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Re: Sri Krishna bakthi - Sthaayi Bhaavam

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Sampath Rengarajan • February 28, 1996 


On Feb 28, 11:06am, Mani Varadarajan wrote:
> Subject: Re: Sri Krishna bakthi - Sthaayi Bhaavam
> On Feb 28,  8:14am, Sampath Rengarajan wrote:
> > As we all know, the coming Friday is Sri KulasEkara aazhwaar's
> > thirunakshathram
> > and it is interesting to note many of our poorvaachaaryaaLs didnot provide
> > vyaakyaanam for his "mukunda maala".
>
> I would like to point out that many scholars, both Western
> and Indian, Sri Vaishnava and otherwise, are of the opinion
> that the mukunda maala stotram is not by the same kulasekhara
> maharaja as kulasekhara aazhvaar.  The ambiguity lies in
> the fact that all the kings of that dynasty were known as
> kulasekhara.
>
> One of the reasons the scholars believe that the stotra
> was composed much after the aazhvaar's existence is the
> lack of references by great pUrvAcAryas, including Desika,
> Pillai Lokacharya, etc. All this lends credence to the
> opinion that it was composed probably in the 13th or
> 14th century by another Chera king.
>
> Mani
>-- End of excerpt from Mani Varadarajan

 I agree with the above statement that there are differences of opinion as to
whether this was delivered by our aazhwaar or someone in the lienage of his
kingdom bearing the same name kulasEkaran delivered it. The argument that no
one wrote vyaakyaaNam prior to Sri maNavaaLa maa munikaL, can also be
attributed to the niceties of this maalaa instead of casting doubts on the
authorship. I know what it "contains" and for obvious reasons I donot want to
go public about it. The contents of this maalaa being so rich and that there
are some striking similarities to the indepth SriKrishna bakthi conveyed in
this and the aazhwaar's perumaal thirumozhi one may also consider that this was
delivered by the aazhwaar. Sri periya vaachchaan pillai (who is accepted by
both the sects of srivaishnavam) who is considered the incarnation of
thiruk"kaNNa"pura perumal (as per the desire of Thirumangai) wrote vyaankyaaNam
on perumaal thirumozhi and he naarates the six stages of Bakthi implied in
these paasurams of perumaal thirumozhi. If I get the time I will try to present
a brief account of this vyaakyaaNam on friday.

Sampath Rengarajan