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ArunagiriNathar - Tiruppugazh - Venkataraman - ShankarIyer - Sankaran
ArunagiriNathar - Tiruppugazh - Venkataraman - ShankarIyer - Sankaran
Arunagirinaathar’s Lifeand
andContribution
Contributiontoto
The
The TamilBhakti
Tamil BhaktiLiterature
Literature
Kollengode S Venkataraman, Murrysville, PA
By Kollengode S Venkataraman, Murrysville, PA
e-mail:[email protected]
e-mail:[email protected]
personally. When we ask them how they changed requires great linguistic skills purely in terms of
so suddenly, they struggle to explain the changes prosody.
using logic. They attribute the abrupt changes for For example, his most popular poem muththai-
the better in their lives to Divine Intervention, or tharu-paththi-thirunagai (முத்னதத்தரு பத்தித்
God’s Grace (இனைவை் அருள் ). திருநனை அத்திை்கினை சத்திச் சரவண… …)
Such a miraculous transformation happens to follows the following rhythm pattern.:
Arunagiri also, who was given to a profligate life- tatta-tana tatta-tana-tana tatta-tana tatta-
style. Recognizing this, he feels so despondent tana-tana tatta-tana tatta-tana-tana --
about his situation, as the popular story of his life tana-taana
goes, that he wanted to kill himself by jumping off
a smaller Gopuram in the Arunachaleshwara Tem- தத்த-தை தத்த-தைதை
ple complex in Tiruvannamalai. As he was about தத்த-தை தத்த-தைதை
to jump off the tower, he was miraculously தத்த-தை தத்த தைதை –– தைதாை
stopped by Muruga-p-perumaan (Lord Muruga)
Himself, telling him, “Your life is not to be
wasted, and your mission is to save the lives of
M any Tamils know the name Tiru-p-pugazh,
or at least would have heard the name. Not
many would have read the verses or grasped their
fallen people.” When Arunagiri pleaded how he meanings. The verses have complex tongue-twist-
can do it given his background, Muruga-p-perum- ing phrases mixed with Tamil and Sanskrit words,
aan (Lord Muruga) gives him the first phrases, written following Tamil and Sanskrit sandhi rules.
முத்னதத்தரு பத்தித் திருநனை (Muththai- This is difficult to grasp, especially for today’s
tharu-paththi-thirunagai) and disappears. Tamils with a limited knowledge of the Tamil lan-
With the grace granted by Muruga-p-perum- guage and its vocabulary because of the neglect of
aan, Arunagirinaathar spontaneously composes the Tamil in the school curriculum.
his first song right there. You can listen to his What is remarkable about Arunagirinaathar is
first verse here: that his skills in using complex rhythm patterns
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp7VAfmxJog, are only the base frame of skeleton in his poems.
and listen to Sambandam Gurukkal rendering the Around this frame, the poet builds complex sto-
song in pulsating and lilting rhythm.
T
ries giving us sensuous poems dripping in Bhakti
his was a great transforming moment in Arun- (devotion). To fully understand and appreciate
agirinaathar’s life. He effortlessly abandoned Arunanagirinaathar’s poems, one needs a good
his reckless lifestyle, becoming a mendicant and grasp of Tamil and Sanskrit vocabulary and
an ardent devotee of Muruga-p-perumaan. He later grammar to get their basic meanings; and also to
traveled all over South India and Sri Lanka, visit- know of Sanatana Dharma’s tenets in the Vedas,
ing over 200 Siva and Murugan temples, and com- Puranas, Ashtanga Yoga… … as we discussed
posed songs addressing their presiding deities. earlier.
Over 1600 poems are available in an anthology
called திருப்புைழ் (Tiru-p-pugazh), meaning Di- So, without the help of commentaries from
vine Praise, most of them addressed to Muruga-p- scholars, it will be very difficult to understand and
peruman. admire the prosodic skills of Arunagirinaathar and
Arunagirinaathar’s poems in Tiru-p-pugazh his grasp of all facets of the Sanatana Dharma.
