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From: lsrinivas (lsrinivas_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Nov 06 2002 - 18:10:05 PST
--- In bhakti-list@y..., Sadagopan <sgopan@c...> wrote:
> Dear SrI Mani Varadarajan:
>
> SrI Selva nampi of ThirukkOttiyUr
> is generally recognized as the AchAryan
> of PeriyAzhwAr prior to the time he was
> commanded by the Lord to go to the Madhurai
> King's sabha to establish NaarAyana Parathvam.
>
I understand apimAnatuGkan celvan to be the name of a Pandya royal
personage. (cf BV Ramanujam, History of Vaishnavism upto Ramanuja,
Annamalai University).
> PeriyAzhwAr until then was not tutored in
> VedAs and Upanishads . He was just doing Maalaa
> Kaimkaryam at SrIvilliputthUr.
I am not clear what textual or traditional basis there is for the
understanding that PeriyAzvAr was not tutored in sruti and smrti.
On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence that PeriyAzvAr was a
highly learned and scholarly person who had perhaps forsworn mere
sastraic erudition and adopted the way of service of a Vaishnava par
excellence. For one thing, Sri Vedanta Desika refers to him as a
commentator on the Kalpasutras. (cf kalpa sUtra AkhyAtAvAna
periyAzvAr, RahasyatrayasAram)
It is also interesting to compare his approach with that of Sri
ALavantAr in AgamaprAmANyam. Thus in the AgamaprAmANyam, the Vaidika
objector of Bhagavata practices speaks as follows:
"They offer puja to a god, undergo a special consecration, consume
the eatable offerings, observe a series of sacraments that deviate
from the traditional series, which begins with the planting of the
seed and ends with the cremation, " . Again, "they do wear the
offered garlands and do eat the offered eatables". (AgamaprAmANyam
transl. and edited by JAB Van Buitenen)
These and other objections of the Vaidika pUrvapakSin are refuted by
ALavantAr (yAmunAcArya) thus establishing the validity of the
Bhagavata practices.
PeriyAzvAr seems to be very much having this polemic in mind in the
opening verses of tiruppallANTu. But instead of negating and refuting
the objections of outsiders and proving the validity of Bhagavata
practices in the Vaidika value system (a sastraic methodology), he
states each one of these seemingly offending practices as an article
of faith of the Vaishnava (toNTarkulam).
Various phrases in the tiruppallANTu seem to echo what ALavantAr
lists as other people's objections:
"Etu nilattil iTuvatan munnam vantu eGkaL kuzAm pukuntu"
"vantu aTi tozutu Ayira nAmam colli"
"tIyiR polikinRa ceJcuTar Azi tikaz tiruccakkarattin"
"neyyiTai nallatOr cORum niyatamum attANI cEvakamum"
"uTuttuk kaLainta nin pItakavATai uTuttu kalattatuNTu
toTutta tuzAymalar cUTikkaLaintana cUTum ittoNTarkaLOm"
Thus it turns out PeriyAzvAr was well versed in all the sastraic
controversies of his time and could comment on it in sastraic terms
if he wished. It appears that he chose to be a singing devotee i.e.,
bhakta ("pATumanam uTai pattar uLLIr vantu pallANTu kURuminE!").
It may be pointed out that yAmunAcArya also adds a stanza, at the end
of the Agamapramanyam, glorifying the "impeccable scriptures, whose
spirit has been increased by the glorious Lord Nathamuni". He is of
course refering here to the Divyaprabandham.
Hope this helps,
Lakshmi Srinivas
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