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Sampradayam Books in English

From the Bhakti List Archives

M.N.Ramanuja • July 23, 2002 


Dear Bhagavatas,
     Adiyen likes to bring to your kind notice the excellent work being 
done by SRI Sampradaya Sabha, Malleswaram,Bangalore founded by Sri B.S.S 
Iyengar. Its president is Prof B.R.Seshadri Iyengar. Under the auspices of 
SriSampradaya Sabha, they have published very valuable books.     
   Sri B.S.S.Iyengar has written and published full Tiruvaymozhi with 
English transliteration with standard diacritical marks and meaning in 
lucid English. The review of the book was published in The Hindu, dated 
5th Sept 2000 and is reproduced here for the benefit of the readers. The 
book is available with Sri B.S.S.Iyengar at the address given below and 
can also be arranged to be available at US. It costs Rs200/$15.
Sri B.S.S Iyengar has written and published Acharya Hridayam with English 
transliteration and lucid and essential meaning in English. This book has 
been kindly blessed by Sri UVe Velukkudi Krishnan Swamy and Sri UVe 
Bhuvarahacharya Swamy. Study of AcharyaHridayam is essential for a 
complete understanding of Tiruvaymozhi. This book costs Rs 80/$5. Sri 
Iyengar's English version of SriVachanaBhooshanam is also getting ready 
for publication in the near future.  

******************* 
The review of the book in The Hindu dated 5-9-2000
*******************
Grandness of Tiruvaymozhi
MYSTICISM SUPREME  
***********************************************
Tiruvaymozhi of Nammalvar: B.S.S.Iyengar; Belavadi Apartments, 13th 
Cross, Malleswaram, Bangalore-560003.


NAMMALVAR WAS a great mystic poet. He shines like a sun in the firmament 
of Srivaishnavism. He has been revered both as an Alvar and an Acharya

Tradition holds that other Alvars are only Angas - components, while 
Nammalvar is Angi - the whole of Vaishnavism.


Of his four Prabandhas, being grand literary creations, indited in 
anaphoric sequence, a rare feat, and formng more than one-fourth of the 
entire corpus of the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, the Tiruvaymozhi stands 
supreme, as his magnum opus.

This text contains more than 1000 poems and has been celebrated to be the 
ocean of  Dravida-Veda by Nathamuni and Vedanta Desika.

It has been richly commented by erudite scholars including Tirukkurukai 
Piran Pillan, the disciple of Ramanuja, Nanjeeyar, Periyavachanpillai and 
his successors.

Nammalwar's supreme mystical experience has been elegantly and effectively 
communicated in the Akam poems, involving bridal mysticism. As a bride to 
the eternal groom, unable to bear the pangs of separation, he sends forth 
various species of birds, wind and his own heart as messengers, to project 
the plight of separation and for speedy reunion with the Supreme.

In some poems, he becomes the mother of the heroine and speaks in the vein 
of the Gitacharya stating that the Lord is all the animate and inanimate 
beings, as their creator, sustainer and immanent principle. He is also 
transcendent.

Though Hooper, Ramanujan and others have made successful attempts to 
translate the hymns of Alvars into English, the book under review is 
undoubtedly a labour of  love not by an academician, but by an electrical 
engineer whose erudition, insight and experience are transparent in every 
page of this volume.

First, he presents the poem in transliterated form and its substance in 
English, followed by notes, explicating the rare usages.

In appendix I, he has enlisted the Divyadesas. celebrated by the mystic 
poet. In  appendix II, the decad of Madurakavi, who adored only his 
preceptor, Nammalvar, and attained salvation, has been rendered into 
English.

This volume is a milestone in the annals of the modern study on  
Srivaishnavism.


S.N.KANDASWAMY







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