AzhwArs – glories and history

 

ashtAkshara mahA manthram is the greatest manthram among all manthrams, most confidential one amongst the confidential manthrams, the purest one among the pure manthrams and is the eternal/ancient one.

 

Beyond all of these, this ashtAkshara mahA manthram is the one which is accepted by pUrvAchAryas who are great intellectuals as said in thirumozhi 7.4.4 as “pErALan pErOdhum

 

periyOr” (                                                                                   ) meaning the great personalities who recite the

 

names of emperumAn. Also, AzhwAr himself reveals in the first padhigam of periya thirumozhi itself as “peRRa thAyinum Ayina cheyyum Nalamtharum chollai NAn kanNdu konNdEn’

 

(

 

) meaning I found the manthram that will do me good even better than ones

 

own mother.

 

After hearing the thirumanthram from emperumAn, emperumAn then shows him his divine form along with srImahAlakshmi who is mercy personified 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). AzhwAr, after seeing all of those and understanding the blessing of emperumAn, which was triggered by srImahAlakshmi thAyAr ’s purushakAram, blesses everyone with 6 prabhandhams – periya thirumozhi, thirukkuRunthANdakam, thiruvezhukkURRirukkai, siriya thirumadal, periya thirumadal and thirunedunthANdakam which are considered as 6 angams for nammAzhwAr ’s four dhivya prabhandhams. His prabhandhams are made of different forms of poetry – Asu, madhuram, chitham and vistharam and thus became to be famously known as nAlu kavip perumAL.

 

emperumAn finally orders AzhwAr to go to various dhivyadhEsams along with his sishyas and perform mangaLAsAsanam to various dhivya dhEsa archAvathAra emperumAns and disappears. AzhwAr along with his ministers and sishyas, starts his dhivyadhEsa yAthrai, takes bathe in many divine rivers and performs mangaLAsAsanam at srI bhadhrAchalam, simhAchalam, srI kUrmam, srI purushOththamam (puri jagannAth), gayA, gOkulam, vrndhAvanam, mathurA, dhvArakA, ayOdhyA, badhrikAshram, kAnchipuram, thiruvEnkatam, etc. He arrives at chOLa mandalam, his sishyas exclaim his glories “chathush kavi has arrived”, “kaliyan has arrived”, “parakAlan has arrived”, “One who won over all other mathams have arrived”, etc. A saiva scholar/bhakthar named thirugyAna sambandhar was living there at that time and his sishyas object to the glories of AzhwAr. AzhwAr at once says he will debate with sambandhar and establish nArAyaNa parathvam (supremacy). They bring him over to sambandhar’s residence and informs him about the same and he agrees to debate with AzhwAr. Since, the whole place/town was filled with avaishnavas and since there is no vigraham (form) of emperumAn, AzhwAr is unable to start speaking and starts worrying about the situation. At that time, he notices a srivaishnava lady and asks her to bring her thiruvArAdhana perumAL (vigraham). She brings her emperumAn who is krishNan and brings him over to sambandhar’s place and starts the debate. sambandhar recites a poem and AzhwAr finds fault in that. sambandhar then challenges AzhwAr to recite a poem and AzhwAr recites “ oru kuraLAi ” padhigam (periya thirumozhi – 7.4) on thAdALan emperumAn (kAzhi chIrAma viNNagaram – sIrgAzhi). sambandhar unable to respond back for that great padhigam which is perfectly and beautifully composed wonders about the greatness of AzhwAr

 

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AzhwArs – glories and history and accepts his glories and worships him.

 

AzhwAr desires to visit srIrangam and perform mangaLAsAsanam and kainkaryam to srIranganAthan. It is said in bhrahmAnda purANam that:

 

vimANam pranNavAkAram vEdhachrunGgam mahAdhbhutham srIranGgachAyI bhagavAN pranNavArththa prakAchaka:

 

:

 

The most marvelous srIrangavimAnam is a manifestation of OmkAram; Its peak is vEdham itself. bhagavAn srIranganAthan is manifesting himself as the ultimate meaning of praNavam (which is the essence of thirumanthram).

 

AzhwAr wanting to build a fort around the temple, discusses with his sishyas about getting the wealth to build the same. They reply that there is a vigraham of an avaidhiha matham in nAgapattinam which is fully made of gold and if we can acquire that we can do a lot of kainkaryam using that. AzhwAr at once leaves to nAgappattinam and finds a lady and asks her if there is any secret information in that town. She says that her mother-in-law use to say that there is a golden vigraham (deity) and the architect who made that vigraham and the most protective vimAnam where the vigraham is kept, lives in a different dvIpam (island/region of bhUlOkam). AzhwAr at once leaves to that place along with his sishyas and enquire about the architect who is comparable to vishwakarmA (the chief architect of dhEvas). The people direct AzhwAr to the palace which is huge and beautiful and AzhwAr reaches the palace. Along with his sishyas he started discussing about various things outside the palace and at that time the architect steps outside after finishing his bathing and meal. Seeing him, AzhwAr strategically says with great sorrow that “Oh! Some invaders came and destroyed the temple in nAgappattinam and took away the golden vigraham. Why are we still living in this world?”. Hearing this, the architect feels great pain, starts crying out loud and says “It must be one of the mischievous sculptors who revealed the secret to open the peak of the vimAnam through which any one can enter there. I made the most complicated key – a twisted iron chain inside a stone and kept that under the slab where the water falls and how did they break that?” thus revealing the actual secret unknowingly.

 

AzhwAr along with his sishyas, at once leaves the place happily since the secret is known, and reached the seashore to return to nAgappattinam. He sees a virtuous merchant who is boarding his ship with a huge shipment of nuts (pAkku) and blesses him and requests him to leave them in the other side of the sea. He agrees and they all board the ship and begin the journey. On the way, AzhwAr picks up a nut, cuts it into half and gives it to the merchant and tells him that he will accept it back at the end of the journey and asks him to give a small chit with his signature saying that “I owe AzhwAr half the nut of my ship”. The merchant does so and after reaching nAgappattinam, AzhwAr asks him to give half the load of the expensive nuts in the ship (to use that in kainkaryam for srIrangam temple). The merchant is shocked and refuse to do so. They both argue and decide to go bring all the merchants together to get a neutral judgement and all the merchants declare that the merchant should give half the

 

 

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