Arayirappadi Guruparampara Prabhavam

 

We have only to examine the Jayanti-Mala quotations in the available editions and MSS of the Arayirappadi on the same lines as we examined the D.S. Charitam quotations in it, to find that the conclusions are also exactly similar. Apart from exactly the same grounds set forth above in connection with D.S. Charitam shlokas namely 1) Their isolation in the early portions of the work in the Avatara contexts only, 2) The absence of method in the quotations, 3) Irregularity in the text on account of the quotations. 4) Confusion between the D. S. Charitam shlokas and Jayanti Mala shlokas, there are further arguments to prove the interpolator character of the Jayanti-Mala shlokas. In the first place, one finds that there are entire MSS of the Arayirappadi without those shlokas. That cannot, however, be said of D. S. Charitam shlokas as all the editions and MSS that were consulted contained them. It is particularly noteworthy that those that omit the Jayanti-Mala quotations are comparatively older MSS. Secondly, we find that even when they are quoted in the Arayirappadi texts, they are very rarely named.

This in itself may not be sufficient to prove the interpolatory nature of the Jayanti-Mala shlokas, yet the natural inferences from this must invevitably lead us to that conclusion. It must be remembered that it is very rarely that the Acharyas refer to the sources from which they quoted in their works. Rather than the sources from which they drew their quotations they were particular about their appropriateness. That being largely the case, the fact that the name of the Kavya is mentioned every time the shloka from it is quoted must itself be proof that it must have been incorporated later.

What prevents the same thing being done in the case of Jayanti-Mala shlokas is presumably the fact that they were but stray compositions on the subject of the Avataras of the Alvars and Acharyas individually handed down from generation and added on from time to time, viz. the Jayanti-Mala was and could never have been in the nature of things the work of one author at any particular time. As the very name implies, it is a compilation concerning the dates of the birth of the Alvars and Acharyas. Impossible as it is to fix a date for the authorship of the shlokas, we are led to infer that the compilation should have been made atleast after Varavara Muni, as it includes the avatara shloka of that Acharya also. Now it must be clear to all those acquainted with Vaishnava tradition that Pinbalagiya Jiyar the author of Arayirappadi could not have been the author of shlokas from such a later day compilation.

Another reason for the later-day authorship of the compilation may be suggested. The Arayirappadi and D. S. Charitam closely following it give os only the month and the Nakshatra in which the Alvars were born.

It is difficult to believe that the author of the first named work would have quoted the Jayanti Mala shlokas giving the cyclic and the Kali years together with particulars regarding the Tithi, Paksha etc. without mentioning any of the details at all in the regular text itself mentioning the several avataras. It is not easy either to see why the author of D. S. Charitam should have merely contented himself with giving the month and the Nakshatra of birth and no more, if he had already been acquainted with these avatara shlokas. It is therefore, reasonable to infer that they must have been compiled much later than the D. S. Charitam at any rate. It may be noted in passing that the only reliable work which gives similar details is the ‘Prapannamritam’ of the first half of the 17th Century A.D.

The dates, the Kali and the Shaka years as the case may be are given in the form of chronograms in these shlokas. Epigraphists and students of Indian History must be familiar with this peculiar devise of stating dates of events. For purposes of illustration the shloka referring to the avatara of Kulashekara may be taken and examined The shloka runs as follows …………..

Here we find the Kali year given to us in the Chronogram in the shloka. According to an accepted code by which each letter of the alphabet is said to represent a particular numeral, the two letters and … in this word give us the number 72. The numeral when inverted will give us the number 27 which should be taken as the number given in the chronogram in the shloka. Now the phrase will mean 'After the 27th year of Kali’. A free rendering of the shloka given above will be as follows “King Kulashekara, the Amsha of Shri Koustuba was born in this world ("for the redumption of us all) on a Thursday conforming to the Dvadashi Tithi in the bright half of the month of Magha of the year Prabhava 27 years after Kali”.

In this way is the computation made in each case from the chronograms given to us in the Jayanti-Mala shlokas.

We have seen how the Jayanti-Mala shlokas must have been very late compositions. It is difficult, almost impossible, to ascertain the source from which the several dates they contain were got. In regard to the chronology of the early history of Vaishnavism during the period of the Alvars we have to rely mainly on tradition and in so doing, it is always safe to rely on the earliest records of it rather than the later ones. In view of the fact that the comparatively earlier works like the Arayirappadi and the D S. Charitam do not give such fulsome details as to the dates and in the absence of any knowledge as to the sources from which they were obtained otherwise, these Jayanthi-Mala shlokas cannot be relied on for purpose of chronology.

Extracts of Jayanti-Mala shlokas quoted in the Arayirappadi Guruparampara Prabhavam: …………..

 

APPENDIX III

AN ACCOUNT OF THE MSS.