SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
In this article, we will learn about periya thirumozhi, thirukkuRundhANdagam, and thirunedundhANdagam
We have covered the following important concepts in the previous articles:
- What is dhivya prabandham?
- What is the goal of each dhivya prabandham?
- How did dhivya prabandham come about?
- Who protected dhivya prabandham?
- What is a paththu/padhigam?
Now we will go on to see thirumangai AzhwAr’s works
thirumangai AzhwAr’s works are: periya thirumozhi, thirukkuRundhANdagam,thiruvezhukkURRirukkai, siriya thirumadal, periya thirumadal,thirunedundhANdagam.
Out of the three, periya thirumozhi, thirukkuRundhANdagam, thirunedundhANdagam come in the second Ayiram.
Remaining three, thiruvezhukkURRirukkai, siriya thirumadal, periya thirumadal come in the iyarpA, mUndrAm Ayiram.
thirumangai AzhwAr charithram:
AzhwAr takes birth in thirukkuraiyalUr (near thiruvAli-thirunagari) .He grew up without any attachment to emperumAn and bhagavath vishayam, and he became materialistic. He had a strong body and great fighting skills along with knowledge and was appointed by the king as a commander of his army and was given a small region to rule.
emperumAn graced AzhwAr with “mayarvaRa madhinalam ”, that is, he gave him true knowledge and devotion and destroyed ignorance. Through the grace of emperumAn, he first gets bhAgavatha sambandham/association through kumudhavalli nAchchiyAr. kumudhavalli nAchchiyAr is a dhEvasthree. Seeing kumudhavalli nAchchiyAr and getting very attached to her beauty, neelan (AzhwAr) wants to marry her. kumudhavalli puts forth a condition saying she will only marry a SrIvaishNava who has had pancha samskAram from an AchAryan. neelan at once runs to thirunaraiyUr and goes in front of thirunaraiyUr nambi and asks him to bless with pancha samskAram.
He then starts to do bhgAvatha kainkaryam by performing thadhIyArAdhanam (feeding SrIvaishNavas with sumptuous prasAdham everyday) using all his wealth. AzhwAr continued his thadhIyArAdhanam and eventually exhausted his wealth. He then decides to continue the kainkaryam with great devotion, even by robbing wealthy people who pass by his region.
As it is said that SrIman nArAyaNan takes a human form (as AchAryan) and with the help of sAsthram uplifts the jIvAthma who suffers in the samsAram, emperumAn starts going towards AzhwAr’s place along with nAchchiyAr with wedding costumes. AzhwAr, being excited at the opportunity of getting a big bounty, surrounds emperumAn and his wedding party and robs them of everything. Finally, AzhwAr bites off the toe ring from emperumAn’s lotus feet. Then, AzhwAr prepares a big bundle of ornaments and wealth and tries to lift them up but is unable to do so. He looks at the bridegroom (emperumAn) and tells him that “you have recited some manthram which is stopping me from lifting this’. emperumAn agrees that there is a manthram and says that he can reveal it to AzhwAr if he wants to hear that. AzhwAr shows his sword and says that he wants to hear it immediately. emperumAn reveals the thirumanthram to AzhwAr which is most pleasing to hear, which establishes the ultimate goal to be attained, which is the essence of all vEdhams, which can uplift one from this samsAram which is full of sorrows, which can benedict the reciter with aiSvaryam (happiness in this world), kaivalyam (enjoying one’s own self) or bhagavath kainkaryam, based on their seeking.
After hearing the thirumanthram from emperumAn, He then shows AzhwAr His divine form along with SrImahAlakshmi who is mercy personified, seated on the divine garudAzhwAr whose body shines like beautiful gold. He also blesses AzhwAr with divine blemishless knowledge out of his nirhEthuka krupai (causeless mercy), and AzhwAr is transformed and starts to devote his life for kainkaryam.
AzhwAr, understanding the blessing of emperumAn, having completely surrendered to emperumAn with understanding of SrImahAlakshmi thAyAr’s purushakAram, blesses everyone with 6 prabandhams – periya thirumozhi, thirukkuRundhANdagam, thiruvezhukkURRirukkai, siriya thirumadal, periya thirumadal and thirunedundhANdagam, which are considered as 6 angams (ancillary subjects) for nammAzhwAr’s four dhivya prabandhams. emperumAn finally orders AzhwAr to go to various dhivya dhESams along with his Sishyas and perform mangaLAsAsanam to various dhivya dhESa archAvathAra emperumAns and ascends to paramapadham.
