise of patronage was fulfilled by them by making a substantial donation towards this publication, and we gratefully dedicate this book to the late Rajah’s memory. This publication had the peculiar fortune of recieving a donation from the Trustees of the Srirangam Temple from the Temple funds and we value it as a token of recognition by Sri Ranganatha Himself.
A. V. Gopalacharya.
Edition info
श्रीरङ्ग-राज-स्तवः ॥
श्रीपराशरभट्टार्यविरचितः गोपालाचार्यव्याख्यया सहितः
Srirangarajastava
of
SRI PARASARA BHATTAR
With a Sanskrit commentary
By
A. V. GOPALACHARYA M.A. B.L. Advocate, Trichinopoly.
DEDICATED TO
the memory of the late
RAJA RAMANATHA REDDIAR
of
RANGOON
THE SRINIVASA PRESS
TIRUVADI
1934
Price Rupee One.
शोधनिका ॥
पुट: पङ्क्तिः अशुद्धम् शुद्धम् Foreword vi 29 work Chandrika ८ २० ना मनुष्या नामनुष्याः ९ २४ मघ मेघ १२ २० शाय शायी १३ १५ तुप्दू तुष्टू १४ २३ प्यवमेव प्येवमेव १८ १८ गत्या गत्वा १९ १८ मुद्र मुद्रां २७ २३ न्याय्यः न्यायः ८३ १९ अनुश्रयास्म अनुत्रियास्म ८८ २० भगवतोऽपि भगवताऽपि ९५ २ तबुद्धया तुच्छबुद्धधा नन्दनस्य नन्दनस्थः 99 ड