Chapter 37 - Thiruvazhkoliputhur or Tiruvalkoliputtur (Hymn 57)

I

The bliss as experienced and expressed in the previous hymn must have been so unwordly that somewhere from the unconscious, a doubt should have reasonably sprung whether this blessing of the Lord will be continuous, thus suggesting, as the Vaishnavite commentators would say, a game of hide and seek, played by the Lord. The world as it stands makes most of us forget the Lord. “Will I also forget”?—thus arises a doubt, but his own mind, which has experienced the supreme bliss crying out in joy, “How sweet is He when we think of Him”! and pointing out the temple where He has enshrined Himself, now exclaims, “What Forget Him! Forgetting Him, what shall I think of?”—that is the refrain of the present hymn.

Our mind is so constituted that when one thought occupies its centre, other thoughts fade away to be forgotten. It is the nature of the mind also to hold on the happy thoughts. The Lord has become everything to our poet. His omnipresence is no more a theory but our poet’s own personal experience, an experience of what the Vpanisads speak of as, “Satyam, Jnanam and Anantam Brahmam”. If everything brings our happy Lord before our poet, how can he forget Him and what else will he think of? The chorus of this hymn, thus reveals to us the great state reached by our poet in his spiritual experience.

II

The Lord is to our poet the most precious thing—(1-12) manikkam”, the precious gem of carbuncle, the lovely and lovable manikkam our poet is very fond of. He is repeating this description many a time in his hymns as one who has moved in the company of Emperors and himself wielding political influence. Manikkam representing the beauty, nature and all, appeals to him as reflecting in its lustre, the Lord of invaluable light and law. Manikkam is sometimes spoken of as the gem on the crest of a cobra. This has probably suggested the puranic story of an anthill residence of a cobra, where was hidden the sword of Arjuna by the Lord. Valolipurrur is one form of the name of the city. The other form is Vdlkolip puttur. Puttur is a new city; to distinguish it from other Putturs it was called Valkoli or Valoli. But his love is in addition pure and holy and, therefore, he loves calling God ‘Punitan’ (11).

III

He gives expression to the experience of the Lord. “He is the one who gives Himself up to me for being contemplated on. Thanks to His universal sovereignty, I am His slave and dog” (1). “He is the one who removes all the anxieties and the confusions of the mind. He is never displeased with my word and he has come and enshrined Himself in my heart” (3). “He has come and embraced me as the great hunter going after Arjuna” (6). “He is my father, the munificent patron of my father’s father” (7). His experience of the Lord as we found elsewhere is expressed as the universal experience of the followers of the Lord. “The Lord jumps into the mind of those who contemplate on Him and completely fills it up” (2). “He is the greatest expert of making those who worship Him with flowers in their hands to reach His feet” (4), “One who is capable of removing all the obstacles”, (7) “and all the defects” (8). “He is the great nectar and the medicine to all the loving things” (10). “He is the truth, becoming false unto all those who are devoid of truth, who is also the one who experiences everything standing even in this very body” (11). That this hymn also is one of bliss where are destroyed the sins already committed, is made clear by our poet assuring its readers that “this, a hymn of Tamil of the cool heart—a heart whose heat of mad activity and passion had cooled down, a hymn, of gdod effects clear to our eyes, which destroys their sins which they have committed and which come to inflict them” (12). The TJlankulir Tamil’ (12) is reminiscent of Campantar’s assertion, Ulankulirnta potelam ukantukantu uraippane”l “I sing of him whenever my heart is cool and happy”. It is in the same mood, our poet also has sung this hymn. Our poet speaks lovingly of this hymn as a creation of his, as much of a child as Cinkati.

The Lord is the Deva of the Devas, God of Gods, (3)—the Lord of the Devas unknown to them (6). He is one whose begining has never been seen or known, the greatest among the ancient three, the one great principle impossible to be known (7), but one who, however, out of His Grace assumes a form for our sake (6), the red one smeared with white ashes (11). He is of that country of empty space or Heavens—Vananatan (8).

IV

These names lead us on to a consideration of Puranic references which are found in this hymn as in others. The destruction of the elephant (1, 4), and the Lord of Death (1), and the three cities (5), the begging with the skull (4), the riding on the bull (1), the sacred ash (11), the serpent (4), the garland of bone and the sacred thread on his chest (5), the singing of the four Vedas (10), carrying a hand-bag of sacred ashes (10), vanquishing and blessing Ravana (9) and Arjuna (6), remaining invisible to Visnu and Brahma (8). The poet speaks of the Lord as going a-begging as a lover whilst He Himself has burnt to ashes Manmata (2,5). Again he speaks of the Lord being in the company of the damsel after having destroyed Kama (5). This oxymoron suggests that one should be a Lord and not a slave of love and that there is nothing carnal about Lord’s love. These puranic references are looked upon by our poet as something related to his own subjective experience and not as mere stories. He speaks of the Hunter going to fight with Arjuna coming and being with him (6).

V

In this hymn also our poet refers to the Jains and Buddhists almost in the very terms in which Campantar refers to them in one place “Iruntun Terar and ninrun caman” — “The Buddhists sit and eat whilst the Jains and the ascetics stand and eat” (10). The Buddhists are called the Terar and Cekkilar in describing the debate between the Buddhists and Campantar because of this, gives at length the principles of Teravada Buddhism. Our poet’s complaint against these sectarians is that they make fun of the Lord who in spite of it stands firm unperturbed and unaffected by them.

VI

Our poet as usual describes the holy place as befitting the mood of the poem. The Lord is on the banks of the cool waters of Manni, where the blue lilies bloom in the small sluices (2), the river Manni, which comes and flows down into this place with happiness, carrying the tusk of the elephant, the black akil and the chauries (7). The place abounds with dramatic scenes of nature. The ripe cocoanut falls down; the buffaloes of ruddy eyes lying peacefully in the muddy waters of the fields, get terrified and run helter skelter, making the fields thus ready for cultivation (9). The ‘valai’ fish in its turn gets frightened and leaps up, to escape being crushed by the buffalo (9). The groves there glisten with the fertility and rich yield, while the fields are full of the best paddy of astonishing good yield (1).

VII

This hymn also must have been written in the period of his political influence. He calls himself “Vanrontan”, son of Cataiyan, father of Vanappakai and Cinkati, the king of the people of Navalur (12).