are known for their lilting and pulsating complex Here is a two-line example, first in the original
rhythm patterns, known in Indian prosody as form with the words fitted to flow with the rhythm
pattern, and then with the words split to get some
Chandas (छन्दस् in Devanagari, and சந்தம் in
idea of what the poet conveys:
Tamil), meaning poetical meter. His poems are
usually four- or eight-line verses consisting of 6, Rhythm pattern:
8, 10, 12, 14, 16, or even 20 phrases in each line தாத்தைத் தாைதை தாத்தைத் தாைதை
conforming to complex rhythm patterns. The poet தாத்தைத் தாைதை ...... தைதாை
keeps the same complex rhythm pattern in all the
Original lyrics:
four or eight lines in each poem. This alone
Starting with the six poems found in Aru- the songs starting local
muga Naavalar’s book, Shri Pillai went about his chapters of Tiru-p-
mission in his search for Arunagirinaathar’s pugazh bhajans wherever
works, said to be over 16,000 poems. He ended they settled, including in
up collecting from vari- the US. His group called
ous sources over 3,000 Tiru-p-pugazh Anbargal
verses on palm leaves. He (Friends of Tiruppugazh)
spent considerable time in set up branches in many
sorting out his palm leaf parts of India and even outside. Details here:
collections, removing du- https://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/article.php?ar-
plicates (which confirmed ticle_id=9938
to him the authenticity of For people with a decent
Arunagirinaathar’s grasp of the Tamil language
works) and reconciling and the basic tenets of the
the same poems with dif- Sanatana Dharma, a very
ferent similar sounding good source for Tiru-p-
words here and there. He Pugazh songs and their gen-
and his sons Chengalvaraya Pillai and Shanmu- eral meanings is the website
gam Pillai spent considerable amount of their developed by Shri Gopala
time and personal resources in bringing out Arun- Sundaram at www.kau-
agirinaathar’s poems in three volumes in the late maram.com/thiru/nnt0663_u.html. Gopala
19th century and early 20th century. The Tamil lit- Sundaram’s website catalogs Arunagirinaathar’s
erary World owes a great deal to V. T. Subrama- Tiru-p-pugazh songs alphabetically, and also in
nia Pillai and his two sons for bringing out Arun- terms of the temples on which the poems were
agirinaathar’s works for the outside world. composed.
Kripananda Variar Swami (1906-1993): You can listen, en-
We owe a great deal to Kripananda Variar for joy, and admire Aruna-
pains-takingly writing in girinaathar’s complex
six volumes detailed com- rhythm patterns in Shri
mentaries the Tiru-p- Pondicherry Sam-
pugazh songs, giving bandam Gurukkal’s
word-by-word meaning and excellent recordings of
explaining the references to Tiru-p-pugazh songs
all the stories in the songs. here:
This monumental work is www.tinyurl.com/Sambandam-Gurukkal-1
necessary for anyone want-
ing to understand the nu- www.tinyurl.com/Sambandam-Gurukkal-2
anced meanings of the Tiru- Shri Sambandam Gurukkal brings out the life
p-pugazh verses in the con- in Arunagirinaathar’s verses with his grasp of
text of Tamil Bhakti literature. Variar Swamy Tamil Bhakti literary tradition and musical train-
gave countless upanyasams and discourses on ing.
Tiru-p-pugazh all over the world. Incidentally,
Variar Swamy was the inspiration for the Muru-
gan Temple in Lanham, MD.
A runagirinaathar’s complex meters, Sanskrit
and Tamil phrases, and descriptive names
for deities in his poems are impossible to poeti-
A. S Raghavan Sept 4, 1928-May 17, 2013), cally translate into English or other European lan-
a government official in New Delhi, was so guages; and perhaps even into South Indian lan-
deeply impressed with Tiru-p-pugazh that he guages.
started a bhajan group in New Delhi. This grew Fred Clothey, who was born to missionary
over the years with people who learned from him parents in the Tamil country in the early 20th
century, is the Professor Emeritus of Religious • ைந்தர் அந்தாதி Kandar Anthaathi - 100
Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. He spent verses, each four lines, with five phrases/line.
over 15 years in India, and also worked in Malay- • திருவகுப்பு Thiru Vaguppu
sia and Singapore. Clothey introduced Aruna- • சவல் விருத்தம் Vel Virutham – 10
girinaathar to English-speaking readers in his verses each four lines, with twelve phrases/line.
scholarly book Quiescence and Passion (now out • மயில் விருத்தம் Mayil Virutham – 11
of print), focusing on Kandar-Anubhuti and Kan- verses each four lines with twelve
dar-Alankaaram. On the difficulty of translating phrases/line.
