The Name Kidampi

From the Bhakti List Archives

• December 9, 2001


Dear BhakthAs :
the question has come up number of times before 
on the origin of the name Kidampi , which is
spelled in a number of ways .

I cam across a posting from U.Ve.Sri SrivathsAngAcchAr
Swamy , which will be of interst to you all.

There was a vamsam of kainkarya parALs at 
the ancient shrine of YathOkthakAri, who
incarnated before Lord VaradarAjan to
protect BrahmA's Yaj~nam at Hasthi Giri.

They performed Theertha Kaimkaryam
( Thriumanjanam ). They gathered sacred 
water ( thooya neer/appu  ) in GhaDams 
( vessels/kudams) and sereved the Lord there. 
Therefore they were called AppuLLAr ( appu+
uLLAr ). GhaDa ambhu darALs . hence the name
should be GhaDaamBi instead of KidAmbhi or
KidAmpi. 

The name ApuLLAr is some times linked to
Garudan ( That Garudan) based on the word 
PuLL standing for a bird. The appu uLLaar
sounds more convincing as a derivation
for GhaDAmbi . 

This is a great achArya paramparai. 
GhaDAmbi RaamAnuaacchAr was the prime
dsiciple of Sri MaDaipaLLi AacchAn 
( Sri PraNathArTiharAcchAr /MahAnasar).
GhadamBi RaamAnujAcchAr's sishyar was
GhaDAmbi RangarAjAcchAr .His sishyar 
was the uncle of Swamy Desikan : GhaDAmBi
AppuLLAr. 

The other explanation given for the name of 
KiDAmbi is linked with a village from KeraLA
near PaalakkAdu .In the old times , there were
many who migrated from this village to ThoNDai
Naadu . Their gothram is Aathryam .Hence 
they are also known as AthrEya vamsattthAl. 
The AaathrEya Giothra maharishi is Sage 
Adhri, whose wife is the famous Anasooya of 
Sriamth RaamAyaNam.

In this AathrEya Vamsam was born AathrEya AcchAn 
or PraNathArthiharAcchAr , who served AchArya 
RaamAnujA.

I am deeply indebted to U.Ve.Sri SrivathsAngAcchAr 
Swamy for these insights on GhaDAmbi and AathrEya Vamsam .

NaaraayaNa, NaarAyaNa, NaarAyaNa
V.SatakOpan    




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