Dehalisa Stuti

Sri D. Ramaswamy Ayyangar

From Gopala to Gopanagareesa. From vibhava (incarnation) to arca (image). These two mark the transition from Gopala Vimsati to Dehaleesa Stuti. From Dehaleesa Stuti to Paramartha Stuti the stotras are all in praise of a Lord in a Divya Desa (celebrated by the Alvars). Tirukkovalur (Tirukoilur) in the South Arcot District of Tamil Nadu and Trivikrama, the Presiding Deity therein, are sung about in this stotra, Dehaleesa stuti. Kovalur becomes Gopapuri or Gopanagar in Sanskrit. The Moola Virat gives darsana as Trivikrama the avatara in which He measured the earth and all space by two feet and asked Mahabali for the third. Slokas 8 to 16 deal with Vamana-avatara cum Trivikramavatara. Sloka 10 among them deserves special mention. How the Lord grew and grew is pictured to us by reference to the starry firmament, which was at first a canopy over His head; next moment it was a haaram, a garland on His chest; then a belt around His waist; and ultimately an anklet around His foot.

A close study of this stotra will show that Desika was attracted to this Lord not so much by His exploits as Vamana and Trivikrama as by the episode of His having entered into a narrow Dehali (corridor leading from the front door to the interior) in which already three saints stood huddled together in pitch darkness. Those saints were to become the first three Alvars. Crushing them and getting in turn crushed by them in that Dehali, where He stayed put, as one Alvar later exclaimed, the Lord earned from Vedanta Desika some new names which even Sage Bhishma had not included in the Sahasranama, such as Dehaleesa and Bhaktopamarda-saha (13, 21, 24). Slokas 6, 7, 16 and 27 contain references to the Alvars and the Divya Prabandham sung by them which is referred to as “fresh drawn sugar sweetening the honey of the lotus Feet of the Lord.”