The River Cūrṇa

There is a reference to river Cūrṇa in the biographies.

cūrṇā nadīti cidvilāsīye |^[1]

Another name of Pūrṇa is ‘Curni’. It is also known as Curni river that pounds all (by its swift currents)

This scenic land of ‘Kerala’ is interlaced with long and high mountains, dales, valleys, thick forests and swift rivers. Poet ‘Cidvilāsa’ describes in some fifteen verses (2-15-30) the natural beauty, the economic prosperity and the artistic attainment of the land of Śri Śaṅkara’s birth. One of noted rivers of the land is known by the name ‘Pūrṇa’ a name indicating its fullness and completion. It is also known as ‘Cūrni’ (a river) that pounds all (by its swift currents): Periyar, ‘a might river’ and Alwaye Pula, ‘a river that flows adjacent to the town Alwaye’. The river has an almost perennial flow of crystal-clear, sweet waters and it enters in to the Arabian sea near Alwaye. On the banks of this river, about fifteen k.m from the town Alwaye, there was a calm village Kāladi, a Dravidian name, perhaps signifying a village (marked by) the starting point (Ādi) of a irrigation channel (kal). But a poet has fancied it to be a Sanskrit name denoting ‘a village inspiring fear in god of Death (Kāla)’. This village is at times referrd to as Ālwaye Kāladi ‘Kāladi near Ālwaye’ inorder to distinguish it from another Kāladi near Ponnani, i.e., Ponnani Kāladi. The Purāṇās and Śaṅkaravijayās tells us in one voice that Ācārya Śaṅkara was born in this village in Kerala. Ānandagiri’s ‘Śaṅkara vijaya’ is the only authority which says that Chidambaram is the place of birth of Śri Śaṅkara.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Lakṣmaṇa Sūrin, Bhagavatpādābhyudaya, p. 7.