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periyAzhwAr thirumozhi >> Third Centum >> Fourth decad
avathArikai
There is no specific avathArikai for this pAsuram.
sindhurap podi koNdu senni appith thirunAmam ittu angu Or ilaiyam thannAl
andharam inRith thanneRi pangiyai azhagiya nEththiraththAl aNindhu
indhiran pOl varum Ayap piLLai edhir ninRu angu inavaLai izhavEl ennach
chandhiyil ninRu kaNdIr nangai than thugilodu sari vaLai kazhalginRadhE
Word-by-Word Meanings
senni – “in the divine locks
sindhurap podi – with vermillion powder
appi – applying
angu – on the divine forehead
Or ilai thannAl – with a leaf (in the verse Or ilaiyam thannAl, the syllable am does not have any meaning; it is there for the poetic metrics)
thirunAmam ittu – applying Urdhva puNdram [the divine mark]
than – his [krishNa’s]
neRi – dense
pangiyai – divine locks
azhagiya – beautiful
nEththiraththAl – eyes of peacock feathers
aNindhu – decorating
indhiran pOl – like dhEvEndhran [head of celestial entities]
varum – one who is coming
Ayap piLLai – for the herd-boy
edhir angu – in the place opposite
ninRu – standing
inam vaLai – collection of bangles
izhavEl – do not lose”
enna – even as I said, regarding my daughter
sandhiyil – at the intersection of streets through which he is coming
ninRu kaNdIr – stand there and see for yourself
nangai than – she, who does not have any blemish regarding the feminine qualities of shyness,
simplicity, fear etc
thugilodu – along with the dress
sari vaLai – bangles
kazhalginRadhu – are slipping out, says the mother of a daughter, to her friends.
Simple Translation
A mother tells her daughter “krishNa is returning [from grazing cattle], applying vermillion powder on his divine locks, Urdhva puNdram on his divine forehead, decorating his dense divine locks with the eyes of peacock feathers. Do not stand opposite that krishNa, who is coming like dhEvEndhran, at the intersection of four streets, through which he is coming and do not lose your bangles”. Even as I was telling her this, you would see that my daughter, who is without any blemish in her qualities of femininity such as shyness, simplicity, fear etc, is losing her dress and her bangles.
vyAkhyAnam (Commentary)
sindhurap podik koNdu senni appi – applying vermillion powder on the divine locks. In the earlier pAsuram, it was mentioned “sindhuram ilangath than thiruneRRi mEl”, applying vermillion powder on his divine forehead, to shine brightly. Here, since it says senni appi, it is clear that he had applied it on his divine locks, as a decoration.
thirunAmam ittu angu Or ilaiyam thannAl – with a leaf, which was straight and long, which would create a distinct mark, he had applied the divine symbol [Urdhva puNdram], on his divine forehead. The term angu refers to the divine forehead, which is the apt place for applying the divine symbol of Urdhva puNdram. In the term ilaiyam, the syllable am is a poetic metric and does not have a meaning. Alternatively, it would also mean applying the vermillion using saliva from the mouth. In this case, the text would be Or ilayam thannAl; il would mean uL, referring to inside and ayam would refer to water. Then, Or ilayam would refer to water inside the divine mouth, viz. saliva. This would fit with Ayap piLLai, having been born in the clan of herd-folk and his nature of being a child [children would use their saliva for applying powder].
andharam … – decorating his dense locks with the eyes of peacock feathers such that there was no gap in his locks.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai adds, in his svApadhESam, that apart from the peacock feathers, krishNa’s divine locks were also decorated by the eyes of young herd-girls.
