sri: sri raamaanujaaya nama: The accompanying files contain the paasurams (poems) called naalaayira dhivyap prabhandam composed by twelve great souls called aazhvaars. The paasurams were collected and brought out by one of the much revered sri vaishnavaa aachaaryaas called sriman naadhamuni. By the time of sriman naadamuni (9th century A.D.) the aazhvaar paasurams were not lost or unknown. It was by divine fortune that sriman naadhamuni came to know of the thamizh poems praising Lord Vishnu. It is believed that sriman naadhamuni heard some devotees visiting his home town of veeranaaraayaNapuram (present day kaattu mannaarkudi near mayilaadurthurai) singing a few thamizh songs starting with "aaraa amudhE adiyEn udalam" and ending with "... kurugoor sadagOpan kuzhalil maliyach sonna Or aayiratthuL ippatthum, mazhalai theera vallaar kaamar maanEy nOkkiyarkE." (Thiruvaay mozhi 5.8.1 - 5.8.11) Sriman naadhamuni was enchanted with the exquisite beauty of the poems. He approached the devotees and enquired about its origin. The ending of the 11 poems, "aayiratthuL ippatthu," suggested that there are many more such poems. This possibility intrigued sriman nadhamuni. Unfortunately, the devotees were unaware of any other poems besides the eleven they had just finished reciting. However, they suggested to sriman naadhamuni that he may try enquiring in the town of thiruk kurugoor, present day aazhvaar thiru nagari near thirunelvEli. So he set out to travel from kaattumannarkudi to thiruk kurugoor, a long journey indeed in his time. There he found one paraangusa daasar. From him sriman naadhamuni learnt 11 more paasurams called kaNNinuN sirutthaambu. These were composed by madhurakavi aazhvaar and all 11 paasurams are in praise of kurugoor sadagOpan (namaazhvaar). Sriman naadamuni was excited to have doubled his collection. But this only whetted his desire to seek out the more than 1,000, promised in the first set of paasurams he fell in love with at his home town. paraangusa daasar suggested that he repeatedly recite kaNNinuN sirutthaambu in the hope of pleasing the Lord. Sriman naadhamuni took his advice and recited it 10,000 times. It is said that Namaazhvaar was impressed with sriman naadhamuni's persistence and appeared before him. Namaazhvaar was so impressed that he revealed to sriman naadhamuni not just the 1102 paasurams of his own thiruvaay mozhi, but also all the rest of the paasurams composed by the other eleven aazhvaars. From this we may deduce that it is sriman naadhamuni who gathered the thamizh verses praising Lord Vishnu composed by the twelve aazhvaars. Sriman naadhamuni called this collection of paasurams or prabhandams naalaayira dhivya prabhandam or draavida vEdham. There is much debate about the exact historical dates for the twelve aazhvaars. It is believed that most of the aazhvaars lived prior to kali yuga, i.e. at least 3000 years ago. Others place the aazhvaars in the range of 7th through the early parts of 9th century. In any case, we can be sure that the aazhvaars lived much before sriman naadhamuni (826 A.D.) since during his time aazhvaar paasurms had become virtually unknown. The following table gives the birth star (thiru nakshathiram) for each aazhvaar. Thamizh Thiru Approximate aazhvaar month nakshathiram English month ------------------------------------------------------------------ poigai aazhvaar aippasi thiruvONam November boothatthaazvaar aippasi avittam November pEyaazhvaar aippasi sadhayam November thirumazhisai aazhvaar thai magam January namaazhvaar vaigaasi visaagam May madhurakavi aazhvaar sitthirai sitthirai April kulasEkaraazhvaar maasi punarpoosam March periaazhvaar aani svaathi June sri aaNdaaL aadi pooram Agust