AzhwAr traveled the length and breadth of bhAratha dhESam visiting many dhivya dhESams (over 80) and glorified the perumALs there. That too, he has exclusively sung over 40 dhivya dhESam emperumAns who were not sung by any other AzhwAr – thus revealing those dhivya dhESams to us. In periya Thirumozhi, the experience of paramapadham is given by emperumAn when AzhwAr sings and glorifies these dhivya dhESams
periya thirumozhi thaniyan:
kalayAmi kali dhvamsam kavim lOka dhivAkaram
yasyagObhi: prakASAbhir Avidhyam nihatham thama:
Simple translation
I am meditating upon the poet, parakAla, who is a sun for the world, who destroys the faults of kali, whose shining rays eliminate the ignorance leading to darkness.
There are a few more thaniyans that will be covered when we learn periya thirumozhi and other works of AzhwAr in detail.
He was very attached to emperumAn and vice versa.
mAmunigaL did a beautiful samarpanam to thirumangai AzhwAr, by creating a vadivazhagu (divine beauty of his divine body) on thirumangai AzhwAr.
thirumangai AzhwAr’s works:
periya thirumozhi:
Among these six prabandhams, periya thirumozhi is the first one. In this beautiful prabandham, thirumangai AzhwAr fully enjoys the various dhivya dhESams where emperumAn is present. It is well known that AzhwAr physically traveled to every dhivya dhESam he highlighted in his pAsurams and performed mangaLASasanam to the dhivya dhESams and the emperumAns who are present there. He also enjoys the beauty of nature, animals, lake, trees, and also describes them in his prabandhams.
This AzhwAr had previously placed the AthmA (self) in sunshine and the body in shade. Placing AthmA in sunshine means “not engaging in bhagavath vishayam to start with”; placing the body in shade means “since time immemorial, being attached to worldly pleasures, and always being engaged in caring for the body”. bhagavath vishayam is the real shade.
emperumAn observes “AzhwAr is not convinced by anything which cannot be perceived by his own eyes and hence decides that ‘if I present myself in front of his eyes, just as the worldly pleasures, he cannot reject Me’ and arrives at ugandharuLina neelangaL (dhivya dhESams [divine abodes] which are dear to bhagavAn), accepted AzhwAr, manifested all his forms/nature to AzhwAr, gave enjoyment to AzhwAr so that AzhwAr can no longer survive in His separation, made AzhwAr to be on par with the residents of paramapadham while remaining in this world itself and finally facilitated his reaching of paramapadham too – all of these are explained in these prabandhams.
emperumAn shows his beautiful thirumEni azhagu/divine beauty to AzhwAr and mesmerizes him.
In the first padhigam, vAdinEn vAdi, of periya thirumozhi, AzhwAr highlights the glory of the thirumanthram. thirumanthram emerged in badharikASramam. thirumanthram, highlights that we are not our protectors. We are servitors of emperumAn.We can understand this important truth by bowing down to the archA vigraham in the dhivya dhESams and dhivya prabhandham’s highlight this meaning.
First, emperumAn seeing AzhwAr’s association to material matters, looking for a way to uplift him from this situation, thought – “We cannot get him by showing SAsthram, since he is interested in other matters, so we should get by him by showing My beauty” – He considered his interest in those matters itself as the means and showed His beauty to him. emperumAn gives the paramapadham experience when AzhwAr visits emperumAn in all the dhivya dhESams.
Seeing this, AzhwAr, starting from ‘vAdinEn vAdi [periya thirumozhi – 1st centum]’ through ‘oru nal suRRam [periya thirumozhi – 10th centum]’, got immersed in the divine abodes of emperumAn, considering them as those to be surrendered to, as the means, and as those to be enjoyed.