indhiran pOl varum Ayap piLLai – just as indhran, the controller of celestial entities, comes amidst celestial entities, showing his eminence, with the celestial entities worshipping him, krishNa came amidst a thousand herd-boys, who matched him, with the boys worshipping him, manifesting his pride and eminence. Alternatively, for the word indhiran, since it would refer to emperumAn himself primarily, this could be taken as krishNa coming, similar to emperumAn, surrounded by nithyasUris, who have equivalence with him in eight qualities, in paramapadham. Though dharmi aikyam [same entity] is seen in both emperumAn and krishNa, considering that krishNa is an incarnation, it could be said this way, just as it has been mentioned in SrI rAmAyaNam bAla kANdam “vishNunA sadhruSO vIryE” [SrI rAma was matching vishNu in his valour; here too, both SrI rAma and vishNu refer to the same entity, SrI rAma is an incarnation]. The herd-boy, who was coming like this …
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that krishNa matched indhran in one manner: just as indhran would not consume the havis [offering in a ritual] offered by samsAris when they carry out a ritual [since he detests samsAram and its smell], krishNa too would not like those who sustain themselves without him. Alternatively, the term indhran would refer to emperumAn himself as a distinguished entity dwelling within indhra and just as it has been mentioned in mUnRAm thiruvandhAdhi 38 “thAnE thanakkuvaman” (emperumAn could be compared only with himself since there is none who could be held as a metaphor for him) he is the lord of all, since he does not have anyone similar to him.
edhir ninRu angu inavaLai izhavEl enna – I told my daughter not to stand in the way by which he is coming and lose the inavaLai [a type of bangle]. It appears that there are no two different events, such as standing in the way and losing the bangles. The moment she stood in the way, the bangles disappeared. Since it says inavaLai, it appears that not even one herd-girl had even a single bangle remaining on her hand. Losing bangles is considered as losing one’s femininity.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that the mother has told her daughter not to lose her femininity by standing in the way by which he comes; it was not possible for her [the daughter] to withstand the strong force of the waves of his beauty.
sandhiyil ninRu kaNdIr – You could see that this happened in the public way, when he was coming, with my daughter not listening to my words of caution.
nangai than thugilodu sarivaLai kazhalginRadhE – For her, who was complete in her femininity [nangai refers to a girl who is complete with her femininity], along with her dress, the bangles too slipped out. Just like there are bangles such as kOl vaLai, kazhal vaLai, vari vaLai etc, sari vaLai is also a type of bangles. Just as it has been mentioned in nAchchiyAr thirumozhi 11.3 “kazhal vaLaiyaith thAmum kazhal vaLaiye AkkinarE” (He made my kazhal vaLai, which was an arbitrary name, to become a slipping and disappearing bangle, a causative name [kazhalhal– to slip out]), through his mere appearance, he made my sarivaLai [a type of bangle] to become sariyum vaLai [that which slips and falls off], and not hanging from my hand. Through this, the mother responds to those who came to enquire about her daughter’s change, the reason for the change and the distinct feature of the change [krishNa is the reason for the change in her daughter and the change in her was her bangles slipping and falling off].
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that the mother is telling those who came to enquire, about the distinguished changes in her daughter’s form. Even though the daughter is not doing what she had told her [not to stand in the way by which krishNa is coming], she still calls her daughter as nangai [one who is complete]. This is because, even here, this word describes the completeness of her qualities. The effects of the shortcomings in krishNa’s qualities are still a necessity [here, the term ‘shortcomings’ refers to the positive features in krishNa, such as his beauty, his decoration etc; if the girl had not bothered about krishNa’s beauty and had not longed to be with him, her mother would not have called her as nangai]. The addition of than to the term nangai [nangai than], refers to the eminence acquired by the girl [by losing her bangles].Along with her dress, the bangles too loosened. She could not protect either her femininity or her pride of having the quality of femininity. Instead of swelling and breaking, the bangles slipped out of her hands due to krishNa’s indifference. The bangles will not stay put, on her hands due to separation from krishNa. When being united with him too, the bangles would not have stayed put on her hand [since, out of sheer happiness of being together with him, she would have become larger in size, leading to the bangles being broken by the increased size of her hands].
We shall next consider the 9th pAsuram of this thirumozhi.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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