Arunagirinaathar Clothey says: • சசவல் விருத்தம் , Seval Viruttam and –
“[My work] is a classic example of the kind of 11 verses each four lines with twelve
project into which fools rush where angels fear to phrases/line.
tread. Neither my English nor Tamil qualifies me
to translate poetically a Tamil poet who remains
defiantly untranslatable… … [I got introduced to
Arunagiri] in 1965 and sampled the poet’s unu-
A runagirinaathar’s expansive, enigmatic, and
inscrutable idea of Godhead, we can see in
the last verse in Kandhar Anubhuthi:
sual style. I have since come to know even better உருவாய் அருவாய் , உளதாய் இலதாய்
why none have dared to attempt a translation [of மருவாய் மலராய் , மணியாய் ஒளியாய் ை்
Arunagirinaathar] save in the most prosaic of ைருவாய் உயிராய் ை், ைதியாய் விதியாய் ை்
ways.” குருவாய் வருவாய் , அருள் வாய் குைசை.
VENERATION OF RELATED DIVINE Þóõ¤Þï¢îó¢ ù¢ ªõø¢ø¤è¢ °óé¢è¤ù¢ ……. ……. ……. ªï´ï¦ôù¢
FORMS And, in the verse 150 he names Hanuman as °ø¤ð¢ð¤ø¢
Saint AruNagiri praises Lord Murugan as the younger °ø¤è£µ ñ£¼î¤ (one who is capable of discerning
sibling of Lord GaNesha, the Divine Children born facts even with simple clues] and succinctly describes
from the Sparks emanating from the Third Eye of Lord how Lord RAma bade groups of VAnAras to search for
Shiva, the six infants with the KrittikA damsels as foster SeetA Devi. The verse explains that Lord Rama sent
mothers, and who become the six-faced Arumugan when several emissaries to the East, North and the West. He
the Divine Mother embraces them all. In many songs, sent the perspicacious MAruti to go South! (This was
he praises Lord Shiva and Parvati Devi. He praises Him the direction RAvaNa was seen headed in his celestial
as the favorite nephew of Lord NArAyaNa. His songs chariot). [http://thiruppugazhamirutham.blogspot.
show his extensive and in depth knowledge of the many com/2012/11/150.html]
PurANams. His Divine poetry paints beautiful pictures His understanding of Shaivam and ShAktam is equally
of avatArs of Lord VishNu in short lines starting from exhaustive and profound. In many songs he hails the
his first song (http://thiruppugazhamirutham.blogspot. various forms of the Devi seen in Devi MAhAtmyam.
com/2012/08/5.html) Here is an example and for others refer to this site
ðî¢î¬ô îî¢îè¢ è¬íªî£´ (https://www.kaumaram.com/thiru/nnt0425_u.html)
êé¢èóù¢ ð£ô£ ê¶ó¢ñ¬ø «ð£ø¢Áñ¢ õ®«õô£ º¼èù¢ Murugan Devotees - Lord Muruga - -
²ï¢îó ñé¢¬è ªñô¢ô¤¬ì õ÷¢÷¤ ¶¬í«ò£´ Ü®ò£ó¢è÷¢ - º¼èðè¢îó
Þï¢î¤ó èí¢ìî¢ î¬ôïèó¢ õ£¿ñ¢ º¼«è£«ù Practically all the quotes here have been excerpted
from this site. My grateful acknowledgments of this
comprehensive resource.
Shankar Iyer is a well-known Tamil poet, a lyricist of devotional songs and a singer. He was blessed to learn Tiruppugazh as a young boy for many years
from Guruji Raghavan. Later, he learnt many songs from listening to PittukuLi Murugadas. Over the past sixty years, he has sung Tiruppugazh songs in many
fora in BhAratam and USA, including the SSVT and MTNA in our area. Since 2018, he has been holding weekly Tiruppugazh classes in the Capital area under
the aegis of Nova Tiruppugazh group.
Skanda also known as Wei Tuo in Chinese and Idaten in Japanese, is a Mahayana bodhisattva regarded as a devoted guardian
of Buddhist monasteries who protects the teachings of Buddhism. He is also considered “Honored Dharma Protector Skanda Bodhisattva”.