Chapter 22 - Thiruchotruthurai or Tiru-Corrutturai (Hymn 94)

I

This hymn is on the pattern of the Citticcaram hymn (93) both on the pattern of the sentence and the pattern of the verses. The place of the Lord is Thiruchotruthurai—“Itam.......... Corrutturaiye”—that is the pattern of the sentence. The second lines end with ‘itamam’ (I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 & 9),‘patiyam’ (6) and ‘koyil’ (7) and the fourth lines end with Carrutturaiye’.The slow flowing of the music of the previous hymn moves very fast in the present. The rhythm here is the jumping ‘Kali’ rhythm reminding us of the galloping horse. The poet’s joy reaches its height in this fast moving hymn like a dance of ecstasy. The stories of the Puranas are not narrated elaborately. The first verse however is still reminiscent of the previous hymn. In the other verses, the references to the Puranic stories are only casual. The important and impressive dramatic situations therein alone, are made lifelike. The Puranic descriptions of His form are given as beautiful visions. It is not that we get only still pictures instead of moving pictures. It is rather, that we get paintings of His lovely forms and of His victorious acts full of dynamic force. The beauty and the love of God underlying the stories have been left in the previous hymns to be understood by us. Here, they are more patent. The beauty and the holiness of the place are more explicitly identified with the holiness of God. The fact of His blessing us becomes as important as the Puranic stories.

II

A few descriptions of the Puranic form are lifelike and poetic. “He is the Lord of the tiger’s skin still wet with the flowing blood and of the mat-lock appearing like the flow of fire and water; “Alai mr oluki yanaiya catai”—This is really beautiful and dynamic suggesting the flow of the Ganges inside the flowing mat-lock looking like fire” (1). “The sacred thread on the Lord’s chest is like a crystal flow on a coral reef” (4). “The beautiful serpent, the feather of the crane and the crescent moon of the dusk are arranged and harmonized in the crown of the Lord” (3). “He dances in the graveyard with dead bones and flowers of ‘erukku’” (7). “A kick to Death and a capital punishment to the proud Brahma (or Daksa), the creator, He administers”—this is a dramatic and forcible way of describing the incidents (5). “The foolish and simple Lord who swallows the poison”—is another description (6). “A gaze of His eyes reduced Kama to ashes for He is a sea of the sacrificial fire” (8)—this is another description suggesting that all His acts are sacrifice or tyaga. “He is the first cause of this Universe standing firm and capable of breaking up the old fetters of Karma” (2). “Those who worship Him out of love even with insignificant things like leaves, He helps to escape this ephemeral life” (9). These last two descriptions emphasizing the universal aspect of God’s love and His significance to us in the present, are enumeratered along with the other descriptions, with a view to show that they are as important as the other activities of God, activities which in the last resort signify the Grace of God, removing the fetters of this ephemeral life (9).

III

In this connection, the other descriptions of the Lord become significant. God is ‘Utaiyan’, or the Lord of the possessions (1); ‘Amalan’, the blotless or the One who removes blots (2); ‘Vaittan’, One who ordains things (3); ‘Koman’, the king (4); ‘Maintan’, the strong or the youth (5); ‘Peruman’. the Supreme (6); Punitan’, the Pure (7) and ‘Mutalvan’, the First (10).

IV

In the last two lines of each verse, our poet usually describes the beauty of the place; he mentions in verse 2, the worship and the praise of the ‘tontar’ of incessant love worshipping with garlands of flowers. He again describes the followers of Shiva who renounce wealth and all other important attachments as forming the beauty of this place (7). Here is the imperishable wealth of Thiruchotruthurai. the imperishable wealth to the tapasvins, who, bow down their head before Him (9). These are ‘Arrar atiyar’ (10), those who have taken refuge in Him, cutting away all other attachments of theirs.

The other descriptions of Thiruchotruthurai, on the banks of the Kaviri, the river of gold (1, 5), descriptions of its wealth (9), of its beauty of groves and birds (3) and of the beautiful and chaste women (8) have to be interpreted as carrying the same message of the joy of self-surrender unto the Lord. The pearl from the bamboo and heaps of gold whirl in the eddies of floods of the Kaviri (1). In its grove, the trees ‘atti’ and ‘matuvam’ (iruppai) give a shower of honey drops (4) wherein are accumulated pollen dusts with all sorts of bees flocking there—a city surrounded on all sides by water (5). The mango tree feeds itself with the cool waters of the Kaviri but what a wonder, it emits fire (i.e., puts forth sprouts like red fire) in the groves of mangoes surrounding this place (6). The sweet and tender damsels of beautiful tresses of hair sweeten their chambers with smokes of fragrant wood, which reach the Heavens (8).

At the conclusion of this hymn which has sung the glories of the followers of Shiva, our poet calls himself—he is inspired by the experience of his own hymn—the dog and slave of the followers of Shiva; and the joy of this hymn is expressed by his advice to the world that those who learn the words of the hymn will be rid of all miseries (10).