Seeing AzhwAr being set at all times in the divine abodes, emperumAn thought – “how will he be interested in coming to paramapadham if he is enjoying My beauty so much in these dhivya dhESams? I should take AzhwAr to the special abode where this experience would continue uninterrupted for him; so We should first show him the cruelty of this material world”.Thus, He is showing the faults of the material world,
Seeing this, AzhwAr became extremely terrified of it, and in ‘mARRamuLa [periya thirumozhi – 11.8]’, he called emperumAn saying ‘iru pAdu eri koLLiyin * uL eRumbE pOl * [periya thirumozhi – 11.8.4]’ (like the ant suffering, being caught between two ends of fire), and ‘ARRangarai vAzh maram pOla [periya thirumozhi – 11.8.1]’ (like the tree near the shore of a river, am always fearful of what might happen in the future), and, ‘pAmbodoru kUraiyilE payinRAR pOl [periya thirumozhi – 11.8.3]’ (like living and associating with a snake under one roof), and show such many situations as examples about his fear.
It is said that when someone receives wealth in a silk cloth, it is considered special and brings joy. Similarly emperumAn shows His guNam, svarUpam, rUpam, vibhUthi – all of that in thirumanthram . thirumanthram is like the silk cloth, which holds emperumAn’s svarUpam, rUpam, vibUthi and guNam in it. emperumAn shows this to AzhwAr.
AzhwAr enjoyed archAvathAram, the bliss of the dhivya dhESam. He was enjoying the anubhavam so much that he did not find the difference between samsAram and paramapadham, but emperumAn to make AzhwAr realize that this is not the permanent place one should desire, shows the fears of the samsaram.
thirukkuRundhANdagam
emperumAn thinks if AzhwAr is in fear and is suffering due to the fear of samsAram, then he will not be able to render any pAsurams. He wants AzhwAr to engage in dhivya dhESa kainkaryam, so emperumAn gives guNAnubhavam to AzhwAr.
Like how an extremely thirsty one might jump into the water, pour water on himself, etc., AzhwAr thought of sustaining himself by glorifying emperumAn using his mouth, prostrating Him with his head, thinking about Him with his mind, and thus surrendered to emperumAn in thirukkuRundhANdagam.
In pAsuram 1, AzhwAr says:
**nidhiyinaip pavaLath thUNai * neRimaiyAl ninaiya vallAr *
kadhiyinaik kanjan mALak * kaNdu mun aNdam ALum **
madhiyinai mAlai vAzhththi * vaNangi en manaththu vandha *
vidhiyinaik kaNdu koNda * thoNdanEn vidugilEnE
emperumAn is like the wealth that helps us in times of difficulties, He is like the coral that everyone loves; He is like the pillar holding everyone; He is the destination that devotees reach, He is the ruler of all the worlds, He is always thinking of the devotees and loves them. He came and has occupied a beautiful place in my heart. As a person, who was able to witness Him with my eyes, I have no other refuge, I will never leave him.
In pAsuram 19
**piNdiyAr maNdai Endhip * piRar manai thiridhandhu uNNum *
muNdiyAn sAbam thIrththa * oruvan Ur ** ulagam Eththum
kaNdiyUr arangam meyyam * kachchi pEr mallai enRu
maNdinAr * uyyal allAl * maRRaiyArkku uyyalAmE?
AzhwAr says, those who live with the thought and action that emperumAn is everything they will get revival/ ujjIvanam.
In the last pAsuram.
**vAnavar thangaL kONum * malar misai ayanum * nALum
thEmalar thUvi Eththum * sEvadich chengaN mAlai **
mAnavEl kaliyan sonna * vaN thamizh mAlai nAlaindhum *
UnamadhinRi vallAr * oLi visumbALvar thAmE
kaliyan, thirumangai AzhwAr says, whoever is able to chant these 20 pAsurams, of thirukkuRundhANdagam without asking for any favors from emperumAn,and just singing in the mood of surrender, will go to vaikuNtam. These pAsurams glorify the guNas of emperumAn.
thirunedundhANdagam
thirumangai AzhwAr earlier was focusing on the body and was in samsArik life. He got transformed through the grace of emperumAn. thirumangai AzhwAr rendered periya thirumozhi first; he ended with the prayer to emperumAn to help get rid of the dhEha sambandham (relationship of Athma with the body). In his second prabandham thirukkuRundhANdagam, since emperumAn did not show himself to AzhwAr as He wanted AzhwAr to have more hunger for His visit, AzhwAr was not able to bear the delay, and like how an extremely thirsty person would drink and immerse himself into the water, and pour water on himself, AzhwAr sang about emperumAn by talking, and prostrating, and thinking about Him, and tried to sustain himself, where emperumAn showed AzhwAr his splendid guNas
When a thirsty person drinks a little bit of water, he would feel like drinking more and more. AzhwAr also felt much more thirst for emperumAn, and so in his third prabandham of thiruvezhukURRirukkai, he surrendered to thirukkudandhai ArAvamudhan with great longing for Him. So this is a SaraNAgathi prabandham.