thoNdaradippodi aazhvaar maargazhi kEttai December thiruppaaNaazhvaar kaartthigai rOhiNi November thirumangai aazhvaar kaartthigai kritthigai November ------------------------------------------------------------------ Besides the aazhvaar paasurams we have also included 3 more prabhandams. They are (1) iraamunasa nooRRandhaathi by thiruvarangatthu amudhanaar, (2) prabhanda saaram by Swami Sri dEsikan and (3) thiruvaay mozhi nooRRaandhaathi by sri maNavaaLa maamunigaL. iraamaanusa nooRRandhaathi is in praise of sri raamaanujar. Prabhandassaaram gives an account of each of the aazhvaars and the prabhandams credited to each of them. Further, it gives a numerical accounting of all the prabhandams. In this accounting, Swami Sri dEsikan includes iraamunusa nooRRandhaathi as part of the naalaayira dhivya prabhandam. Thiruvaay mozhi nooRRandhaathi is exclusively in praise of namaazhvaar's thiruvaay mozhi. Another file included in this collection is aazvaar.txt. This file contains some basic facts about each of the twelve aazhvaars. The following two tables give details about how the pasurams are organized into computer files. Table I lists the start and finish pasuram numbers for each of the 26 prabhandhams. These numbers are based on the accounting given by Swami Sri dEsikan in his prabhandha saaram. Table II lists the names of the computer files and the names of the volunteers who entered the pasurams. The pasurams were entered into computer format by volunteers working in their free time using their computers and software. Each volunteer followed one of the three popular thamizh transliteration formats they were familiar with. These are Adami, Madurai, and ITRANS. To avoid format discrepancy problems, Sri K.Srinivasan, the author of Adami software, developed a software for viewing text entered in a variety of formats. This software is called TAMILVU and it is bundled with this collection. To avoid errors due to format differences please use only TAMILVU to review, select, save, and print pasurams. For use with TAMILVU a file containing all the file names of this collection is also included. This file is FLIST.TXT. In as much as this was a volunteer effort errors in typing is bound to occur. All the volunteers were diligent in correcting these mistakes as much as possible. However, if the users of this collection find any lingering typographical errors kindly inform Sri. P. Dileepan at the e-mail address MFPD@UTCVM.UTC.EDU or by regular mail at 1908 Preswood drive, Hixson, TN 37343, U.S.A. Thank you for using our collection. emperumaanaar thiruvadigaLE saraNam! ---------------------------------------------------------- Table I ------- List of prabhandam, number of pasurams, beginning and ending serial number. # of Prabhandam pasurams Start Finish ---------------------------------------------------------- 1. Periyaazvaar thirumozhi 473 1 473 2. thiruppaavai 30 474 503 3. naacchiyaar thirumozhi 143 504 646 4. perumaaL thirumozhi 105 647 751 5. thirucchanda viruttham 120 752 871 6. thirumaalai 45 872 916 7. thiruppaLLiyezucchi 10 917 926 8. amalanaathipiraan 10 927 936 9. kaNNi nuNsirutthaambu 11 937 947 10. periya thirumozhi 1,084 948 2,031 11. thirukkurnthaaNdagam 20 2,032 2,051 12. thirunNedunthaaNdagam 30 2,052 2,081 13. muthaRRiruvanthaathi 100 2,082 2,181 14. iraNdaanthiruvanthaathi 100 2,182 2,281 15. moonRaanthiruvanthaathi 100 2,282 2,381 16. naanmugan thiruvanthaathi 96 2,382 2,477 17. thiruviruttham 100 2,478 2,577 18. thiruvaasiriyam 7 2,578 2,584 19. periyathiruvanthaathi 87 2,585 2,671 20. thiruvezukooRRirukkai 1 2,672 2,672 21. siRiya thirumadal 40 2,673 2,712 22. periya thirumadal 78 2,713 2,790 23. thiruvaay mozhi 1,102 2,791 3,892 24. iraamanusa