SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: Sri varavaramunayE nama:
periyAzhwAr thirumozhi >> Second Centum >> First decad
avathArikai (Introduction)
thiruvAimozhip piLLai, in his svApadhESam, says that the one, who is the reason for the sustenance of herd-folk, is showing appUchchi.
kAyu nIr pukkuk kadambERik kALiyan
thIya paNaththil silambu Arkkap pAyndhAdi
vEyin kuzhal Udhi viththaganAy ninRa
Ayan vandhu appUchchi kAttuginRAn ammanE! appUchchi kAttuginRAn
Word-by-Word Meanings
kAyum – boiling due to the fire of kALiyan’s [a snake’s] poison
nIr – water in the river
pukku – entered
kadambu Eri – got atop a kadamba tree [Indian oak] nearby
kALiyan – the snake, kALiyan’s
thIya – cruel
paNaththil – on the hoods
silambu – anklets on the divine feet
Arkka – to make a resounding noise
pAyndhu – jumped
Adi – indulged in dance
vEyin kuzhal – bamboo flute
Udhi – played
viththaganAy ninRa – one who stood as an amazing entity
Ayan – kaNNan, who was born in the clan of herd-folk, is showing appUchchi
ammanE! – oh, my! He is showing appUchchi
Simple Translation
kALiyan, a poisonous snake, had taken residence in a river. With the fire of his poison, he had made the water in the river to boil. krishNa got atop a nearby Indian oak tree and jumped onto the cruel hoods of kALiyan and danced such that the ankles on his divine feet were making a resounding noise. That krishNa, who was born in the clan of herdfolk, and an amazing person, is showing appUchchi. Oh, my, he is showing appUchchi.
vyAkhyAnam (Commentary)
kAyu nIr pukku – krishNa entered the river, not considering that it was boiling due to the effect of snake kALiyan’s poison, which was making nearby trees and hovering birds to fall down dead. Just as it has been mentioned in periya thirumozhi 4-10-3 “kaduvidam udaiya kALiyan thadaththaik kalakki” (agitating the waters where kALiyan, with cruel poison, was resting), he agitated the water such that kALiyan came out in anger.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that the river water was like nectar, earlier. It was after the entry of kALiyan, due to fear of garuda, that the water became poisonous like this.
kadambERi – a nearby oak tree had become withered due to the effect of that poison. With his glance, krishNa made that tree to become verdant and got atop it.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that the oak tree was earlier cool and verdant; however, due to the effect of kALiyan’s poison, it had withered. nanjIyar, one of our preceptors, asked his AchAryan [preceptor], parASara bhattar, “If it had withered, how did it tolerate when krishNa stepped on it?” bhattar responded, saying “Since the one who climbed on it had looked at it with his merciful glance, it got rid of the fault that it had to endure on account of the poison, and returned to its verdant state”. For one who converted a forest of thorny bushes into meadows for grazing cows, is this a hurdle?
Again, periyavAchchAn piLLai used to quote the following, having been mercifully said by his AchAryan, nampiLLai – “His divine feet gave life to the lifeless form of uththarA’s son [abhimanyu’s son and arjuna’s grandson]. With those divine feet, if he were to climb a tree, wouldn’t a withered tree turn back to its previous verdant form?” Those divine feet had given life to a stone, converting it to a lady [reference is to ahalyA, wife of sage gauthama, who came out of her curse when SrI rAma’s divine feet stepped on her]. For such feet, is this a wonder? It could be said that it was after looking at the way that krishNa danced that the rules and regulations of bharatha SAsthra [art of dancing] were framed.
kALiyan … – the hoods of kALiyan had become cruel on account of the poison which they contained. krishNa jumped onto those hoods [from the oak tree] and danced on them to such an extent that the hoods cracked, blood started coming out of mouth due to which he became wizened and he surrendered to krishNa.
vEy … – people in thiruvAyppAdi, on seeing and hearing about this, started running towards the river, many of them falling in fear on the wayside, due to their affection for krishNa. krishNa played on the flute in his divine hands, made these people to get up in comfort and live in joy. Due to this superhuman activity [of dancing on the cruel hoods of snake kALiyan], he stood as an amazing entity.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that it was after listening to his playing the flute that not only the herd-women and herd-men regained consciousness, even AzhwAr regained his consciousness. Not only they, even those who were wondering “Who is he?” also came back to life. viththaganAy ninRa – this refers to krishNa being the cause for the clan of herd-folks. It refers to one, who had the skill to drive away kALiyan from the river such that cows, calves, herd-men, herd-women, without fear, could go and drink water from that river, whenever they wanted.
Ayan – irrespective of whatever he does, he does not sway from his quality of being a herd-clan person. Such a person is showing appUchchi.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that despite carrying out all the activities, it is because he did not deviate from the appropriate qualities of the herd-clan that instead of calling him by his name [kaNNan], AzhwAr is referring to the clan [Ayan]. Alternatively, it could be considered as vAyan, the divine mouth which played on the flute.
ammanE! – ammanE is the world expressed with fear, upon seeing krishNa with the divine AzhwArs on his divine hands.
We shall next consider the 4th pAsuram of this thirumozhi.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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