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thiruppavai day twenty six song twenty six

From the Bhakti List Archives

Ramani Naidu • January 9, 2003 


TIRUPPAVAI  - DAY TWENTYSIX -  SONG TWENTYSIX

Transliteration

mAlE manivannA mArkaLi nIrAtuvAn
mElaiyar ceyvanakaL vEntuvana kEttiyEl
jnalaththai ellAm natunka muralvana
pAlanna vannaththu un pAncha canniyamE
pOlvana cankankal pOyppAtu utaiyanavE
cAlap perumpaRaiyE pallAnticaippArE
kOla viLakkE kotiyE vithAnamE
Alin ilaiyAy arulElOr empAvAy.

Translation

The Noblest! Carbuncle Hued!
Conches as white as pancha canya booming
To make the whole world tremble;
Large and broad drums;
A hoard of singers hailing You!
Auspicious lamps flags and canopy –
Grant us such implements for the pavai,
As are pressed into service by the pious.
Thou who layest on the banyan leaf at the Deluge.

The two songs, twenty-six and twenty-seven, contain specific prayers. While
the twenty-sixth song refers to requirements for the ritualistic observance
of pavai, the twenty-seventh song refers to more personal bestowal as prayed
of God.

God is addressed ‘mal’ at the beginning of the song that literally means
‘the greatest’ or ‘the noblest’. The greatness or nobility attributed to God
is however distinct in that it is a greatness that makes greatness otherwise
no greatness at all as Nammalvar has said:

Uyarvara uyarnalam utaiyavan.

Manivannan is another very familiar name. It refers to the carbuncle.
Narayana is dark skinned and is associated with rain clouds, flowers and
carbuncle which are associated with black or blue.

The prayer in this song is for specific implements pressed into service
during the pavai observance. The maids ask of Krishna to grant them conches,
drums, lamps, ensigns and canopy along with the company of devotees hailing
God. These contribute to a certain ritualistic character to the pavai
observance.

In a casual conversation with Dr.M.R.P.Gurusamy, one of the renowned Tamil
scholars in this part of the country, Ramani asked him if any connotation is
to be attributed to the implements prayed for. He has said that it is always
possible to extend literature to suggest more than what it obviously says.
But such extension has to be more natural rather than far-fetched. In fact,
such far-fetched interpretation will more often be at the expense of the
literary sensibilities to be discerned.

Earlier, there was a reference to mirror and fan as items prayed for:
‘ukkamum tattoliyum tantu’. Traditional interpretation extends the fan for
the dispeller of delusions. Though such interpretation does not lend itself
to disputation, it will be enough to look at the fan as part of the
paraphernalia of a royal guest and as such part of the pavai observance in
which God is invoked. Similarly, the mirror is extended to a symbol of the
soul that has shed all its impurities and has become as clear as a mirror.
In the same lines, the items prayed for in the twenty-sixth song, namely the
conch, the drum, lamp, ensign, canopy can be given extended meaning.
However, to take them as implements incidental to pavai observance is a
simple enough reading of the song.

Andal literature has a special aspect about it. Alwars in general sing about
the grandeur of God, no doubt. Personalising the experience of the Divine is
also an inseparable part of the Alwar literature.

 In fact, each of the twelve Alwars is considered a manifest form of the
various insignia associated with God like the conch, the katha and others.
Andal is the manifest form of GodÂ’s consort, the Goddess of Earth. As such,
her songs are full of the regalia of the celebration of God, of which the
twenty-sixth song also bears witness. Traditional interpretation will
attribute it to recollection of her days with God. In a way, this explains
the unique sensuousness element in Nacciyar Tirumoli. Metaphorically too,
there is a point to make. The soul has had its grand association with God
but has subsequently lost it when it came to be associated with bodily
existence. It is the longing for the lost grand association with God that is
to be fulfilled by the pavai observance in which the royal paraphernalia of
conch, drum, ensign, lamp, canopy, throne, fan, mirror and others fall in
place. Thus while taking the implements for the pavai observance just as
implements and not as loaded with metaphoric overtones, a plausible
explanation is still obtained.



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