Chapter 35 - Thirukarupariyalur or Tirukkaruppariyalur (Hymn 30)

I

This hymn gushes forth from the heart of the poet as a fountain of bliss. “When we contemplate with all our heart or mind on our Father (Emman) (1), our Lord (Enkon) (9), our Chief (Aiyan) (6), our Master and Guru (Adigal) (7), Ah! how sweet is He”!—This is the refrain of the hymn. This contemplation of the mind on the Lord and its subjective experience are further described by the poet. “With an unconcerned pride of indifference to other temptations of the world closing the eyes and enshrining Him in our mind with an elation of the heart, when without going astray, we think or contemplate on Him, ah! how sweet is He!” (1). “He appears before them as everything and completely fills up the mind of those who shine with the form besmeared with the sacred ash; when we think of Him, ah! how sweet is He!” (2).

II

“Praising Him with the new garlands of words, when we contemplate on Him to get rid of darkness, ah! how sweet is He to us!” (4). This worship through poetry, music and dance, develops into a harmonious worship through poetry, music and dance. The thought of the chronic karma, still haunts him, but only to be got rid of by divine contemplation. “In order our never ending chronic karma may end and disappear when we sing his praises and dance in joy many a day, how sweet is He to be contemplated upon with all our heart!” (8). “Contemplating on Him for many a day singing and dancing to the soft tunes of sweet music, when we think of Him with all our mind, ah! how sweet is He to us!” (9). “It is the joy of the divine experience where disappear all the obstacles and miseries of karma, the joy of a poet and a musician in contemplation of God, serving and worshipping through poetry, music and dance, the God who stands as the eternal youth of beauty taking the very form of music and dance and the guiding tdla keeping time” (3, 10). Our poet loves the Lord with all his heart and enjoys the resulting experience of divine bliss (1). Our poet gives expression to this bliss in what he calls these verses of fertile Tamil (11). He assures us that this Tamil will relieve, of all their miseries, the poets of the south full of all arts and the learned men, those who serve the Lord like our poet through their art and their learning (11).

III

Karupariyalur is the name of the place, a city of escape from the womb or birth, which is really an escape from the karma and its obstacles and misery. Karuppariyal is the weeding out of birth or the karma leading one into the womb. Campantar, in his hymn on this holy place, seems to equate these two ideas of Karuppariyal and Vinaivatal (the drying up of karma which forms the seed for the subsequent births). Our poet speaks of this extinguishment of karma as the destruction of miseries.

The Brahmin colonies of Tillai and Vili. have already been referred to. There is probably another Brahmin colony at Thirukarupariyalur following the Shaivite path probably attached to the temple therein, without leaving off their old Vedic path of their Sacrificial fire (6). “The Brahmins of Tillai”, our poet told us, “worship the Lord thrice a day without any obstruction or break”. “So do the Brahmins of Thirukarupariyalur, the Antanar, the Righteous of the beautiful and the cool loving qualities, without break, every day bathe in the holy waters, gather flowers direct from the trees, weave garlands of flowers and offer them at His feet thrice a day” (3). “Karupariyalur is theirs. With their untailing truth, they besmear themselves with the sacred ash, praise Him, perform the puja, or ceremonial worship of the sacred fire” (6). “There, Vedic scholars of no want, always reciting the Vedas, unceasingly perform all the services unto the Lord including all menial acts” (8).

The bliss of his experience in the midst of the Bhaktas inclusive of the Brahmins of the place, makes him see beauty and joy everywhere in that holy place. Though the temple and the city, used to be referred by the name of the city, we have various temples of Nampi Arurar’s time having specific names as distinguished from the names of the cities. Here, the city was known as Karupariyalur whilst the temple was famous as Kokutikkoyil, the temple of jasmine, the kokuti being a variety of jasmine or mullai, because it is the holy plant of that temple. This holiness of the beautiful jasmine plant inspires our poet to see the same holiness and beauty everywhere in and around that place. There is the mango grove full of flowers where the cuckoos sing and the peacocks dance (1). The same idea is repeated in verse No. 6, but this time, it is a flower garden rather than a mango grove, where both the cuckoo and the peacock send up their resonating voice. (According to one reading in both the places 1 and 6, the sound alone is referred to though it must be stated that ‘alum' as referring to the peacock may mean both the sound and the dance). In the fences of these gardens, the red fruits or the well ripe fruits of the black trunked plantain shower their honeyed juice (4), the garden and the groves full of sweet fragrance let fall their fruits all round (9). There is the joyful flower garden of arecanut palms, cooling to the eyes of the sight seers (10), the flower garden overflowing with the honeyed juice of the cocoanut palm, rich with the bunches of cocoanut (11). In this natural pond of lotus, casting its fragrance all round, frisk about the carps and the ‘valai’ fish, whilst the varieties of cool bees climb up the creepers and hum their tunes (5). This is a dynamic picture of the activity of nature. There is also the static Absolute, reflected in the picture of the quiet peace of Nature. In the fragrant pond, the dark buffaloes sleep in peace (7). No wonder the Lord in the midst of this natural surrounding appears as the beautiful youth (kulakan) (3).

IV

We have in this hymn as well, various references to the puranic descriptions—the flaying of the elephant’s skin (1), the fright of the Mother (1), Her loving company (2), the destruction of Death (2), the bull (2), the sacred ash (5), the ribbon of a serpent (5), the mat-lock and the Ganges (9), the victorious anklet (5), the battle axe (11), the eight arms (8), the three eyes (8), the blue throat (8) and His unknowability to Visnu and Brahma (9).

V

Certain terms of philosophical implication used by our poet are worth noting. The Lord is everything, the air, the fire, the sun and the moon (2). He is the very form of the fine arts (3). He assumes the eight forms (3). The references to the religious worship have already been given above. This is one of the few hymns where our poet makes reference to the Buddhists and the Jains. (10). The obstinate Jains and the Buddhists are here accused as spreading scandals about the Lord—their usual criticism of Shaivism (10).

This hymn gives us a picture of the poet as a poet, musician and dancer, serving the Lord through these arts, his consequent experience of His bliss and his concern for his colleagues (11). He describes himself as the father of Vanappakai, as one with hillock’ like shoulders (11). This hymn must, therefore, belong to the period subsequent to his marriage when he was enjoying the company of the chiefs of his age and being proud of his shoulders and his physical prowess though all in the service of God,