DEIVATHIN KURAL # 06 (Vol # 7) Dated 05 July 2013

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 06 (Vol # 7) Dated 05 July 2013

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by PeriyavãL of Kanchi Kaamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are going ahead from page No 35 of Volume 7 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein ‘man/he’ includes ‘woman/she’ too mostly. These e-mails are all available at   http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated continually)

The Connection to Sambandar

53.                     Thiru Gnãna Sambandar is the name of one of the Nãyanmãrs who had the opportunity to be breast-fed by AmbãL as a small baby and one of the persons to be referred as the 'Dravida Sisu' the other being our ÃchãryãL himself!  His name Sambandar has the meaning of 'the connection' in Tamil.  So let us start the connection between 'Nãl Vãy' PiLLaiyar and the four mouths of the four great poets who have sung all those wonderful Thevãram songs, from this Sambandar himself!  Sambandar is an Avatara of Kumara Swami aka SubrahmaNya Swami; who I said is not to be separated from his elder brother.  So let us start with, 'Sambandarin sambandam' – 'the connection to Sambandar'; as anyhow the 'Thiru Murai' as the order in which the Thevãram songs are listed, commence with his songs only!

54.          You might have heard about a town known as 'Therazhunndur', which is the place of birth of 'Kamban', a poet known famously as the 'Kavi Chakravarty' to mean an Emperor amongst Poets!  The Presiding Deity in the most important temple in that city is known as 'Veda Pureeswarar' and hence the city must have had a name as 'Vedapuri' also.  The Brahmins of that place have been repeatedly praised in many of his poems by Sambandar, as 'Azhundai Maraiyor'.  Then there is a Vinãyaka temple there, in which the deity is called as, 'Gnãna Sambanda Vinãyagar'!  This place other than being a 'Pãdal Pertra Sthalam' for Saiva Devotees is also one of the 'Divya Desam' of the VaishNava devotees!  There, the PerumãL is known as 'Ãmaruviappan' and 'Gosakar'.  Look at the meaning of those two words to be, 'Cattle Transformed as Father' and 'Friend of Cattle'; which means they are other names for Sri Krishna Bhagawan only!

55.          When Sambanda Murthy SwamigaL went there, he was slightly confused looking at the Gopuram of two different temples from a distance.  He was an ardent devotee of Siva.  His 'Ananya Bhakti' for Siva was so complete that it was exclusive of other Gods and deities.  Here it was PiLLaiyar who pointed out the way to the Siva Ãlayam that he got two special names such as, 'Vazhi Kãtti Vinãyagar' and 'Gnãna Sambanda Vinãyagar'.  Happily Sambandar went to the Siva Ãlayam and sang his Padigam.  He also requested Siva that the fact that it was this PiLLaiyar who gave him the right directions, may be made known to the world by suitably naming the PiLLaiyar and the function for 'Ãrdrã  Darsanam' should be held every year in the Sannidy of this PiLLaiyar's temple.   As it is, Gnãna Sambandar himself has a name as 'ÃLudaiya PiLLaiyar' and now the PiLLaiyar has that name as a special title!  (Even if the reader understands Tamil, this paragraph can be quite confusing!  Best is to read it again!) 

With Appar SwamigaL

56.          There are two more incidents involving Sambandar with Vinãyaka in which Appar SwamigaL is also involved.  They were contemporaries in which Appar was a senior contemporary.  They had tremendous mutual love and respect for each other that they have visited many divine stations / temple-towns together.  That is the great good fortune of people of those places, who lived in their times!  They both went to a place known as 'Thiru Veezhi Mizhalai' that people living in that Kshetram were very happy and thrilled.  However they were unhappy because they were going through a period of absolute drought condition, facing all sorts of scarcities!  The well-known phrase was 'Dhana-dhanyam' as when you do not have one, the other could satisfy your needs!  These two great devotees of Siva took pity on the town's people and prayed for Gold, despite having given up the lure of all types of desires!  Accordingly in consideration of their request, Swami Siva sanctioned Gold as coins to be kept as what is known as 'Padikkãsu' in the 'Bhali Peetam' places!  (Here PeriyavãL happened to mention that, in a place when people were suffering from difficult drought conditions appealed to the Chief Minister, which in Tamil is Mukhya Mantri, but no as it is a pair of Sanskrit words, it was changed to 'Mudal Amaichchar'; but then that was also not really Tamil but related to the root Sanskrit word Amãtyar and thus triggered off a deviation in the main subject of the talk by PeriyavãL, in to a discussion of Anti-Sanskrit Movement!)

Anti-Sanskrit Movement

57.          To-day there is a very good movement that has come about as per which, if you chase away Sanskrit, they are convinced that, that very act itself will somehow aid and abet the growth of Tamil!  Starting from such leaders who are seriously involved in this act of beating and chasing away Sanskrit, right up to those who are giving the 'War Cry' for 'Tamil Only – or Thanit-Tamizh-Muzhakakm / Iyakkam' – they have added another weapon to their armoury.  That is the weapon of Secularism!  Here you have to understand Secularism to mean 'Anti-Hinduism' only, but never to be so mentioned!  So they have decided that all religious literature or literature which is in some way related to the Hindu religion should be debarred.  In that the first step is to get rid of all words in Tamil which seem to smell like Sanskrit!  Amongst them if you take a test as to who are in the know of ThirukkuraL, which they claim to be a Secular Ilakkiyam, not even one or two per cent may pass, I wonder!  As I was saying, the Sanskrit word 'Amãtya' that is now in use in Tamil as 'Amaichchar'!  In fact they did not want the word Mantri which looks and sounds like a Sanskrit word.  So they opted for 'Amaichchar', which in fact is from the Sanskrit word 'Amãtya'!  Now if you ask people knowledgeable in Tamil grammar, they will quote that 'the ending as 'tta' and 'tya' will become 'chcha' in Tamil, saying ['ta' karattukku 'cha' karam poli' – 'தகரத்துக்கு சகரம் போலி'].  So, words like 'Maitunan' will become 'machchinan' – 'மச்சினன்' and 'pittan' will become 'pichchan' – 'பிச்சன்'.   Even pure Tamil words such as 'vaiththathu' or 'puLiththu vittadu' is being mentioned or spoken as 'vechchadu' – 'வெச்சது' and 'puLichchu pochchu' – 'புளிச்சு போச்சு', isn't it? In the same order, 'Amãtya' has become first 'அமர்த்தியவர்' in Tamil and then become 'அமைச்சர்'!

