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re chirram siru kaale

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M.G.Vasudevan • September 23, 2002 


Dear Sri vaishNava perunthagaiyeer,

In the discussion on the 29th thiruppaavai paasuram "chiRRam siRu kaalE" I
would like to put forth following points for your consideration.
 
1.	first the word kaalE means early morning - NO DOUBT in that. For
daddy periyaazhvaar of our aaNdaaL says in 3-3-2 [245] in his thirumozhi
"kanni nan --- unnai iLankanRu mEikkach chRu kaalE ootti orup paduththEn".
[sri V.Sadagopan has already referred this paasuram in his mail]. 

2.	As per the practice of the yaadhavaas, the cowherds, to start for
grazing the cows early in the morning, mother yasOdhaa also sends young
krishNa along with other boys to graze the calves. 

3.	So siRu kaalE means early morning. aaNdaaL simply follows daddy, not
only in deeds but in using same words also. [ in my other write up also we
have similar instances].

4.	To do a little more on the word "kaalE" - it is actually
"kaalaiyilE" - when you utter the word speedily - the letter yi goes off and
you pronounce as though it is "kaalailE" further reduced to "kaalE" - may be
a poetic license to reduce a letter. Further in deep south of tamil nadu,
the tamil word used to call a young boy is "payal". In viLi or calling this
becomes "Ei payalE" - like 'hey raamaa" in samskrit. This Ei payalE is
reduced to "elE" which quite common in tirunelveli raamnaad and present day
sri villipuththur districts.

5.	Perhaps this was the practice in aaNdaaL days also, the age-old
practice so that we have it even now. So kaalE is early morning. that is
srivillipuththur tamil.

6.	To quote another place the word "kaalai' to denote morning is thirup
paLLiyezhuchchi first paasuram -
		"Kathiravan guNa dhisai sigaramvanthu aNainthaan
		Kana iruL aganRadhu kaalai am pozhudhaai --- ".
		This is srirangam tamil.

7.	Taking up the meaning of 'small beautiful leg" for "chiRRam siRu
kaalE" - sri perukkaraNai chakravarthy aachaarya swamy in his commentary
book [refer page 564] on thiruppaavai splits this word - "siRu + am + siRu +
kaalE" - meaning- siRiya azhagiya kaal- small beautiful leg. 

	[Our Sri V.Sadagopan also gave us a gist of the paasurams in a
series earlier in the list, after the book was released].

	Swamy adds - as aaNdaaL saying - referring the vasthraabharaNa
leelai- kOzhi azhappadhan munnam kudainthu neeraaduvaan pOnthOm - [na.thi.
3-1] - we girls assembled and came to the pond to take bath in the pond even
before the rooster called early in the morning, signifying the dawn. But to
our surprise this young krishna reached the pond and in the tree sat hiding
himself but dangling his legs touching the water surface. This we could
realise only later. 

	For when we started bathing the ripples and waves created droplets
of water. In the dim light [or twilight if you want to say that way] we
could see that small foot getting reflected in the available light on these
droplets. 

	That is the chirram siru kaalE- "siridhE velippatta azhagiya kaal"
as per PC swamy.

	Now a doubt comes whether it is one leg or both legs - since it is
kaalE- not kaalgaLe - [as somebody pointed - kaalE if you mean feet, then it
should be kaalgaLE in plural and not kaalE singular]. 

	The act seeing the legs was in dim light. Next words of kozhi -- is
"aazhiyan selvan ezhunthaan" - that sun - who has the single wheel chariot,
drawn by 7 horses, driven by aruNan the leg less charioteer, came up. He
came giving us the wealth of light to see the lord. vanthu - the realisation
came now - We could see both his feet. 

	Immediately like father -when he uttered vEdhaas and tore the money
bag- kizhi - [ sri visu to pardon me on this kizhi]
-	vEdhangaL Odhi virainthu kizhi aruththa - udanE - on that uttering
of required vEdhaas and tore the prize money bag  
	maal garuda vaahanaanai thOnRa - udanE - lord appeared in his
vehicle garudan 
	"pallaaNdu pallaaNdu' - blessings to that lord who appeared by
daddy- 
	here also - unnai sEviththu un poRRaamari adiyE pORRum - kELaai-
bowed to you, glory to your golden feet, please listen .

	poruL - here is the subject singer - she is so subdued - that
dhaasya bhaavam has come that she does not want to give her identity - says
poruL. Porul in tamil means subject or object. She identifies herself as
object.

	[then the padhigam in N.T. continues- we could see all dress taken
by this krishna - begged him to give these etc. All those are different and
not required here in the present context].  
	
8.	Now a little more on that "kaalE" and "adiyE" - kaal means foot. Adi
in tamil means base also- krishnaa's kaal is black in colour - means the top
portion is black, and uLLangaal is lotus red in colour. In the droplet
reflections and that dim light that black portion was not visible to that
extent. Once the adi - uLLangaal is seen which is red lotus like in colour -
because that is the portion which is going to touch our head - this kaalE
became poRRaamarai adiyE. 
	[pardon me for I am not able to give a good English word for
uLLangaal]

9.	How that uLLangaal was 
	muththum maNiyum vayiramum nan ponnum thaththup padhiththuth
thalaippeidhaarpOl - maNi vaNNan paadhangaL 
	oru kaalil sangu oru kaalil chakkaram uLLadi poRiththu amaintha iru
kaalum
	kaanagam ellaam thirintha paadhangal - that too - without the
chappals - for mother says - kudaiyum seruppum kuzhalum tharuvikkak
koLLaadhE pOnaai - 3-3-4.
	So this kaaNap peridhum ugakkum lotus feet has become pORRum poruL. 

10.	on this singular, plural - 'adi' or 'kaal' always mean a pair only
and never mean only one leg. At times only kaalgaL plural is used. 

11.	 A surprise in sri vishnu sahasra naamam is there are naamaas 
*	om Eka padhE nama: naama 772, 
*	om thripadhaaya nama: naama 538, 
but there is no dhvipadhaaya nama: 

Pardon me for the length of the post- since kaal mahimai - kaala mahimai -
length is ¼ mile - and you take ¼ hour to read this.

Dhasan 

Vasudevan m.g.


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