Deivathin Kural # 64 of (Vol 2) of 24 Dec 2007.

Om Namah Sivaya.

Deivathin Kural # 64 of (Vol 2) of 24 Dec 2007.

(Note 1. We are to remind the readers that herein, 'he' as a word stands for 'she' as well. When Tamil or Sanskrit words are transliterated in English, the single vowel will indicate a short utterance and a double vowel will indicate a longer pronounciation. Words in Sanskrit script not being available, the transliteration spellings and thereby the pronounciation, especially of names may be at variance from what it should be! Note 2. It may please be noted that the talk is dated some time in the late 1950's and early 60's.

12. I had mentioned a Slokam in the previous e-mail. We were discussing it's meaning and implications. If need be read that e-mail again, just to refresh your memories. I am quoting the Slokam again:-
"nrththavasaane nataraaja raajo nanaada dakkam nava pancha vaaram I uttardukama: sanakaadi siddaan etat vimarse siva suthra jaalam II".

13. If someone's name is 'Thiruvarangamudiaan Battan', it does not necessarily mean that he is an Ayyangar as a Vaishnavite. Literally translated, it would be a 'Rangaswamy', 'udaiyaan' means the owner or swamy. Similarly, 'Thiruvambalak-Kooththaduvaan', is a Tamil name for Nataraja. I was going to tell you as to how, Nataraja is connected to Vyakaranam. The "nruddavasaane" slokam, mentioned in the last e-mail (and quoted above), was about this only. He is a great dancer. He is dancing all our 'Kooththu' on our behalf. If you look at a statue of Nataraja, you can notice some extensions as though thrown out of his head. You can see the crescent moon and a woman's face representing the River Ganges. That is Siva's braided hair locks. Now-a-days, when they take a photograph, they take a snap-shot in high speed, when the thing being photographed is in motion. Here Nataraja is dancing at great speed. Due to centrifugal forces, the hair would have been stretching away uniformly. This must have been visualised by the sculptor and reproduced in stone.

14. Nataraja is holding a double-drum, which looks like an hour-glass. He is holding it in the center, where it is narrow, with the two wider ends having a stretched leather surface. There is a string attached to the center. The loose end of the string has a bead. When the dancer moves his wrist, in a twisting motion. the bead alternately hits either of the leather surfaces, producing a staccatto sound, in rhythm with the movement of the wrist. That instrument is known as 'Udukkai'. It is bigger than the one normally carried by the, 'gudu-gudu-ppandi' gypsy, but smaller than the one in the hands of 'Mariamman Koil' Poojary. That is called the 'Dhakka' or 'Dhamarugam'. It's beat is made to coincide with the steps. It is this sound, that is referred to as "...nanaada dakkaam...".

15. Amongst musical instruments, there are three important varieties. They are known as 'Charma Vaadyam', 'Tantri Vaadyam' and 'Vayu Randra Vaadyam'. Charma vaadyam, is the one with a surface of stratched leather, known as a percussion instrument, which gives sound when tapped on with the fingers or a stick. Tantri is a Stringed instrument which produces sound when a taut string is twanged. Vayu Randram is the type of instrument which produces sound due to the controlling of passage of air, like the flute. While playing on these instruments, at the end of an 'allegro' say, they give what is known as a 'Muththaippu' with a flourish. That is known as a 'chapu'. That is, at the time of, '...nruddha avasaane...', Nataraja gives a 'chaapu' in his Damaruga.

16. Nataraja is dancing. The four 'Manasika Putras' of Brhma collectively known as, 'Sanaka-adi' (including, Sanaka, Sananda, Sanatana and Sanat Kumara, allways referred to as 'Sanakaadi'); Panini, Patanjali, Vyagrapada, etc., are watching. They are all 'Maha Tapasvis' or in other words, attained souls; and so are able to watch. Nataraja's dance is not simply the physical movements of a gross being. It is the cosmic dance of the 'primeval power', which cannot be seen or even visualised or imagined by the mortal beings. Arjuna had to be given special powers, to see Sri Krishna's 'Viswa Roopa Darsanam', in Bhaghavat Gita. The same power was given by Vyasa to Sanjaya; so that he could describe all the happenings on the Kurukshetra battle fields, to the blind Dhratharashtra, the King. It is as though, he had 'closed circuit television' coming on live from a number of cameras, simultaneously! Others could not have seen all that. These Devatas, Rishis and Yogis had to have 'special vision' known as 'Gnaana chakshush to have Divya Drushti'.

17. Sanakaadi's are looking at this with their normal eyes. They have the 'Divya Chakshush' even in their normal vision itself. In Nataraja's dance recital, Vishnu is beating the drum Maddalam. Brhma is keeping counts with his hands. As the dance ends, the Damarugam gives a Muththaippu Chaapu of 14 'Staccato' sounds, that is, '...nanaada dakkaam nava pancha vaaram...'. As the total count of 14 indicates, Fourteen Vidyas of the Hindu Religion; they are meant for the ennoblement of 'Sanakaadi's' says the slokam. We hope that we are also included in the series of people of Millions of Trillions, following the Sanakaadis.

18. You might have noticed the four old people sitting infront of the Dakshinamurthy statue, in Temples. They are the 'Sanakaadis'. They are quoted in Thevaram, Thiruvasagam and Nallayira Divya Prabandam, as the "...anraalin keezh irundu aram naalvarkku uraitha...", 'the four who were adviced under the 'Aala' tree'. Those are four 'Sanakaadis'. Those fourteen sounds, were the Royal path-way for enabling us to be able to witness the 'Siva Swaroopa'. Those sounds have the collective name of 'Maheswara Suthram' for which Nandikeswara has written the Kaarikai or explanatory notes.

