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periyAzhwAr thirumozhi >> Second Centum >> Seventh decad
avathArikai (Introduction)
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says, in his svApadhESam, that in the previous pAsuram, AzhwAr mentioned about the removal of enmity which occurred for good, virtuous people, due to kamsan et al; in this pAsuram, he mentions about the removal of enmity that occurred due to hiraNya et al.
kudangaL eduththERa vittuk kUththAda valla em kOvE!
madam koL madhi mugaththArai mAl seyya valla en maindhA!
idandhittu iraNiyan nenjai iru piLavAga mun kINdAy!
kudandhaik kidandha em kOvE! kurukkaththip pUch chUtta vArAy
Word-by-Word Meanings
kudangaL – many pots
eduththu – carrying in the hands
ERa vittu – throwing in the sky
kUththu Ada valla – being an expert in dancing
em kOvE! – oh, one who is our lord!
madam koL – having ignorance
madhi mugaththArai – girls, who have their faces, which are cool, like full moon
mAl seyya valla – to make them infatuated
en maindhA! – oh, one who is my son!
mun – at an earlier time
iraNiyan – the monster hiraNya [kashyap]’s
nenjai – chest
idandhu – anchoring with divine nails
irup piLavAga – into two pieces
kINdAy! – oh, one who tore!
kudandhai– in thirukkudandhai [present day kumbakONam]
kidandha – mercifully reclining
em kOvE – oh, my lord!
kurukkaththip pU – you should come to don the kuruakkaththip pU [fragrant flower, also known as white fig or hiptage]
Simple Translation
Oh, one who is our lord, who is an expert in dancing with pots, by holding them in your hands as well as throwing them in the sky! Oh, my son, who is capable of making girls, who have cool faces like a full moon and who are ignorant, to be infatuated with you! Oh, one who tore, at an earlier point in time, the chest of monster hiraNya kashyap, into two pieces, with your divine nails! Oh, one who is reclining in thirukkudandhai! You should come and don the kurukkaththip pU.
vyAkhyAnam (Commentary)
kudangaL … – if brAhmaNas get excessive wealth, they will celebrate by conducting yagya, hOma [rituals, as mentioned in vEdhams] etc. Similarly, when herd-people get excessive wealth, they will celebrate, as an outlet for their pride, by performing kudakkUththu, dancing with pots. Unlike the wealth of the two vibhUthis [leelA vibhUthi, materialistic realm and nithya vibhUthi, spiritualistic realm], this wealth [as a herd-person] has been created after krishNa had incarnated. Wealth for herd-people is having abundance of cows. That wealth is available for krishNa, without any shortcoming. Since that wealth is only for him, he indulges in dancing with pots, as an outlet for that pride. While placing a stack of pots on the heads and shoulders, and carrying pots in the hands too, pots from the hand are thrown up in the sky and caught when they fall down. It is this, which has been mentioned through the term kudangaL eduththERa vittuk kUththAdavalla.
Instead of saying pot, since the pAsuram says pots [in plural number], this refers to dancing with many pots. Since it has been mentioned as eduththERavittu, krishNa will throw the pots from his divine hands into the sky and catch them when they fall down. Since the pAsuram says kUththAda valla, while there may be others who too could dance with pots, there is none who could dance as well as krishNa does. In other words, the movements which krishNa exhibits while dancing with the pots will not be seen in bharatha SAsthram [treatise on bharathanAtyam, a classical dance] too.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that when herd-people have excess wealth, as an outlet for their pride, they indulge in the dance called as kudakkUththu, dancing with pots. Since it is appropriate for krishNa, he being from that clan, he has to carry this out. Just as sandhyA vandhanam [paying obeisance to various entities during three times in a day] has been ordained for brAhmaNas, this [dancing with pots] is ordained for krishNa. Since the pAsuram says kudangaL [in the plural], he is carrying many pots. Eyes could see when a pot is removed for throwing up in the sky. While the eye could see objects up to a particular distance, the eye could not see the pot when it is thrown in the sky.
In the pAsuram, we have only seen the terms kudangaL eduththu (taking the pots in the hands) and ERa vittu (throwing them in the sky). But we haven’t seen “mINdERa vitta kudangaL thirukkaiyilEyum vandhadhu” (the pots which were thrown in the sky returned to the divine hands). While the pots were stacked on the divine head, while there was a movement of pots [between the hands and sky], since pots were stacked in the sky too, one could only guess that there has been a movement in this regard. Even if we could see those who go to svargam [heaven] return to earth, just as it has been said in bhagavath gIthA 9.21 “kshINE puNyE marthya lOkam viSanthi” (upon exhausting the results of their pious activities, people return to the mortal planet again), we could only guess that the pots which were thrown into the sky returned to krishNa’s hands.
kUththAda valla em kOvE – even if one could see the pots which were thrown up, returning to krishNa’s hands, the types of dances could not be fathomed. As far as dance is concerned, bharatha nAtya SAsthram is the boundary. But krishNa’s expertise goes beyond that. It could be said that he is the king of dances. In other words, he is the first to be counted, when it comes to expertise in dancing.
em kOvE – Oh, one who is our lord!
madam koL … – Oh, one who is my son, who is capable of making girls, who are ignorant and who have cool faces like full-moon, to become infatuated with you, through such activities!
