SrI:
SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvadigaLE SaraNam
NACCIYAR
TIRUMOZHI
ciRRil cidaiyEl -- Do not destroy our small houses
Verse 2.1: nAmam Ayiram
A. Translation
Introduction to second tirumozhi
In the 10 pASurams of the second tirumozhi, ANDAL assumes the identity of a leader for the AyarpADi girls and argues with kaNNan, pleading with Him not to destroy the small houses (kolams or designs) made for manmathan by them with the fine river silt.
kaNNan, who first thought He will not reveal Himself to godai right away, appears in her house, not being able to withstand His longing for her. godai wants to show her anger at Him for ignoring her for so long. She pretends that she is not aware of His appearance. Along with her friends, she keeps drawing small decorative houses with the white silt collected from river beds for kAmadevan. kaNNan gets angry now because ANDAL and her friends are honoring another god and continuing to pray to manmathan with their mazhalai words, totally ignoring Him; He starts destroying their small silt house designs made on the floor, with His feet. So they have a back-and-forth argument and have a mini-mahA-bhArata battle, and ANDAL bursts into prayers for her kaNNan in the next 10 pASurams, entreating Him not to get angry and destroy their small decorative houses (ciRRu il cidaiyEl - do not destroy our small houses).
pAsuram 2.1 -- nAmam Ayiram
Oh, nArAyaNA, who is worshiped by thousand names! You who appeared as naran and nArAyaNan and did penance in badarikASramam to set an example for the people of this world! You who appeared in the form of a naran (man) as rAma and kr*shna! How can we escape from your natural mischief, especially since our mAmi (aunt) yaSodhai got you as her son, because of which you are now related to us as our aunt's son? We drew all these small houses for manmathan because it is that time of the year when he favors those who worship him. And, you (who has lakshmI pirAtti on you chest) are coming and disturbing us! Is this the right behavior? Please, do not destroy our small sand houses!
nAmam Ayiram Etta ninRa nArAyaNAnaranE unnai mAmi tan maganAkap peRRAl emakku vAdai tavirumE kAman pOdaru kAlamenRu panguni nAL kaDai pArittOm tImai ceyyum SirIdharA e~ngaL ciRRil vandu cidaiyElE
B. Some additional thoughts:
kaNNan is perturbed that these girls fall at the feet of a demi-god, instead of His feet. He is reminded of how in AyarpADi, He could not bear to see His people doing pUjA for indra, and made them direct these offerings to Him in the form of the gOvardhana mountain. Just as He rushed to help the elephant (gajEndran), He decides to come and show Himself up in godai's house. [SrI PVP]
nArAyaNAnaranE: It can be read in 2 ways; as nArAyaNAnarane (one word), it refers to the nara-nARAyaNa avatAram of Lord vishNu in bhadri [for further details, please refer to SrI SaDagopan's posting that came out 2 days back]; or as nArAyaNA naranE (two words), it refers to nArAyaNa Himself and naran (His avatarams in the form of a man as rAma and krshna - for detailed explanations, please refer to vishNu sahasranAmam explanation by SrI kr*shNamAchAri under slokam 26).
One explanation given by SrI PVP for nara-nArAyaNan is: just as a mother drinks water if her stananyaprajai (breast-fed baby) falls sick, the Lord came as nara-nArAyaNan and did penance for the sake of His cEtanA-s or His children.
SrI PVP beautifully describes how the dispute between godai and kaNNan might have taken place, as follows:
godai: We are all abalaigaL (helpless); you are by nature
very mischievous and now you trouble us even more since you
are related to us as our aunt's son.
kaNNan: I was just sitting unconcerned about you, and you are the ones who
are doing mischief by attracting me with all these designs you are
drawing.
godai : No, we are not doing it for you! We are doing it for kAman
for this is the month and time he visits (panguni).
kaNNan: What! This is not for me? Then I will destroy all your designs.
godai : This is not fair, kr*shna.
kNNan: Just watch me destroy more!
godai : Who do you think we are? Will you do the same to your lakshmI
pirAtti? She will not let you do this.
kaNNan: I am Sriya: pathi; no one can question me. I will destroy
more of your designs.
godai : Please do not destroy engaL (our) ciRRIl; go destroy Hers!
sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.
adiyen,
Kalyani Krishnamachari
kkrishnamachari@lucent.com
Mani Varadarajan Last modified: Tue Sep 22 18:07:05 PDT