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Re: theerththan

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Parthasarati Dileepan • April 14, 1995 


On Fri, 14 Apr 1995 13:30:17 -0700 Mani Varadarajan said:
>
>Dear bhakti group,
>
>I chanced upon the following paasuram on nammaazhvaar
>yesterday night:
>
>ovaath thuyarp piRavi utpada maRRev evaiyum,
>moovaath thani muthalaay moovulakum kaavalOn,
>maavaagi aamaiyaay mIn aagi maanidam aam,
>thEvaathi thEva perumaa Nnen_thIrththanE.	2.8.5
>
>I was hoping someone could shed light on why aazhvaar
>addresses perumaaL as his "thIrththan" in the last line.
>What exactly is he saying? I don't know of any temple
>where the deity is known as thIrththan, nor does it
>seem particularly appropriate for the word to simply mean
>the "sanctifier" or "sanctified".
>


    The answer may lie in the next paasuram:

    theeththan ulagaLandha sEvadimER poondhaamam
    sErththi yavaiyE sivanmudi mEl thaan kaNdu
    paarththan theLindhozhindha painthuzhaayaan perumai
    pErththum oruvaraal pEsakkidandhathE.

                       -- thiruvaaymozhi 2.8.6


I believe in sri paadhukaa sahasram sri dhEsikan
has the two paadhukais engage in friendly rivalry,
with one claiming she was used twice out of three
steps the Lord took in vaamanaavadhaaram,
and the other responding that gangai flows out from
the feet she is worn on.  In the above paasuram paarththan
finds the flowers he laid at the feet of ulagaLandha
sEvadi on the head of Sivan, much like the gangai
from emperumaan's sEvadi that Sivan received on
his head to absolve his sin of brimhahaththi.  Thus,
emperumaan is theerththan.



-- Dileepan