19. Panini is one of them, as I said earlier. Panini's history has been given in a book by the name of, 'Bruhat Katha'. This story is written in one of the six dialects of Sanskrit, known as the 'Paisasa' Bhasha, by one 'Gunaadyar'. A shorter version of 'Bruhat Katha' was written in Sanskrit by one Kshemendra, based on which Somadeva Bhattar wrote the 'Katha Sarit Sagaram'. The Arabian Nights and Aesop Tales owe their origin to the Katha Sarit Sagaram! In Tamil there is a 'Perunkathai', based on the same. Panini's story is in that book. In the Magada Land, there was a city known as Pataliputra, the modern day Patna. There was a Guru by the name of Varshopaadyayar and his younger brother, Upavarshopadyayar. The latter's daughter was Upakosala. Vararuchi and Panini were students under Varshopadyayar. Panini was a dullard of a student. His Guru told him to go to Himalayas and do Tapasya. He did so and attained to God's grace. So he was in attendance when Siva danced. Based on the 14 sounds, he wrote 'Ashtadyayi' of eight chapters, keeping the 14 sounds as the basis for 14 Suthras.

20. You might have heard those sounds, during chanting of Vedas during 'Avani Avittam', when you have the yearly wearing / renewal of Yagnopaveetham. When we beat the drum or twang the stringed instruments, we only hear the sounds made by the instrument. When Siva causes the Damaruka to sound, He creates a series of 'Aksharas'. This is what you may have heard during, 'Avani Avittam'. The sounds are :- 1. a ee unn; 2. ruluk; 3. e ong; 4. ai ouch; 5. hayavarat; 6. lann; 7. gnyama ngana namm; 8. jha bha ng; 9. gha Dda Dha shh; 10. ja ba ga da dha ch; 11. kha pha cha tha ta chtathav; 12. kapai; 13. sashar; 14. hall --iti maheswarani suthrani. When this is chanted, you might have heard with laughter in your hearts. You might have repeated without knowing as to what is the meaning of all those sounds! When Parameswara was twirling the 'Udukkai' in his wrist, while gyrating His whole body; those were the 'Chapu'.

21. The anklets are making a sound of, 'jil, jil'; damaaram is sounding, 'dhimu, dhimu'; drum is making the noice of 'dum, dum'; nadaswaram, we say is doing a 'pippee, pippee'. Do they make the same sort of sound? No. Their sound is something like what we say. We say that, 'he picked up the conch and blew a 'boom, boom'. She came on the Veena and started doing a, 'doinng, doinng'. Though these instruments did not exactly sound like that, they made some sound, very close to the sort of sound, we have verbalised. Right? We will not mix these sounds either. We will not say that the drum sounded 'jil, jil' or the conch made a 'doinng, doinng' noise. Conch will 'boom'! The point I am making is that, if the mortal human is the one playing on the instruments and the sounds so created are very close to what we have described so far: think of God, Parameswara Himself, playing on the 'udukkai'. Why cannot He be very perfect in making those sounds come true? The only aberration can be in our interpretation. But here again, that is being done by Panini, who has not only, the Divine Vision, but is also 'Divine' in everything he does!

22. How did Panini make use of these letters? He created a code. Take the first of the first three. That is 'a'. Combine that with the last of the fourth set of 'Ai' and 'ouch'. You have, 'a + ch' = 'ach'; those are the vowels. Now you take the first syllable of the fifth, 'hayavarat', that is 'ha'. Combined with the last of the 14th, you have, 'ha' + 'l' = 'hal'; those are the consonants. Take the first of the 'vowels' and last of the 'consonants', that is, 'a' + 'l' = 'al'; that gives you the whole 'alphabet'! So 'al' indicates all the 'alphabets'. How do you think the word came to mean, what it means? Ashtadyaayi has a Sutram, 'alontyasya'. 'Al' itself has come to mean letters. In all languages, 'a' is the first letter. In Urudu, 'aleef' is the first letter. In Greek, the first letter is 'Alpha'.

23. Is this not an indication that all over the world, the language of communication originated from the same source. Does it not also reveal that it all started from the same 'Vaideeka Madam'! Thus the basis for Vyakaranam is the 'Maheswara Suthra' which came out of the Nataraja's Damaruka. So it is but natural and reasonable that in Temples when 'Vyakarana Mandapam' is constructed, it has to be a Sivan Koil and not Perumal Koil.

24. Wherever they depict Nataraja in a drawing or Sculpture, you may notice Vyagra Pada and Patanjali, on either side of Nataraja. I had gone to a Temple in a place near Sirkazhi. There on either side of Nataraja, were depicted, Patanjali and Vyagrapada. Their names were written in Tamil underneath. The painter, due to his not knowing the correct way of writing, had written 'Patanjali' as 'Padam Solli'. I was thrilled to see that, there was sense even in his mistake. His name was Patanjali, alright. Padam also means 'word' and 'grammer'. So 'Padam Solli' means someone who gives the meaning for the words, with it's grammer. That is exactly what Patanjali had done. He had written the 'Maha Bhashyam' the Exhaustive Notes on Paninis book on Sanskrit grammer.

25. That reminded me of another 'coincidence', which almost looks providential. In Sanskrit, there is phrase known as 'Guna Akshara Nyayam'. Guna is the name for a variety of insects such as termites. They would feed on anything wood. In olden times, palm-leaf was used as paper for recording. When uncared for, the termites eat them up. when they bite into the palm leaf, the marks left by the termites may themselves look like some thing written on the palm-leaf. By chance, if that becomes meaningful, that is known as 'Guna Akshara Nyayam', meaning, 'the logic of the termite's writing'. Patanjali becoming 'Padamsolli' looked very much like a case of 'Guna Akshara Nyayam'! Let it be.

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva.