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Inputs for CD ROM : XII.1-- Thirumangai AzhwAr's Six prabhandhams

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sadagopan • April 7, 2001 


Dear BhakthAs: 

Thirumangai AzhwAr was the last of the Twelve AzhwArs .
His Taniyan is:

KaarthikE KrittikA Jaatham chathushkavi SikhAmaNim
ShaDprabhandha kruthaM Saarnga-mUrthim kaliyamAsrayE 

Thirumangai AzhwAr known as Kaliyan, ParakAlan was born
in Nala samvathsaram , VriscchikA Maasam , PourNami dinam.
It was a Thursday and KritthikA Nakshathram was in ascendance.
His place of birth is Thirukkurayaloor near ThiruvAli-Thirunahari.
His given name at birth was Neelan.He was born in Chathurtha 
VarNam and he mastered svakula Vidhyai of DhanussAsthram .
With his mastery of archery and weapons handling , he was
formidable in fights. He became a chieftain of a district
in the kingdom of ChOLAs and served the ChOLA king. He had
four ministers with the names of ThALUthuvAN , Neer-mEl 
NadappAn , Nizhalil MaRaivAn and ThOlA Vazhakkan .With their 
help and the carrying power of his horse with the name of AadalmA ,
Neelan was able to drive away many enemies of the ChOLA king 
and enjoyed a honored status in the ChOLA Kingdom.

Meanwhile , in  a nearby village , there was a female child born
as BhUmyamsai in an Aambal pond ( Kumuda saras) and a Vaisyan
took that child home and adopted it as his own.This child grew 
to be a beautiful maiden named Kumudavalli. The parents were worried 
about finding a suitable bridegroom  for their daughter. Friends of
Neelan mentioned to him about the extraordinary beauty of
Kumudavalli .Neelan rushed to the house of the parents of
Kumudavalli and requested the father to give his daughter
away as his bride. The father asked his daughter about her 
consent and she replied that any one whom she could marry 
should have VishNu Chinhams (SamAsrayaNam ), VishNu Bhakthi and
should in addiiton perform TadhiyAraadhanams for the BhagavathAs. 

Neelan was smitten with love for Kumudavalli and agreed to
her conditions. He went to the Sannidhi of ThirunaRayUr PerumAL
and prayed for SamAsrayaNa BhAgyam. ThirunaRayUr Nampi consented
and pressed the disc and conch on the shoulders of Neelan ,
presented ThirumaNN Kaappu and initiated Neelan into 
the meaning of Thirumanthiram . All of these happenings 
were not visible to the archakAs and the sEvArthis of 
ThirunarayUr Nampi . Neelan was blessed to receive 
SamAsrayaNam from the very hands of the Lord and 
returned home as a Sri VishNavan , wedded Kumudavalli
and began the TadhiyArAdhana kaimkaryams .

The spies of ChOLa RaajA reported that Neelan was 
spending a lot of the revenues due to the king in
TadhiyArAdhanams .The angry king ordered his soldiers
to capture Neelan and bring him to the court.Thirumangai
Mannan confronted the soldiers sent by the king and drove
them away .The king himself came to fight Thirumangai Mannan
and prooved to be no match for his heroic commander . The king
also had to withdraw from the battle . The king however tricked 
Thirumangai with conciliatory words and had him imprisoned.
Thirumangai was very sad over the interruption to his
TadhiyArAdhana Kaimkaryam and during his dream inside 
the prison , Lord VaradarAjA appeared before him and 
instructed him to come to Kaanchi to recover buried 
treasure close to His temple and gain his release from
the prison. 

Next Morning , Thirumangai proceeded to Kaanchi with
a court servant , worshipped Lord VaradarAjan and dug
up the treasure  pointed out by the Lord . He returned 
the funds used from the treasury of the king for 
TadhiyArAdhanams and used the rest of the funds for 
the future Kaimkaryam . 

Soon the extra funds from Kaanchi were used up and 
Thirumangai had shortage of funds to carry on his
TadhiyArAdhanam . With the counsel of the ministers
(asAdhubhyO arTam aadhAya Saadhubhyas sampracchathi),
Thirumangai appropriated funds from avaishNavAs and
fed the VaishNavAs.Thirumangai did not touch any
VaishNava dhanam .One day , Thirumangai did not
encounter any avaishNavAs to gather money for 
the TadhiyArAdhanam and was very sad about 
the interruption to his Kaimkaryam. 

The dhivya Dampathis saw the plight of their
Bhakthan and appeared before him as a rich avaishNava,
newly-wedded  couple. Thirumangai was happy to see them 
adorned with rich jewelery and ornaments. He robbed them 
and put all his plunderings in a box and tried to lift that
box so he can go back to his village . Thirumangai could
not lift that box , however much he tried. He was angry 
and thought that the bridegroom had cast a spell that
made the box unliftable. Thirumangai drew his sword
and demanded that the bridegroom reveal to him the manthram
that he (the Bridegroom) had used to make that box 
super heavy. The bridegroom laughed and addressed
Thirumangai as " Namm KaliyA " and asked Kaliyan to come
closer so that he can repeat the manthram in to Kaliyan's
ears. Lord Sriman NaarAyaNa recited the Moola Manthram
in the ears of Kaliyan and blessed him with His Sevai
with MahA Lakshmi and His parijanams. Thirumangai Mannan
became at that instant Thirumangai AzhwAr and performed 
SaraNAgathi at the sacred feet of the Dhivya dampathis.
The AanandhAnubhava PravAham of Thirumangai found its 
release through Six Prabhandhams , which serve as 
the six angams for the four Tamizh vedams of Swamy 
NammAzhwAr .These Six prabhandhams set in the four
modes of poetry known as Aasu, Chithram , Madhuram and
Vistharam and earned him the name of Naalu Kavi perumAL.
These six prabhandhams extolling Bhagavath GuNAnubhavam,
SaraNAgathi and Bhagavath-BhAgavatha kaimkaryams are:
(1)Periya Thirumozhi (2) ThirukkuRunthANDakam 
(3)ThirunedumthANDakam (4) ThiruvEzhukkURRirukkai 
(5) SiRiya Thiumadal and (6) Periya Thirumadal.

Thirumangai AzhwAr performed MangaLAsAsanam for 
86 of the 108 dhivya dEsams . He performed many 
kaimkaryams such as the building of the ramparts 
for the Srirangam temple, construction of 
the dasAvathAra sannidhi at Srirangam and the creation
of the Thiruadhyayana Uthsavam at Srirangam .
He ascended to parama Padham from the dhivya desam 
of ThirukkuRunkudi.

Let us reflect upon one of the ThirukkuRungudi 
Paasurams at the conclusion of this short celebration
of the vaibhavam of this great AzhwAr:

NinRa Vinayum Thuyarum keda Maamalar-yEnthi ,
  senRu paNimin yezhumin Thozhumin ThoNDIrkALL ,
yenRum iravum pahalum vari vanDu isai paada ,
  kunRin Mullai ManRidai nARum KURUMKUDIYE  

Thirumangai Mannan ThiruvadigaLE Saranam 
Daasan, Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SatakOpan

P.S: We will continue with short descriptions of
the six prabhandhams of Thirumangai in the subsequent 
postings and refer there to archived postings on the lists
about them for detailed studies by the BhakthAs.  
   
 


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