58.          Of late in recent times there is a phrase as 'manitha neyam' – '' that is popularly bandied about much!  Good sounding and well-meaning phrase alright, full of humaneness.  But in fact it is a replacement for the phrase, 'manitha abhimãnam', which has been in use all these years and people have taken a sudden dislike for 'abhimãnam' as it sounds more Sanskrit than Tamil!  But their preference for this 'manitha neyam' is funny to say the least as 'neyam' is a decadence of the Sanskrit word 'Sneham' only!  O K let 'neyam' be what-ever, but how about the first word 'manitha'?  That is also derived from 'Manushya' of Sanskrit and so is the 'Man' in English!  So shall we do away with 'Man'?  Similarly, they wish to do away with the 'pathi' in 'Neethipathi' the Judge, as the world 'Pathi' sounds like Sanskrit; but then how about the word 'Neethi'?  There is no 'justice' in this world, I say!

For Example ThiruvaLLuvar

59.          At least the so-called 'Love Tamil – Anti-Sanskrit Movement holds ThiruvaLLuvar in High Esteem!  So it will be agreed that there is no greater champion of the Tamil Language than ThiruvaLLuvar.  But, what does the first 'KuraL' say?  I Quote:  "அகர முதல எழுத்தெல்லாம்

ஆதி பகவன் முதற்றே உலகு"  Please note that in the very first KuraL he has included three words of Sanskrit origin, such as, ஆதி, பகவன் and உலகு.  Let us for example take the last word 'Ulagu', it is derived from the Sanskrit word 'loka:' – 'लोक:' which is from the fact of what is seen!  The eyes that see are 'lochanam' in Sanskrit and whatever is seen by the eyes is 'lokam' or 'vilokanam' or 'lepakshi' that is 'appearances' in English, as well as the English word 'look'!  With the same meaning there is a Tamil Word for the world known as 'Paar' – 'பார்' which is derived from the idea of looking.  So come to think of it ThiruvaLLuvar could have coolly used only pure Tamil words and could have said in the second line, "பழங்கடவுள் முதற்றே வையம்".  It would have been perfect metrically too!  But ThiruvaLLuvar had a more liberal attitude about such things and had felt free to include three words of Sanskrit origin in the very first of his KuraL containing 1310 two-lined couplets!  The Tamil loving public should follow the example of ThiruvaLLuvar if they are to have the sense to choose correctly after due 'differentiation and analysis' as they give so much emphasis for 'paguththu-arivu', as though it is a process known only to them!  May that 'Aadi Bhagavan' that ThiruvaLLuvar is praying to may give them the 'பகுத்து அறிவு' to progress on the path shown by ThiruvaLLuvar!

Tamil and Sanskrit Related At the Root

60.          The oldest Tamil document quoted highly is Tholkãppiyam.  From the time of Tholkãppiyam, the Tamil scholars have never hesitated to add and accommodate the Sanskrit words known as 'the northern word' or – 'வட சொல்' in their writings!  In that word 'Tholkãppiyam' itself, this part 'kãppiyam' is very much the derivative of Sanskrit word for literature 'kãvyam' – 'काव्यं'; and so are the words such a 'Kavi' and 'Kavita' are similar derivatives from the same root word.  So also the Tamil words such as 'IlakkaNam' meaning 'grammar' and 'Ilakshiyam' meaning 'aim' – 'இலக்கணம் & இலட்சியம் / இலக்ஷியம்' are all from Sanskrit origin only.  Silappadhikãram is the name of the famous Tamil Literary classic claimed to be a master-piece; the second part of the name as 'adhikãram' is very much a Sanskrit name for a part /chapter!  Patalam / Sarukkam are all derived from 'Patam / Sargam'.   In 'Moolamum and Uraiyum' – 'மூலம்' is very much the 'मूलं' of Sanskrit!  Like this we can go on for ever without an end, talking about the number of words in Tamil that have the same root as the Sanskrit words!

61.          The reason for that is that for both Tamil and Sanskrit and many of the languages of India have had the basic roots in what is known as 'Prãkrutam'.  There could have been a time further earlier when India was a huge land-mass known as Kumari-Kandam or Lemuria!  We are not going to identify ourselves too closely with any of the die-hard-extremists or proponents of any one language over any other, relating to such untraceable pasts!  Neither are we going to accept, the interested inputs by the so-called Indologists that imagined an Aryan Influx into India, in some eerie past!  So in the period after geographically Kumari-Kandam was lost forever to the Indian Ocean, the tie up between the languages in India has been through Prãkrutam at the root of both Tamil and Sanskrit and many of other Indian Languages!

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva