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ThiruviNNagarappan Thirumanjanak Kattiyam : Part 1

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sadagopan • November 6, 1998 


Dear BhakthAs :

During the occasion of the SamarpaNam of 
ThiruvAbharaNam for ThiruviNNagarappan at 
Oppiliappan Koil on October 11 , a thought 
crossed my mind as I enjoyed the Thirumanjana
mahOthsavam for the Moolavar .

The thought was this : Sri Ranganathan has 
the most beautiful Thirumanjanak Kattiyam 
from his purOhithar , ParAsara Bhattar .
Sri VeerarAghavan has his lovely Kattiyam
for Thirumanjanam thanks to the loving devotion 
of His paramparai Trustees ,the revered Azhagiya 
Singhars . Our PerumAL at ThiruviNNagar has no
Kattiyam todate to accompany His beautiful 
NeerAttam . Although it may be impertinent on
my part to engage in creating a Thriumanjanak Kattiyam
in the context of the contributions of the great giants
of our sampradhAyam , I thought it will be acceptable
to Him as the prattling from an affectionate child of His .
Therefore I have emboldened myself to engage in this 
Kaimkaryam for my Kula Dhaivam . 

There is another pressing reason for hastening 
with this Kaimkaryam .Our annual Thirumanjana 
Kaimkaryam on the VidaayERRi dinam at the end 
of the ThirukkalyANa Uthsavam in Iyppasi falls on
Novemebr 11 , next Wednesday . My father has
written in the Koil records that his descendants
should perform this Kaimkaryam forever . It is our 
Bhaagyam to do so . This Kattiyam writing Kaimkaryam fits
into this overall context .May Sri Bhumi Devi 
SamEtha Sri Oppilaippan accept this kaimkaryam 
from this seelamillA siRiyOn and give me the insight
and energy to engage in this Kaimkaryam .With 
the paraphrased prayer of Swami Desikan etched
in Sri Abheethi Sthva slOkam , I pray to 
Sri Bhu Vallabhan to accept this bold effort begun
without reflection on my totally inadequate 
qualifications to engage in such a stupendous task.
I pray to Him to accept this foolish offering 
of a mandha Mathi as His Archanam and AarAdhanam 
out of His own natural compassion for the mistakes 
made by His loving children .Swami Desiakan's 
prayer in this context is as follows :

atharkitha hitha ahitha krama visEsham aarabhyathE 
tadh api uchitham archanam parigruhANa ( mannAtha )

Here Swami says at  the outset of his sthuthi on 
Sri RanganaathA that he has not sorted out 
in a logical fashion the benefits and ill effects
of the effort that he has started as a person of
"average intellect" limited by thriguNAs . He appeals 
however to Sri RanganathA to accept even this 
imperfect effort as His AarAdhanam out of His
svaabhAvika DayA guNam . 

Following the path shown by our AchAryAs ,
this Kattiyam for Sri OppilAappan will
be interspersed with the MangalAsAsanams
of AchAryAs and AzhwArs .May  they all
bless this Kaimkaryam !

( To Be Continued ) 

Oppiliappan Koil Varadachari Sadagopan