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Re: piLLaiyAr

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usdeiva • September 10, 1997 


Vidyasankar Sundaresan wrote:
> 
> Dear Sri Sundararajan,
> 
> I just read your recent post on the bhakti list. I had a few questions for
> you.
> 
> 1. Aren't there auvaiyAr poems dedicated to the "yAnai"? If I remember
> right, she even talks of the yAnai in the context of murukan's marriage to
> vaLLi.
> 
> 2. I was surprised to read about the interpretations of the kAncI AcArya
> that you referred to. You might have gathered from my other postings that
> my family members are followers of the Sringeri AcAryas. However, what
> surprises me is the actual interpretation you quote. My usual impression
> of the kAncI AcArya's statements is that he always tries to give a
> goody-goody touch to anything. His analysis of tIkkuraLai seems out of
> character! Is this written down? In "daivattin kural" perhaps?
> 
> Vidyasankar
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear brahmaSrI vidyASankar,

As I have already indicated, I am on a visit to the USA and as such do
not have my collections with me here.   If you claim that the Tamil
poetess auvaiyAr had sung of the deity 'yAnai' [shall we say 'Anai' as
in the classical Tamil], you are perhaps not referring to the Tamil
sangham classics which, to my knowledge, do not have any auvaiyAr poem
dedicated to Lord Murugan.   It is paripADal which has extensive poems
dedicated to Murugan, none of them from auvaiyAr or referring to Anai.
There are of course several UNAUTHENTIC later-day poems attributed to
auvaiyAr.  'auvaiyAr' has suffered the same fate, as with other
classical authors, in having spurious compositions attributed to her.

I confess to have started with admiration for the kAmakOTi svAmi, on the
basis of the media-managed adulations published in 1954 or so, when the
svAmi visited Madras on his 'pAda-yAtrA' during the course of his grand
migration from kumbakonam to kanchipuram.   Slowly, it was with much
hurt and disbelief that his eclectic 'discourses' gave short shrift to
the discipline of historiographic studies and textual analysis.   He was
in fact a man of learning in some respects, and he could have lived a
great life as an AchArya of advaitam, without confusing and destroying
the evidences of history and religious texts.   At the end of all this,
I would reiterate that the name of SrI Sankara-bhagavat-pAda is held
precious in vaishNava religion.

It is a little late in the day to say it, but I want to say that your
article on the 'apaurushEyatvam of vEda' was highly perceptive, and I
have preserved it.

Best wishes from T.S. Sundara Rajan.