For the verse madam koL madhi mugaththArai mAl seyya valla en maindhA, thiruvAimozhip piLLai says that in that place [SrI gOkulam], apart from men, old women and children, there were young girls, who were affected because of him [losing their hearts to him], being obedient to him, sitting in the place where he tells them to sit, and on seeing his divine face, without any trace of drooping, showing a cheerful face. Hence, they are referred to as madhi mugam. Oh, my son, who is capable of making them infatuated like this! maindhu – strength, youthfulness, childishness.
idandhittu … – the term nenju refers to chest. Due to the strength of the boons given by celestial entities, hiraNya’s chest had got strengthened further. Just as it has been mentioned in periya thirumozhi 1.7.2 “kolaikkaiyALan nenjidandha kUr ugirALan” (emperumAn has sharp divine nails with which he tore the chest of hiraNyan who was killing people with his hands, as his nature), oh, one who tore the chest of hiraNya at an earlier point of time, by ploughing it with your sharp divine nails! Through this, it says that emperumAn looks at weak people, just like he saved prahlAdhan [hiraNya’s son] from his danger.
Here, thiruvAimozhip piLLai says that emperumAn tore the chest of hiraNyan into two. mun refers to earlier point in time. Alternatively, it could be taken as tearing hiraNyan’s chest in front of prahlAdhan [here, mun would refer to ‘in the presence of’ or ‘in front of’]. nenju refers to chest. It is easy to tear the chest. AzhwAr says that emperumAn tore the heart, which does not have a form. There are those who explain that the meaning for the term uLam thottu is that emperumAn was analysing whether hiraNyan has become favourable towards him. In this case, it would be against hiraNyan’s earlier pledge [that there is no emperumAn, he is ISvaran and he would kill any other ISvaran, if existing]. What is the meaning for the term uLam thottu? The reason for the entity, who is omniscient, whose wish never goes waste and who is omnipotent to test hiraNyan’s heart is this: when hiraNyan saw the form of emperumAn as narasimha, his earlier pledge [of killing any other God] disappeared and he turned his back to run away from that place [in fear]. However, just as it has been mentioned in the verse “lOkathrayE sapathimAnusha simhagarbhE” [at that time, in all the worlds, the form of narasimha manifested], since the form of narasimha countered him wherever he ran, with his [hiraNya’s] pledge getting destroyed, emperumAn was finding out whether his enmity was still firm. In other words, just as it has been mentioned in periya thiruvandhAdhi 35 “anbudaiyan anRE avan” (emperumAn is one with affection), emperumAn felt hiraNyan’s heart to check if he had given up his enmity and was going to die without showing enmity. thiruvAimozhip piLLai says that it was not here that emperumAn felt hiraNyan’s heart. When hiraNya had carried out an offence against emperumAn in kshIrAbdhi (milky ocean) in an indirect manner, emperumAn had decided. If emperumAn had killed one who had given up enmity towards him, there will be a defect in emperumAn’s bravery. Apart from this, emperumAn had taken a pledge that “We will offer something to the celestial entities”. If he had let go of hiraNyan, just as he had harmed the residents of kshIrabdhi, he would have harmed celestial entities too. Since he is AmAru aRiyum pirAn [the benefactor who knows the events which will happen later], he annihilated hiraNyan. emperumAn had told the entities in samsAram, who do not have the ability to carry out emperumAn’s orders and who desist from carrying out what emperumAn had forbidden in his orders, to take refuge under him, as mentioned in bhagavath gIthA 18.66 ”dharmAn parithyajya mAm Ekam SaraNam vraja” [getting rid of other dharmas [all of which have been prescribed to be done], surrender to me alone]. Apart from touching his heart and finding out “Does he have at the least, this quality?” and killing hiraNyan, there was no possibility for emperumAn to take him under his refuge.
kudandhai … – Oh, one who became my swAmy, by reclining in thirukkudandhai in order to help those who came after your period of incarnation!
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that AzhwAr is addressing emperumAn as “My lord”, since he is the prApyam [ultimate benefit] for AzhwAr, who is reclining in thirukkudandhai. More than emperumAn’s divine activities of dancing with pots, making the herd-girls to be infatuated with him or analysing hiraNyan’s heart, it is for the one who is reclining without engaging in any activity that AzhwAr has to show his concern.
kurukkaththi … – You should come such that I could bedeck you with kurukkaththi flower, which I had searched and kept exclusively for you.
We shall next consider the 8th pAsuram of this thirumozhi.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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