Chapter 11 - Thiruppugalur or Tiruppukalur (Hymn 34)

I

The Thiruppugalur hymn is addressed to the brother poets of his age. The poet has realized that God is the real moving force sustaining us all. This conviction flows in his very blood and as the result he advises others to rely upon God and none else for anything and everything. This is not a negation of activity but a realization of the inner truth of this universe.

II

We get a picture of the poets hovering about the patrons of the day. We have noticed Arurar’s intimacy with the chieftains of the land and this hymn shows that he is sick of most of them. “You may praise them and depend on them but these cheats will not yield any benefit” (1). The usual praises showered on the patrons by these poets are in a sense caricatured in this hymn and therefore, we get a picture of the world of the patrons and their coterie of poets of the age. The powerful Bhima (2), the victorious Vijaya (2), the munificent Pari (2), the beautiful Kama unto women (10), the glorious Muruka (10) are some of the descriptions of these patrons even when they do not possess an iota of qualification for being praised thus. Some are described as the learned (9), the perfect Lord of the lands and relatives (3), the lord of hospitality (8), the scion of the God family (6) and the mother unto poets (7). The old man may be praised as possessing shoulders like mountains (4), the cheat, the liar, the lawless, the wicked, the revellers in five great sins may be praised as saints, alas! to what purpose! (5). “The men who will search for the sesame seed who will not give an iota even unto the fly may be praised as great patrons but none of these will part with anything” (8). “Why then this futile attempt at pleasing the patrons and this prostitution of poetry?”

“What a beautiful place is this Pukalur! The bulls plough the fields and the sacred birds scream” (3). “The fields are full of sweet fragrance (6), and the lotus proudly rises up its head” (11). “The owls in the hollow of a tree never cease to sing their songs” (9). “The buffaloes rush into the tank” (10). “Why then speak of any want in this place?” “Here and now, the Lord will give us our food and clothes” (1).

IV

This is the pleasure of prayer along with the destruction of misery. “In the next birth we can rule the Shivaloka” (1). “There is no doubt about this, our ruling the rising tiers of the worlds of Devas” (2) “becoming as it were their axle” (3), “ruling there as the king” (4), “as the father” (9) “as the leader” (10), “without any perplexity or obstacle or any fear of getting lost in the mire of a hell” (8). “All the sufferings of the mind will be removed and we all can be saved” (5). Our poet feels sure that those who recite this hymn of appeal to the scholars based on the truth of the sustaining principle of God—Karma, will reach the feet of the Lord who is in the form of Dharma (11).

V

Therefore, this hymn is a hymn on Sira’s Dharma or nature rather than a cheap promise of food and clothes—a hymn teaching the value of surrender to God, realizing that whatever we get is from Him. This hymn further falsifies the theory that Indian poets and philosophers are always other-worldly, losing the present world for the future. This hymn assures us in no unmistaken terms of the present and the future.