AzhwArs – glories and history

 

IyAduvathO garudaRkethirE

iravikkethir minminiyAduvathO

NAyOduvathO uRumippulimun

NarikEcharimun NadaiyAduvathO

pEyaduvathO ezhilUrvachimun

 

perumAnadi chEr vaguLAbharanNan OrAyiramAmaRaiyin thamizhil oru chol porumO ulagil kaviyE

 

 

nammAzhwAr ‘s (who is surrendered to srIman nArAyaNan and have given the essence of vEdham in his 1000+ pAsurams) one word cannot be compared any number of these poems of these worldly poets just like there is no comparison between

 

· flying skill of garudan and a house fly

· brightness of sun and a fire fly

· roaring of a tiger and barking of a dog

· the majestic walk of a lion and the ordinary walk of a fox

· the beautiful dance of Urvasi (a dhEva lOka dancer) and the dancing of a ghost

 

Seeing this, all the poets at once begged for their forgiveness from nammAzhwAr and glorified him. Thus madhurakavi AzhwAr spent his time glorifying his AchAryan as per “gurum

 

prakAchayEth dhImAN” (                                                                 ) meaning ones AchAryan should be

 

glorified in public and uplifted all beings. After some time he left this samsAram and reached his AchAryan thiruvadi to perform nithya kainkaryam to nammAzhwAr.

 

His thanian

avidhitha vishayAntharas chatArEr upanishdhAm upagAna mAthra bOga:

api cha guNa vachAth thadhEka sEshi madhurakavir hrudhayE mamAvirasthu

 

His archAvathAra anubhavam is already discussed in here – http://ponnadi.blogspot.in/2012/10/archavathara-anubhavam-madhurakavi.html.

 

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AzhwArs – glories and history

 

KulasEkara AzhwAr

 

thirunakshathram: mAsi, punarpUsam

 

avathAra sthalam: thiruvanjikkaLam

 

AchAryan: vishwaksEnar

 

Works: mukundha mAlai, perumAL thirumozhi

 

Place where he attained paramapadham: mannAr kOyil (near thirunelvEli)

 

kulasEkara AzhwAr’s greatness lies in the fact that he was born in kshathriya kulam (which is condusive for having great ego) but was still so humble in his attitude towards emperumAn and bhakthas. It is because of his great devotion and attachment towards perumAL (srI rAman) he came to be known as kulasEkara perumAL himself. In his perumAL thirumozhi, after performing mangaLAsAsanam to periya perumAL in the first padhigam (iruLiyach chudar manigaL), he immediately glorifies srIvaishNavas in the second padhigam (thEttarum thiral thEn). He is also popular to have been so attached to srIvaishnavas which we will see in his charithram in the subsequent sections.

 

 

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