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oththAr mikkArai ilaiyaaya maamaayaa

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varadhan • July 23, 2000 


srImathE saTakOpAya namah
srImathE rAmAnujAya namah
srImathE anantArya mahAguravE namah
srIman vara vara munayE namah

dear bhAgavathAs,

smt Lakshmi had raised a question regarding oththAr mikkArai ilaiyaya
maamayaa paasuram (thiruvAymozhi 2.3.2 - oonil vAazh pathikam)-
She is correct - oththAr means "people who are equal" - and mikkAr
obviously means "people who are more than equal" - It does, on the
surface, seem redundant.

Many of our pUrvAcharyAs, while commenting on this line use the word -
samAdhika DhariDhran - i.e. one who does not have any equals and
no superior beings -

adiyEn can only speculate as to why AzhvAr uses both - maybe it is 
just to make it very clear - i.e. if he had just said oththAr ilaiyaya
maaamaaya, then someone might ask a question "if perumAL has no
equals, that is fine - does this mean that He has beings above Him?" -

a brief aside - the pUrvAchaRya vyAkhyanam for this specific line
is extremely beautiul - svAmi thirukkurugaip piraan piLLan uses the 
word - nirastha samAByaDhikanaay ; svAmi nanjIyar, svAmi periyavAchchan
piLLai, svAmi nampiLLai use the word samAdhika dharidhranaay, svAmi 
vaadhikEsari azhagiya maNavALa jIyar uses samABhyaDhika dharidhranaay;

svAmi nampiLLai says 
"sriya:pathikkum thannaal kazhikka oNNaadhapadi irupadhoru dhaaridhryam
uNdu - na tath samaschcha aByaDhikaschcha DhrshyathE enkiRapadiyE
smADhikadharidhranaay irukkum - idhenna aascharyandhaan" -
i.e. even sriya:pathi has a dhAridhriyam - this dhAridhriyam is "having
no one that is equal or above Him" -


adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan,
AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam,
Thirumalai anandAnpiLLai varadhan

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