In the Arayirappadi Guruparampara Prabhavam

 

 

Interpolations are the bane of all religious literature.

It is perhaps in the nature of things that it is generally so. The Arayirappadi Guruparampara Prabhavam of Pinbalagiya Jiyar is no exception to this general tendency, if not the rule. A careful scrutiny will reveal that it contains several interpolations ranging in extent from a shloka or two to wholesale passages of Manipravalam text, sometimes running to several pages of printed matter. Confining ourselves to the nature of D.S. Charita shlokas in the work, we are at once struck by this fact namely, that they are all concentrated in the early portion of it dealing with the lives of the Alvars. We find also that they are all shlokas concerning the avataras of these saints introduced to supplement the Manipravalam text referring to the same. In view of the fact that both Arayirappadi and the D.S. Charitam deal with the same subject matter in very nearly the same manner, it is natural to expect the quotations from the Kavya to be more varied and distributed all over the prose work rather than isolated in only a part of it. In other words, it is reasonable to expect that the author of the Guruparampara could very well have drawn from the Kavya more profusely and in very many contexts.

As it is, however, the isolated nature of these quotations betrays their later introduction into the text. There is, however, one single exception to be noted and examined.

We find three shlokas of the Kavya quoted in certain MSS and printed editions of the Arayirappadi text giving an account of the last days of Ramanuja. The relevant portions of it are given below.

……….. ('Arayirappadi P.P. 198-200)

At first sight it looks as if the quotations are genuine, for they are apt and there is apparently no break either in the continuity of the narrative because of the text containing them. Collating the several available MSS. and printed editions of the work, one finds that this part of the text containing the D. S Charitam shlokas is altogether absent in the comparatively older ones among them. In these latter editions the text runs as follows:- …………

We find that the passage without the quotations and other additions is quite in tact and runs smoothly.

The only inference therefore is that there has been a considerable measure of interpolation here. And this being the only instance as far as I have been able to see where the Divyasuri Charitam Shlokas are found quoted outside the Avatara contexts, we can safely conclude that the Jiyar could not have been the author of these quotations, there being no conceivable reason why, as has been pointed out before, he should have confined himself to the Avatara shlokas of the Kavya only.

The quotations from D. S. Charita in the Avatara contexts themselves may now be examined. It is easily seen that there is absolutely neither method nor regularity in the way in which the quotations are said to have been made. If, as is generally supposed, the Jiyar had been the author of these quotations, is it not reasonable to expect that he would generally have followed some method in quoting from the Kavya, particularly, so because the shlokas are all avatara shlokas quoted to supplement the Manipravalam text mentioning the various Avataras of the Alvars. As it is, we find them thrown haphazardly into the text. On a comparison of all the available editions and MSS it is seen that no two of them agree in regard to this. In some editions the D. S. Charitam shlokas are quoted first along with the Tanian shloka and then only the text beg ns. In other words, they are not introduced in the midst of the Manipravalam text itself for obvious reasons, but put down specially before it. Thus the main text is made to begin after the shlokas are given. Here are some extracts:

Avatara of Periyalvar —

…….… [Taniyan]

…..….. (D.S. Charitham)

………...(Jayantimak)

……….. (Prose text) 3.

Дивья-сури-чарита – это вольный перевод Арайраппади с маниправалам на санскрит. Дивья-сури-чарита на три столетия позже написана, зато на санскрите – и цитаты из неё добавлены в Арайраппади, для «увесистости» – как санскритский пруф для тамильской работы. Дальше переписчики весь текст в одном формате изложили, в виде «Арайраппади», уже не упоминая, что там санскритские вставки из Дивья-сури-чариты.

Reading through the extracts given above one is struck by the reversal of the commonsense procedure of following up the narration of a fact or even with an apt quotation suiting the context and supplementing the narrative. No sensible author would ever give the quotation first and then the narrative which it is intended to support. Such cases of misplaced quotations of D. S. Charitam Shlokas in several editions of the Arayirappadi only confirm their interpolatory character.

It is evidently to avoid this absurdity that some editions prefer to quote these Shlokas after the particular avatara has been narrated in prose. Here are a few extracts.

In the majority of the Arayirappadi MSS and editions, however, we generally find the shlokas incorporated in the Manipravalam text itself and not put down separately either before or after it. In all these cases we find that there is some irregularity or other in the text which vanishes when these quotations are removed.

Какой-то редактор сделал примечание к оригинальному тексту Арайраппади, а последующие переписчики это примечание в качестве основного текста оформили – типичная проблема для санскритских манускриптов.

For the purposes of comparative study and by way of illustrating this point, a few extracts may be given with and without the quotations side by side:

 

Avatara of Andal

In the above passage referring to the birth of Andal, not only D. S. Charitam shlokas but also sh1okas from the Ramayana are quoted. As it is, the former purporting to give the birth of Andal illustrate incongruously enough the birth of Sita and not that of Andal. The conjunction ‘….’ after the above shlokas (to be incorporated) connecting all of them makes us infer so. Deleting the D. S. Charitam shlokas, however, we would find that the incongruity vanishes and the sentences run smoothly thus: ……..

There are some texts in which the D. S. Charitam shlokas are confused with others. Instances are given below:

 

Avatara of Kulashekhara: ………..

It would appear from these two passages that both the Shlokas in each instance are D S. Charitam shlokas.

But it is clear that in each case the second is a Jayanti-Mala loka. This confusing between D S. Charitam and Jayanti-Mala-Shlokas should unmistakably prove their interpolatory character. In their anxiety to incorporate these Avatara shlokas, later scribes have distorted the original text by introducing errors.

There are sufficient grounds to presume that this confusion between D. S. Charitam and Jayanti-Mala shlokas was fairly common among the later generation of Shri-Vaishnavas. Quite often they seem to have been simply guided by their contents, not at all knowing the sources from which they were taken. Taking the bibliography given in Asuri Ramanujacharya’s edition of the Arayirappadi (1880) for an instance in point we note that:

(1) The D. S. Charitam shlokas are simply styled ‘the sayings of the ancients (……….) No. 471 p. 434.

(2) The Jayanti-Mala shlokas are also similarly styled ‘the sayings of the ancients’ (………) without any distinction. Nos. 191, P. 392, No. 175, P. 386, No. 139 P. 373.

(3) The D. S. Charitam Shlokas are mis-styled No, 79 P. 354 ……… etc. is said to be from Brahmanda-Purana.

(4) Jayanti-Mala shlokas are confused with D. S. Charitam shlokas No. 196, P. 395 No. 165, P. 381, No. 148, P. 376.

Above all the most convincing proof of interpolation is furnished by the following extracts wherein the introduction of these Shlokas is found to spoil the construction of the sentences themselves and to give rise to unpardonable repetitions.

 

The Avatara of Tirumalishai Alvar:

The sentence as it is noted above shows bad construction.

Of the two shlokas quoted the second one is from Jayanti-Mala and yet they are both said to belong to the Kavya.

This irregularity in construction and error in quotation will both disappear when the two Shlokas are dropped and the sentence after ‘…….’ runs as follows: In this extract again the sentence is irregular and we find the D. S. Charitam shloka repeated twice, once after the Tanian shloka and again introduced in the body of Manipravalam text itself breaking its continuity. Without the shlokas the text would run smoothly and correctly.

The foregoing examination of the Arayirappadi texts taken from different MSS and printed editions must be sufficient to establish the interpolatory character of D. S. Charitam quotations. It is significant that there is not one single case in which it could be pointed out that the text would suffer either in construction or in sense without them.

Avatara Shlokas of the Alvars from Divyasuri Charitam…

 

 

APPENDIX II