nURRanthaathi 108 3,893 4,000 25. prabhanda saaram 18 26. thiruvaaymozi nURRanthaathi 100 ---------------------------------------------------------- Table II -------- List of filenames and individual entering the pasurams: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Periyaazvaar thirumozhi 473 1 473 PERIAZH1.TXT Badri PERIAZH2.TXT Badri PERIAZH3.TXT Badri PERIAZH4.TXT Badri PERIAZH5.TXT Badri 2. thiruppaavai TPAVAI.TXT 30 474 503 Srinivasan 3. naacchiyaar thirumozhi 143 504 646 Vaidehi NACCHI.TXT 4. perumaaL thirumozhi PTMOZHI.TXT 105 647 751 Gopu 5. thirucchanda viruttham 120 752 871 Varadhan TCVIRUTH.TXT 6. thirumaalai TMALAI.TXT 45 872 916 Varadhan 7. thiruppaLLiyezucchi TPALLI.TXT 10 917 926 Varadhan 8. amalanaathipiraan APIRAN.TXT 10 927 936 Varadhan 9. kaNNi nuNsirutthaambu KANNINUN.TXT 11 937 947 Varadhan 10. periya thirumozhi PERITM1.TXT 100 948 1,047 Anonymous PERITM2.TXT 100 1,048 1,147 Anonymous PERITM3.TXT 100 1,148 1,247 Anonymous PERITM4.TXT 100 1,248 1,347 Rengi PERITM5.TXT 100 1,348 1,447 Rengi PERITM6.TXT 100 1,448 1,547 Rengi PERITM7.TXT 100 1,548 1,647 Viji PERITM8.TXT 100 1,648 1,747 Viji PERITM9.TXT 100 1,748 1,847 Viji PERITM10.TXT 103 1,848 1,951 Ramprasad PERITM11.TXT 81 1,951 2,031 Ramprasad 11. thirukkurnthaaNdagam 20 2,032 2,051 Ramprasad THANDAG.TXT 12. thirunNedunthaaNdagam 30 2,052 2,081 Dileepan NEDUNTHA.TXT 13. muthaRRiruvanthaathi MUTHAL.TXT 100 2,082 2,181 Dileepan 14. iraNdaanthiruvanthaathi IRANDAAM.TXT 100 2,182 2,281 Dileepan 15. moonRaanthiruvanthaathi MOONRAM.TXT 100 2,282 2,381 Dileepan 16. naanmugan thiruvanthaathi 96 2,382 2,477 C.R. and Kumari NAANMUG.TXT Selvakumar 17. thiruviruttham 100 2,478 2,577 C.R. and Kumari TVIRUTH.TXT Selvakumar 18. thiruvaasiriyam 7 2,578 2,584 C.R. and Kumari TASIRIAM.TXT Selvakumar 19. periyathiruvanthaathi PERIANDA.TXT 87 2,585 2,671 Kathiravan 20. thiruvezukooRRirukkai VEZHUKOO.TXT 1 2,672 2,672 Dileepan 21. siRiya thirumadal 40 2,673 2,712 Satish SMADAL.TXT 22. periya thirumadal 78 2,713 2,790 Dileepan PMADAL.TXT 23. thiruvaay mozhi TVMOZI1.TXT 110 2,791 2,900 Sankaran & Ganesh TVMOZI2.TXT 112 2,901 3,012 Ganesh TVMOZI3.TXT 110 3,013 3,122 Dileepan TVMOZI4.TXT 110 3,123 3,232 Uday & Jayaraman TVMOZI5.TXT 110 3,233 3,342 Uday & Jayaraman TVMOZI6.TXT 110 3,343 3,452 Uday & Jayaraman TVMOZI7.TXT 110 3,453 3,562 Geetha TVMOZI8.TXT 110 3,563 3,672 Geetha TVMOZI9.TXT 110 3,673 3,782 Geetha TVMOZI10.TXT 110 3,783 3,892 Mani 24. iraamanusa nooRRanthaathi 108 3,893 4,000 Mani IRAAMANU.TXT 25. prabhanda saaram 18 Dileepan PSARAM.TXT 26. Thiruvaaymozhi nURRanthaathi 100 Uday, Jayaram, TVM100AN.TXT Dileepan, Mani ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ OTHER FILES: README.TXT This file FLIST.TXT List of prabhandam file names for use with TAMILVU. TAMIVU.EXE Viewing software ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Participant E-mail address --------------------------------------------------------------------- Badri Seshadri badri@sofia.mae.cornell.edu P. Dileepan mfpd@utcvm.utc.edu Ganesh Rajagopal rajagopa@iastate.edu Geetha Ramaswami G.P.Ramaswami@damtp.cambridge.ac.uk R. Gopu rgopu@cs.tamu.edu Jayaraman jayarama@phakt.usc.edu Kathiravan kat@doe.carleton.ca Mani Varadarajan mani@sgi.com S. Ramprasad rsanthan@top.cis.syr.edu S. Renganathan Rengi@vax2.concordia.ca S. Sankaran Sankaran@meena.cc.uregina.ca Satish Satish@sally.psu.edu C.R.Selvakumar Selvakum@sun14.vlsi.uwaterloo.ca K. Srinivasan Srini@ireq.hydro.qc.ca Rajendran Udayakumar rajendra@scf.usc.edu Vaidehi Venkatakrishnan vv@elm.circa.ufl.edu Thirumalai Anandanpillai (Varadan) Chari@iastate.edu T. Vijayaraghavan (Viji) viji@coe.wvu.edu -----------------------------------------------------------------------