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Thiru arimEya viNNagaram - kudamaadu kooththar in aazhwaar paasurams part 2 of 3

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sampath Rengarajan • Tue May 07 1996 - 14:14:11 PDT 


HIS name kudak koththaadu has 2 meanings ie

kudak kooththa - as one who danced with the metalic vessels "kudam"
stacked in some order
	    or
kudakkoththa - as one who danced in joy with the umbrella govardana
giri.

Thus "Kudamaadu kooththaadu" is primarily conceived as Krishna
lifting and bearing the gOvardana giri with his little finger and
dancing in joy.

However, Periaazhwaar in his paasuram on amuthan of thiruk kudanthai


kudangaLeduththERavittuk kooththaadavalla_em_kOvE!
madangoLmadhimukaththaarai maalseyyavalla_enmaindhaa!
idandhittu_iraNiyann^enchai irupiLavaakamun_keeNdaay!
kudandhaikkidandha_emkOvE! kurukkaththippoochchoottavaaraay.  7.
                               periyaazhwaar thirumozhi on amuthan


declares that HE is capable of stacking up all the kudangals or vessels
and climb on them and dance in joy by saying "kudangaLeduththERavittuk
kooththaadavalla_em_kOvE!". Incidentally this song is also one of the
select group of songs on poochhodal for KaNNan as the 8 varieties of
flowers that are most suitable for vishnu worship is narrated in these
ten songs. (Sri Vijay Srinivasan please note)

However strengthening the meaning that this kudai aaNdal further
observes in her paasuram
497:
anRu iv ulagam aLandhaay adi pOtri
senRanguth then ilangai setraay thiRal pOtri
ponRach chakatam udhaiththaay pugazh pOtri
kanRu kuNil aaveRindhaay kazhal pOtri
kunRu kudaiyaay eduththaay guNam pOtri
venRu pagai kedukkum nin kaiyil vEl pOtri
enRenRum un sEvagamE Eththip paRai koLvaan
inRu yaam vandhOm irangElOr embaavaay

					thirup paavai
that "kunRu kudaiyaay eduththaay guNam pOtri" and confirms that Lord
Arangan took the govardangiri hillock "kunRu" as his umbrella "kudai".
Hence this Lord in arimEya viNNagaram who is known as kudamaadu
kooththaadi is none other than govardana nathan HIMself  and hence the
name kudamaadu kooththar is conceived as one of the inner meanings by
many srivaishnavas and pundits in 4000.

In kerala, there is a DD known as thiruk kadiththanam. This DD used to
have festivities in which keralite women used to perform their
traditional dance with kudai, symbolizing the Lord of govardanagiri. It
is not sure if this festival is still observed with
 this dance and some one from kerala can confirm this.  Nammaazhwaar in
his thiruvaaymozhi

3622:
kOyilkoN taan_dhan thirukkadith thaanaththai,
kOyilkoN taanatha NnEtumen NneNYchagam,
kOyilkoL theyvamel laamthoza, vaikundham
kOyilkoN tagutak kooththavam maanE.	8.6.5 thiruvaaymozhi

praises this Lord of thiruk kadiththanam as kudak koththa ammanE by
observing this special festival, by the words "kOyilkoN tagutak
kooththavam maanE". though it is not customary in srivaikundam to dance
with kudankal, it is believed that this happened in gokulam using
govardanagiri in srikrishna avathaaram and even this date this is being
observed in some of our traditional dances. The word in tamil "kudai"
is also known in malayalam as "kodaa". Nammaazwaar also in an other
paasuram


3070:
paravi vaanava rEttha ninRa
  parama NnaipparaNY sOthiyai,
kuravai "kOttha kuzaka NnaimaNi
  vaNNa Nnaikkudak kootthanai",
arava mERi yalaika dalama
  rumthu yilkoNda aNNalai,
iravum nanpaga lumvi daathenRum
  Etthu thalmanam vaimminO.	3.6.3
					Thiruvaaymozhi

In this namaazhwaar observes HIS as kOttha kuzaka NnaimaNivaNNa Nnaik
"kudak kootthanai", symbolizing Krishna's lifting the kudai and dancing
under govardana giri and also within the same paththu again.

3074:  ezumaik kumena thaavik kinnamu
  thaththi Nnai_E Nna thaaruyir, kezumi yagathirc sOthi yai"maNi
  vaNNa Nnaikkudak kootthanai", vizumi yavama rarmu nivarvi
  zungum kannal kaniyinai, thozumin thooyama Nnattha raayiRai
  yum_nil laathuya rangaLE.     3.6.7
					Thiruvaaymozhi
in which he reiterates "maNi vaNNa Nnaik"kudak kootthanai"", as one who
dances under the umbrella. Unlike periaazhwaar who took the meaning in
explicitly separated words as kudangaL and eduthth ERa vittuk
kooththaadavalla koMaanE, nammazhwaar uses it in one word and this
gives room for us to derive that this is kudai and not kudam.

In his paasuram on nanthipura viNNagaram, thirumangai declares that
1438:
theethaRunNi laththoderi kaalinodu neerkezhuvi
 sumbu mavaiyaay,
maasaRuma Nnaththinodu Rakkamodi Rakkaiyavai
 yaaya perumaaNn,
thaayseRavu Lainthuthayi ruNdukuda maaduthada
 maarvar thagaisEr,
naathanuRai kinRanNagar nanthipura viNNagaram
 naNNu manamE    (5.10.1)

thirumangai confirms that
"thaayseRavu Lainthuthayi ruNdukuda maaduthada
 maarvar"


Finally, aazwaar in one of the paasuram on arimEya viNNagarm itself
1245:
kanRadhanaal viLaveRinNdhu
 kaniyudhirttha kaaLai
 kaamaruseer mugilvaNNan
 kaaligaLmun kaappaan,
"kunRadhanaal mazhaithadutthuk
 kudamaadu kootthan
 kulavumidam" kodimadhiLgaL
 maaLigaigO burangkaL,
thunRumaNi maNdabangkaL
 saalaigaLthoo maRaiyOr
 thokkeeNdith thozhudhiyodu
 migappayilum sOlai,
anRalarvaay madhuvuNdaNG
 kaLimuralu nNaangkoor
 arimEya viNNagaram
 vaNangkumada nNeNYchE!     3.10.8

uses this phrase for kundru as kudai in
"kunRadhanaal mazhaithadutthuk
 kudamaadu kootthan
 kulavumidam"

Further some of the Srivaishnava tamil experts  feel that kudangal
eduththu adduthal is HIS leela vinOtham and kundru kudaiyaay eduththu
aduthal is HIS vaathsalyam. There are couple of more references for
this usage of kunRu as kudai. Sri Badri's question on madal was such
that did the aazwaar fell in love due to this dancing beauty of the
Lord? It is quite possible. However what type of dance makes it whether
he fell for it or sought it. If it is kudam aadu he might have fallen
for it. However, since he already fell for the beauty of thirunaRaiyoor
perumal, it is be my humble content (please forgive me if I am
wrong and correct it if required so that this part of thala puraaNam
can be updated)that aazhwaar sought this union with Krishna in which HE
uses kunRu as kudai and in which HE performs this eternal cosmic dance. The
reason that this union is sought can be derived from the concept sri krishna
prEma which is dealt in the next part in some basic way.

Sri amrith kada valli thayaar samEthara sri kundrai kudameduthttha kooththar
sri govardanagiri nathan thiruvadikaLE saraNam

Sampath Rengarajan