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divya dEsam - puLLam bUthankudi

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varadhan • November 8, 2000 


srImathE saTakOpAya namaha
srImathE rAmAnujAya namaha
srImathE anantArya mahA guravE namaha
srIman vara vara munayE namaha

November 8,2000

dear bhAgavathAs,

after a hectic 3 months at work, perumAL has given me the ability to 
resume posting on divya dEsams. The following is on puLLambUthankudi.

{Note: Most of the details are from the book "108 vaiNava divya dEsa
varalaaRU published bu srI vaiNava sidhdhAntha nUl padhipu kazhagam".
Any pAsuram paraphrasing/rough translation is adiyEn English rendering
of srI. prativAdi bayankaram aNNangarAchAriAr svAmi's divyArtha 
dIpikai - mostly the padavurais - Needless to say, any mistake in this
posting is adiyEn's and adiyEn's alone}

divya dEsam: thiru puLLambUthankudi
mUlavar: valvil rAman, bujanga sayanam (head resting on His hand)
         east facing
thAyAr : poRRamaraiyAL (the one of the lotus pond)
AzhvAr mangaLAsAsanam - thirumangai AzhvAr - 10 pAsurams
location: tamizhnAdu, between thanjAvUr and kumbakONam


sthala purANam:
mention of this sthalam is made in brahmANda purANam and pAdma purANam.

from brahmANda purANAm:
when rAvaNa abducted sItA pirAtti, jatAyu fought rAvaNa to free pirAtti.
Unfortunately, he couldnot match rAvaNA's might, and rAvaNa cut off the
wings of jatAyu. jatAyu fell to the ground with the words "rAmA, rAmA"
coming out of his mouth. while jatAyu was in this state, i.e. with wings
cut off, on the ground, crying rAmA rAmA, rAmA and lakshmaNa heard the
voice of jatAyu and went to where jatAyu was. jatAyu narrates to rAmA
and lakshmaNa that rAvaNa had abducted sIta pirAtti, and that he was the
one who cut of his wings while he was trying to free pirAtti. then
jatAyu
passed away.
rAmA granted mOksham to jatAyu and performed the final rites for jatAyu.
puLLam bUthankudi is where rAmA performed the final rites for jatAyu.
{Note: there is another divya dEsam - thirupputkuzhi, where the same
sthalap purANam is mentioned by pUrvAchAryAs}. 
When rAmA was performing the final rites for jatAyu here, He had the
concern that He did not have pirAtti with Him to perform the rites as
per
the sAstrAs. The moment He thought about that, bhUmi pirAtti herself
came
to the lotus pond on a lotus (poRRamarai), and rAmA performed the
final rites for jatAyu with poRRAmaraiyAL.

puLLambUthankudi is mentioned as bhUthapuri in rAmAyaNam, AraNya kANdam.

key points about the temple:

1. In tamizh, a word for a bird is "puL". Since rAmA gave mOksham to 
jatAyu (puL) in this kshEtram, this ksEtram came to be known as
puLLambUthankudi. There are two bhUthapuris for srIvaishNavAs -
one is srIperumbUdUr; the other is puLLambUthankudi.
2. when thirumangai AzhvAr visited this sthalam, at first he thought
that since the mUrthy here has only two hands, the mUrthy was some 
other dEvatA, not srIman nArayaNa, and he went away without performing 
mangaLAsAsanam. Suddenly, as AzhvAr was going away from the place,
he saw a huge jyOthi. he turned around to look at the jyOthi. the 
jyOthi was none other than perumAL Himself, with 4 hands, with the
divine  conch and discus. then thirumangai AzhvAr realised his 
mistake and performed maNgaLasAsanam to this perumAL. In fact he 
starts the decade on this perumAL with "aRivadhu aRiyAn anaiththu 
ulagum udaiyAn" - i.e. the one who is difficult to know.
3. rAmA here has a very contented face. the reason for contentment is
that He was able to perform the final rites to jatAyu {rAmA always had
the desire to do service to his father dasaratha; he could not do that;
so, when He was able to perform this service to jatAyu, it made Him
contented}. That is why He is known as valvil irAman in tamizh. In
sanskrit, He is called as dhruda dhanvi.


AzhvAr pAsurams:
thirumangai AzhvAR, periya thirumozhi: 5-1-1 through 5-1-10; 10 pAsurams

periya thirumozhi 5-1-1:
aRivadhu ariyAn anaiththu ulagum udaiyAn ennai ALudaiyAn *
kuRiya mANuruvAya kUththan manni amarum idam *
naRiya malar mEl surumbArkka ezhilAr magngnyai nadamAda *
poRikoL siRai vaNdu isai pAdum puLLam bUthankudi dhAnE*

the one who is difficult to know, the one who is the master of all
the worlds, the one who has taken me as His servant, the one who came
in the form of vAmana  - that One lives in this place - the place 
that has beautiful bees that fly around drinking honey from beautiful
flowers, where beautiful peacocks dance, where the bees constantly
sing, that place that is puLLambUthankudi.

in the other pAsurams of this pathikam,
puLLu piLLaikku iRai thEdum puLLambUthankudi dhAnE 5-1-2
pUvAr kazhani ezhilArum puLLambUthankudi dhAnE 5-1-3
poRpAr mAdam ezhilArum puLLam bUthankudi dhAnE 5-1-4
poyyA nAvin maRaiyALar puLLam bUthankudi dhAnE 5-1-5
punnai ponnEy thAthu uthirkkum puLLam bUthankudi dhAnE 5-1-6
pudaiyAr kazhani ezhilArum puLLam bUthankudi dhAnE 5-1-7
poRaiyAl mikka anthaNar vaazh puLLam bUthankudi dhAnE 5-1-8
ponum ponni koNarndhu alaikkum puLLam bUthankudi dhAnE 5-1-9
poRRAmaraiyAl than kELvan puLLam bUthankudi adhan mEl 5-1-10


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

--------------------------------------------------------------
           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
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