After thiruvezhukURRirukkai, thirumangai AzhwAr composed two thirumadal prabandhams (sacred hymns relating to the love that the nAyaki (lady) has towards the nAyaka (the man loved by the lady)) – siRiya thirumadal which deals with matters relating to krishNa and – periya thirumadal, which deals with matters relating to thirunaRaiyUr nambi (in thirunaRaiyUr (a dhivya dhESam or divine abode, near kumbakONam). The term madalUrdhal refers to the courage exhibited by the nAyaki (or nayAka), who, after finding that the nAyaka (or nAyaki) is not responding to her (or his) love, shames him (her) for the all the world to see, so that the people of the world would help her (him) in uniting with him (her). thirumangai AzhwAr, who attains the emotional build-up of a woman, manifests such courage in these two madals.
Even after this emperumAn does not come, finally he chants thirunedundhANdagam and then reaches emperumAn. There are 30 pAsurams in thirunedundhANdagam. This is divided into 3 parts.
Saints like sukhar and mudhal AzhwArs would be immersed in emperumAn’s parathvam (supremacy). Those like sanakar and thirumazhisaip pirAn would be immersed in the nature of His being antharAthma (being present in side our Athma); those like parASara, pArASarya (vyAsa) and nammAzhwAr, periyAzhwAr, ANdAL would be immersed in krishNAvathAram (incarnation); those like nAradha and thoNdaradippodi AzhwAr, thiruppANAzhwAr would be immersed in kOyil (SrI rangam) (It is included along with others that show his supremacy since emperumAn’s status got formed by itself, and since this abode is the root for every other abode); SrI Saunaka bhagavAn and thirumangai AzhwAr would be immersed in archAvathAram (emperumAn in the form of deity – ultimate form of emperumAn’s quality of easily approachable soulabhyam).
Greatness of thirunedundhANdagam
One of the highlights from bhattar’s life is him going to thirunArAyaNapuram to debate and bring nanjIyar into our sampradhAyam. It was emperumAnAr’s divine order that, nanjIyar earlier called as mAdhavAchAryAr, should be reformed. bhattar goes all the way to thirunArAyaNapuram. mAdhavAchAryar, having heard about bhattar, quickly realizes this and engages with bhattar in a debate. bhattar uses thirunedundhANdagam to establish the parathvam of emperumAn and subsequently presents all the meanings from SAsthram. mAdhavAchAryar accepts defeat and falls at the lotus feet of bhattar and accepts him as AchAryan. bhattar goes to periya perumAL and he narrates the whole incident in front of Him. periya perumAL, being very pleased, orders bhattar to recite thirunedundhANdagam and this is made a custom ever after. in SrIrangam – the adhyayana uthsavam starts with the recital of thirunedundhANdagam.
In the first 3 verses of thirunedundhANdagam, AzhwAr explains the essence of all the SAsthrams.
emperumAn is antharyAmi, He is the source, the creator, provides sustenance, annihilator to get rid of bondage and these 3 verses show emperumAn’s parathvam.
All the other verses are detailed explanation of the 1st 3 verses
- In the 1st 10 pAsurams, AzhwAr sings as himself, that is as thirumangai AzhwAr
- The next 10, that is 11-20, as parakAla nAyaki’s thAyar (mother) – thiruth thAyar vArthai
- In the next 10, 21-28, AzhwAr sings in parakAla nAyaki bhAvam, he is singing the separation that he faces with perumAL and describes that to the thOzhis (friends) – pirAtti vArthai.
