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Re: tondar-adi-podi azhwAr

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Parthasarati Dileepan • August 2, 1998 


At 12:05 PM 8/2/1998 -0500, TV.Venkat@frco.com wrote:

>     debate on the basis that all the Azhwars have sung in praise of this
>     Divya Desam, however Thondaradippodi Azhwar did not sing about
>     Thirupathi and hence it got the second importance, for which the

Well, Sri Venkat's good natured comparison must be answered :-).

Yes, what you say is right.  But, it is Thiruvengadavan's 
lotus feet into which our kulapathi, the ultimate Acharya 
of all Sri Vaishnavas in this earthly realm, performed 
prapatti with "adikkeezh amarndhupugundhEnE!"  

Moreover, Satakopan is considred the divine lotus feet 
of our Lord.  Since Nammaazhvaar performed praptti 
at the feet of ThiruvEngadavan it is most apt to consider
Him to be ThiruvEngadavan's divine feet.  Add to this
the fact that Madurakavi sang only about SatakOpan.  
That too he sang "dEvu maRRaRiyEn."  Thus, one 
could argue that Madurakavi's praise of SatakOpan 
is actually in praise of ThiruvEngadavan's Thiruvadi.  
Then, the count is equal; 11 out of 12 Azvaars except 
for Madhurakavi for Thiruvarangam, and 11 out of 12 
Azhvaars except for Thondaradippodi for ThiruvEngadam :-).

Then, there is Periyaazhvar's charama thirumozhi.  It
begins with a prapatthi to ThiruvEngadamudaiyaan.  It is
Thiruvengadavan's ghantaa maNi that came down as 
Swami Sri Desikan to save the green grass of Sri 
Vaishnavam from getting graced away. 

All this may be little too much for the Kanchivaasees
to bear.  After all it is Kanchi DhEvaathidhEvan who 
nurtured Sri Ramanuja and gave Him up to Thiruvarangan 
to enjoy.  They may also point out that it is at the feet 
of PEraruLaaLan that our Swami Sri Desikan performed 
prapatti both in Tamil:

(Adaikkapalpaththu: aththigiri aruLaaLarkku adaikkalam
naan pugundhEnE.) , and

in Sanskrit:

(Nyasa Vimsathi: "nyasya thvath paadha padhmE
Varada nijabharam, nirbharO, nirbhayOsmi").

Don't you think rivalry of this kind is enjoyable.  Adiyen
will leave it up to more qualified bhagavathaas such as
Jagan, Sri VS, Muralis (Rangaswami and Kidambi), 
Vijayaraghavan, Krishnamachari, Venkat, Sri Anbil 
Swami, Madhava Kannan, Varadhan, and many 
others, to coninue this debate so that everyone 
can enjoy and benefit.

Thiruvarangan thiruvadigaLE saraNam,

-- adiyEn ramaanuja dhaasan