amalanAdhipirAn and rAman

From the Bhakti List Archives

• April 20, 1998


namaskArams!  Dear bhakti members!  Just wanted to share with you all one of 
the most enjoyed moments from our prabhandam practice.

Thanks to SrI M.G, SrInivAsan, we got to know about SrI P. SrI's 
(the very well-known expert on kamba rAmAyaNam around the middle of the century)
interpretation of kamban's following lines (from karan vadaippadalam):

tumilap pOrval arakkarkuc cuTTinAL
amalat tolpeyar Ayirattu AzhiyAn
nimalap pAda ninaivil irunda ak-
kamalak kaNNanaik kaiyinAl kATTinAL

Rough translation:

(SUrpaNakha) pointed out with her hand (to karan, who came with the great noisy
demon army), the lotus-eyed one who was engrossed in thoughts about the 
nimalappAdam of 'amalan', who has a thousand names and has the Azhi or cakkaram.

The above stanza from kamba rAmAyaNam shows the status of rAma when 
SUrpaNakha brings karan along with his army.

SrI P. SrI notes thus:

SrI vaishNavas have a practice - if unwanted or undesirable thoughts arise
in their minds, as a way of parihAram, they will do anusandhAnam of 
'amalanAdhipirAn' pAsuram.  rAma talks with SUrpaNakha jovially only for fun,
but, the result was dangerous.  

SrI P. SrI interprets that rAma was meditating on amalanAdhipirAn 
(because of the use of the edugai words 'amala' and 'nimala'), 
since HE is doing parihAram for having talked jovially to SUrpaNakha.

It also shows how well-learned about AzhwAr's prabhandams kamban was.

It should be borne in mind here that we should ignore the kAlam
difference between rAmAvatAra kAlam and pANAzhwAr's kAlam, but learn to
enjoy the kamba rasam as expounded so nicely by Sri P. SrI.

adiyEn,
kalyani krishnamachari
ps. This information has been taken from a book on amalanAdhipirAn by
an unknown author - published by SAnti press.