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nAcciyAr tirumozhi IV-kUDal izhaittal 4.9

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Kalyani Krishnamachari • November 7, 1998 


			SrI:
      SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

             nAcciyAr tirumozhi IV-kUDal izhaittal
      pASuram 4.9 (fourth tirumozhi - pAsuram 9 koNDa kOlam)


A. Translation from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

In this pASuram, ANDAL recalls the vAmanAvatAra incident.  

BhagavAn came as vAmana in the form of a brahmacAri 
wearing the sacred thread, deerskin, pavitram and tanDu 
(stick), to the great yAga bhUmi of mahAbali.  He got 3 
feet of land as a charity from mahAbali, and measured
with His one foot the higher worlds, and with another 
the lands below.  ANDAL appeals to kUDal to give a good 
omen to her signifying that this trivikraman will be 
united with her.  

koNDa kOlam kuRaL uruvAic cenRu
 paNDu mAvali tan peru vELviyil
aNDamum nilanum aDi onRinAl
koNDavan varil kUDiDu kUDalE

B. Some additional thoughts:

aDi onRinAl: SrI PVP translates this to mean "ovvOr aDiyAlE" 
- in other words, one foot for upper worlds and one for 
lower worlds.  SrI PBA explicitly says that "aDi onRinAl" 
should be taken to mean "aDi ov-vonRinAl".

SrI PVP also has the anubhavam that He is more beautiful 
when He appears as vAmana than when He is in SrIvaikuNTham.  
In fact, may be this is how godai felt, and this is why she 
is singing about vAmana here.  

In vAmana incarnation bhagavAn asked for, and got three feet 
of land.  This is referred to in "trINi padA vicakramE" - 
yajurvEda 2-4-51 (He pervaded all the worlds with 3 measures 
of His feet) and periyAzhvAr's prabandham - "mUnRadi nimirttu" 
(periyAzhvAr tirumozhi 4-7-10).   However, ANDAL is referring to 
only two, not three measures - aNDAmum nilanum.  This raises 
the interesting question as to why ANDAL talks of only two 
dimensions.   

SrI PVP explains this by pointing us to SrI jIyar's words 
recalling SrI BhaTTar's aruLicceyal on this question.   
SrI BhaTTar quotes the yajurveda (2.8.16) in this context:

 "paro mAtryA tanuvA vr*dhAna |
   na tE mahitvamanvaSnuvanti |
ubhE tE vidma rajasI pr*thivyA: |
 vishNo dEva tvam paramsya vitsE |"

(Oh great vishNu!  You took a big form; but, nobody was 
able to understand your greatness; we all know the two feet 
with which you measured the upper worlds and the lower worlds 
including the earth; but the third dimension of your great Self, 
You alone know its limits".    The reference here is that
bhagavAn's greatness (his paratvam, sauSIlyam, soulabhyam, 
vAtsalyam, etc.) - His third dimension - cannot be understood 
by anyone other than Himself.
So it looks like ANDAL stops with describing the two dimensions 
that we can all comprehend.

peru-vELvi - The yAga by mahAbali could by itself deserve 
to be considered great, but what made it truly great was that 
bhagavAn blessed it by His personal appearance.  This is what 
made it "peru" vELvi.

koNDavan - The anubhavam here is that we are all His 
belongings, and He was not going to let anyone own His 
belongings, and will get them back by hook or crook.  In this 
case He came as a dwarf brAhmaNa and "got" it all back from bali.


sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

adiyEn,
Kalyani Krishnamachari