- Finally, in the last 2 pAsurams, 29 & 30, he sings as himself.
thirunedundhANdagam is similar to BG Chapter 10, verse 9
machchiththA madhgathaprANA bOdhayantha: parasparam |
kathayanthaS cha mAm nithyam thushyanthi cha ramanthi cha ||
Meaning: Thoughts riveted on Me, and life nestled in Me, they (bhaktas) ever enlighten and entertain each other about Me. They are content and they are exultant
machchiththA means: those who fix their thoughts on Me. Here in thirunedundhANdagam, in the 1st 10 verses, AzhwAr’s mind is thinking of emperumAn
madhgathaprANA means: those whose life hangs on Me—, life which, without Me, would be extinct. In the next ten, AzhwArs heart went and reached emperumAn’s lotus feet. He is not able to think of anything else other than emperumAn.
bOdhayantha: parasparam: devotees talking amongst themselves. They enlighten each other reciprocating their several experiences of My attributes; entertain each other with My Divine and delightful acts.They are content in mere conversation (about Me) carrying to them a sense of satisfaction, such that nothing more is wanted to complete it.They are exultant in that, their very hearing (of Me) from others, causes in them a rapturous glow of love. Here it implies what parakAla nAyaki and her friends are conversing in parakAla nAyaki’s state of mind.
Thus in thirunedundhANdagam, in the first ten pAsurams, after determining the true nature of the self, the true nature of the supreme, determining the benefit that is according to the nature of the self, determining the hurdles to achieving those benefits, determining the means that helps removes hurdles and enables achievement of benefit, making thirumanthram the subject of speech – which informs about these five aspects (artha panchakam), he got clarity and spent his time accordingly.
In the middle decad – these pAsurams were set as the mother of parakAla nAyaki saying those words about her daughter- her daughter did not stop with thinking about emperumAn in her mind for spending time, she fainted out of overwhelming love, and she nurtured the longing for seeing Him with her eyes, and fainted as she could not see Him in person as she expected. Friends ( thOzhi) of parakAla nAyaki talked about her being fainted like this and the mother is saying those words about her daughter.
In the third decad – Seeing her state, her friend wished to get her to calm down, and hence asked her about what had happened, and since this was about the story of what happened with parakAla nAyaki, she sustained herself and talked to her friend about it; then as there were no questions or answers, her suffering due to separation reared its head; she got involved in sending messengers. Since He did not show up after that, anger due to the love-quarrel (Udal) reared its peak. If this had extended over time like it did for nammAzhvAr, then He might have come and showed Himself. Due to thirumangai AzhwAr’s delicateness, he forsake anger, and the state of desperation came back as before. Even in this state she would sustain herself only if He comes and showed Himself. Since that was not happening, parama-bhakthi that was born for nammAzhwAr in “muniyE nAnmuganE [thiruvAimozhi – 10.10]”, was born for thirumangai AzhwAr at this point; so, he expressed his ananya gathithvam (not having any other refuge than Him), and expressed his having blemishes and so having no good deed in him, in this pAsuram, AzhwAr wails, “Oh! You who are having love, are not showing up even in this stage!”
In 29th verse AzhwAr says:
anRAyar kulamagaLukku araiyan thannai *
alai kadalaik kadaindhadaiththa ammAn thannai *
kunRAdha vali arakkar kOnai mALak *
kodunjilai vAych charam thurandhu kulam kaLaindhu
venRAnai ** kunReduththa thOLinAnai *
virithirai nIr viNNagaram maruvi nALum
ninRAnai * thaN kudandhaik kidandha mAlai *
nediyAnai adinAyEn ninaindhittEnE
AzhwAr prays to thirukkudanthai emperumAn, and says “I cannot be separated from you, please do good to me.”
In the 30th verse:
minnumA mazhai thavazhum mEgavaNNA! *
viNNavar tham perumAnE! aruLAy enRu *
annamAy munivarOdu amarar Eththa *
arumaRaiyai veLippaduththa ammAn thannai **
mannumA maNimAda mangai vEndhan *
mAnavEl paragAlan kaliyan sonna *
panniya nUl thamizh mAlai vallAr * thollaip
pazhavinaiyai mudhalariya vallAr thAmE
thirumangai AzhwAr calls emperumAn with a great desire, and then, concludes by talking about him getting satisfied by attaining SrIvaikuNtam as said in ‘avAvaRRu vIdu peRRa [thiruvAimozhi – 10.10.11]’ – in this prabandham.
This concludes the explanation on periya thirumozhi, thirukkuRundhANdagam, thirunedundhANdagam of thirumangai AzhwAr.
Source: https://youtu.be/r_AU-bU3kys
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