SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
thArAy enakkenRu vEndichch chaththinAl
nIrERRu ulagellAm ninRaLandhAn mAvaliyai 46
ArAdha pOril asurargaLum thAnumAy
Word by Word Meanings
mAvaliyai – with mahAbali
mU adi maN enakku thArAy enRu vENdi – asking him “Grant me three steps of land”
nIr ERRu – accepting the water which mahAbali poured on his hand
salaththinAl – with the deception of showing small foot and measuring with large foot
ninRu – rising up
ulagu ellAm aLandhAn – measured and took possession of all the worlds
ArAdha pOril – in the impossible-to-achieve battle between dhEvas (celestial entities) and asuras (demons)
asurargaLum thAnumAy – he and the asuras
vyAkyAnam
mUvadimaN thArAy – vAmana told mahAbali “mAvali! You have to give me three steps of land”; mAvali also said “I will give”; vAmana told him “You cannot give excuses; give me immediately”. vyAkyAthA (commentator) for this prabandham, periyavAchchAn piLLai says that this firmness on the part of vAmana is similar to vaLaippAr. In malayALa dhEsam (present day kEraLA), if a person has taken money on loan and does not pay it back on time, the lender will accost the receiver and draw a line in front of him. He can cross that line only after paying back the lender, the money owed. This practice was called as vaLaippu.
enakkenRu – one who never says “For me” and always says “For the sake of my devotees”, now says “For me”, since he is taking alms for the sake of others (celestial entities).
vENdich chalaththinAl ninRaLandhAn mAvaliyai – After he asked “Give me three steps of land”, mAvali poured out water on to his hand. Immediately, he grew to a huge form and measured the worlds by deceptively measuring with his huge foot, after initially showing mAvali his small foot. The verse should be rearranged as mAvaliyai mUvadi maN thArAy enakkenRu vENdi, nIrERRu, salaththinAl ulagellAm ninRu aLandhAn to get the sequential meaning.
ArAdha pOril . . . – The next narration speaks about how he churned the ocean when the celestial and demonic entities could not accomplish the task when they set out to churn the ocean.
ArAdha pOril – in the activity (of churning) which they could not accomplish. pOr – activity. When the celestial and demonic entities could not accomplish the task of churning the ocean, which they set out to do. ArAdha – could not be fulfilled. Alternatively, ArAdha – not feeling satisfied. emperumAn does not feel satisfied despite doing how much ever that he did, for his devotees. We could construe this (ArAdha) as – in the activity of churning in which he was not satisfied.
asurargaLum thAnumAy – instead of saying dhEvargaLum asurargaLumAy (dhEvas and asuras), why is he saying asurargaLum thAnumAy (demons and himself)? Since he is assuming the dhEvas who are favourable to him to be a part of him, he is identifying himself with them, and hence he says this way.
In the next article, we will discuss the next part of this prabandham.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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