SrImate rangarAmAnuja mahA deSikAya namaH

 

aDiyEn

KalyANi kRshNamAcAri

 

 

Thirumangai AzhwAr’s Paasuram on

TiruppuLLambhUtankuDi

Annotated Commentary in English by

kalyANi kRshNamAcAri

& Oppiliappan kOil varadAcAri SaThakOpan

 

SrImad azhagiya singar at tiruppuLLambhUtankuDi

 

FOREWORD

by

‘SrI nrsimha seva rasikan’ Oppiliappan koil SrI varadAchAri SaThakopan

 

PRAKRTAM SRIMAT AZHAGIYA SINGAR’S NIYAMANAM:

tiruppuLLambhUtankuDi is a prAcIna (ancient) divya deSam in between the two rivers (Cauvery and koLLiDam) in coLa Nadu. It is not too far from kumbakONam. Here is a wondrous Lord resting on AdiSeshan of exquisite beauty. tiruppuLLambhUtankuDi is the only divya deSam, where SrI rAmacandra mUrti is blessing us with His darSana soubhAgyam with four hands in the bhujanga sayana kOlam. He is resting under the Sobhana vimAnam on the banks of jaTAyu tIrtham (pushkaraNi). After doing jaTAyu samskaram (antima kriyais/Last rites), He is seen resting here for Srama parihAram from that sad and significant effort. brahmANDa purANam and pAdma purANam refer to the vaibhavam of tiruppuLLambhUtankuDi.

This sthalam is thus linked to jaTAyu, the King of Eagles and the son of sUryan. jaTAyu was a dear friend of King dASaratha and helped him in the sambarAsura yuddham. King dASaratha was so fond of jaTAyu that he called jaTAyu as his uyir. jaTAyu in turn was very fond of the sons of dASaratha and considered rAma and lakshmaNa as his own sons. During the abduction of sItA pirATTi by rAvaNan, jaTAyu confronted the evil king of lankA and fought with him and was mortally wounded. As he was in throes of death, rAman and lakshmaNan, who were searching for sItA pirATTi, came across their father's dearest friend in distress and jaTAyu breathed the last after breifing rAma and lakshmaNa on the evil deed of rAvaNan. rAmacandran performed the last rites for jaTAyu out of His reverence for the eagle King and blessed him with moksham. During the performance of antima kriyais for jaTAyu, which King dASaratha himself was not blessed to receive from rAmaa, sItA pirATTi was far away in lankA. rAmacandran thought of the distant sItA pirATTi and pirATTi Herself appeared then on a Lotus (poRRAmarayAL) and fulfilled Her duties as a dharma patnI of the Lord. The antima karmAs were completed as per SAstrAs. The tired rAma was taking rest at tiruppuLLambhUtankuDi on AdiSeshan, when tirumangai visited this divya deSam.

tirumangai AzhwAr (kaliyan), who was passing through this divya deSam got confused about the identity of the reclining Lord here and moved on without performing mangaLASAsanam for this arcA mUrti.At that time, a brilliant flood of jyoti arose out of the garbha grham (Sanctum Sanctorium) and overpowered tirumangai. Now tirumangai recognized that param jyoti as the reclining Lord rAmacandran and performed mangaLASAsanam for the Lord with 10 beautiful pAsurams (periya tirumozhi: 5.1). kaliyan recognized that aprAkrta jyoti as the jyoti saluted by muNDaka upanishad: "tameva bhAntam anubhAti sarvam, tasya bhAsa sarvam idam vibhAti" (Him the Shining One, everything shines after; by this light all this is lighted/illumined). This immortal light worshipped by the sAdhya devAs (nitya jIvans in SrI vaikuNTham) was recognized by kaliyan as the light of lights saluted by brhadAraNyaka upanishad passage: "tat deva jyotishAm jyotir-Ayur-hopAsate amrtam"...br. up. IV.4.16. kaliyan had thus brahma sAkshAtkAram and the ensuing brahmAnubhavam at this divya deSam. kaliyan connected that supreme jyoti to the vibhava avatAram of Lord rAmacandra resting in the arcA form at this divya deSam with four hands as Lord rAmacandran, the destroyer of rAvaNan and blessed us all with his ten beautiful pAsurams.

kaliyan saluted this mUrti as the rAman with a strong bow (valvill rAman) or dhruDa dhanvI. The valvill that kaliyan alluded to is the kodhaNDam that has the DankAra dhvani and fierce arrows that cut off the ten heads of offending rAvaNan.

swAmi deSikan will salute later this powerful bow of the Lord and the arrows that emanated from it with a fierce sound to defeat the ten-headed rAvaNan in the battle field:

"kaTu raTad aTani Tankrti caTula kaThora kArmukha vinirgata viSankaTa viSikha vitADana vighaTita makuTa vihvala viSravastanaya viSrama samaya viSrANana vikhyAta vikrama! " (SrI raghuvIra gadyam: 58).

We can hear the DankAra dhvani of the bent bow and the swift arrows leaving from that strong bow of Lord rAmacandra in this exquisite passage from SrI raghu vIra gadyam of swAmi deSikan.