CONTENTS
|
CHAP.
|
|
PAGE
|
|
|
INTRODUCTION
|
|
|
I.
|
Sambandar
and his Hymns—Stanzas 1-24
|
|
|
II.
|
Apparswāmi
and his Hymns—Stanzas 25-64
|
|
|
III.
|
Sundaramūrti
and his Hymns—Stanzas 65-79
|
|
|
IV.
|
Māṇikka Vāsahar and his Hymns—Stanzas 80-136
|
|
|
|
Appendix
I: Shrines Mentioned in the Poems
|
|
|
|
Appendix
II: System of Transliteration and Pronunciation
|
|
|
|
Index
|
ILLUSTRATIONS
|
1. Śiva Naṭarājā
|
|
|
2. Sambandar
|
Following
Page 8
|
|
3. Apparswāmi
|
„ 34
|
|
4. Sundarar
|
„ 68
|
|
5. Māṇikka Vāsahar
|
„ 84
|
INTRODUCTION
(A)—The
Hymns and their Significance
THE voice of
chanting and song, to the accompaniment of unfamiliar instruments, floats out
over the high wall of the temple in the coolness of the evening or the dawn,
making the Western passer-by wonder what it is that is being chanted and sung.
If only he had a Hindu hymn-book he thinks he could learn from it the spirit of
Hinduism as well as a non-Christian could learn Christianity from Christian
hymns. For the Tamil country at any rate there is such a hymnbook, and our present aim
is to give enough specimens from it for readers to know what the hymns are
like. Englishmen are wanting to understand India more than they ever wanted
before, for their debt to India is heavy. Indians are wanting more than ever
before to know the wonderful past of their own country, and the wonder of it is
all bound up with its religion. At such a time these hymns are worth looking
into, for they are being sung in temples and homes throughout the Tamil
country, and Tamil is the mother-tongue of more than eighteen millions of
people. For pious Śaivites they equal in authority the Sanskrit Vedas; the
mere learning of them by rote is held to be a virtue, and devout. Tamil parents
compel their children to memorize them in much the same way as Christian
parents make their children learn the Psalms.p. 2
The hymns here given are specimens from the Dēvāram and the Tiruvāchakam. The Dēvāram is the first of the collections of works held as canonical by Tamil Śaivites. Its hymns were composed between six and eight hundred A.D. by the three authors of whom this book gives some account, and the whole was put together in one collection of 797 stanzas by Nambi Āṇḍār Nambi about 1000 A.D. The Tiruvāchakam, or Sacred Utterance, was written by one author, Māṇikya Vāchaka (Tamilized as Māṇikka Vāsahar) at a date so far unsettled that scholars are still divided on the question whether it preceded or followed the Dēvāram, though most scholars place it in the ninth, or early in the tenth, century. Whenever it was written, it stands even higher than the Dēvāram in the affections of Tamil people.
Out of an immense number of hymns we have tried to select those which are most representative, those which are favourites, and those which contain the most striking thoughts. But it is amazingly difficult to give a fair or adequate idea of them in an English rendering. They are essentially songs, intended to be sung to Indian tunes, in metres which no English metre can represent. Much of their charm depends upon assonance, upon plays upon words, upon close knitting of word with word, upon intricacy of metre and rhyme, almost as much as upon the substance. We can only claim a fair degree of accuracy in our renderings, apologizing to the lovers of Tamil poetry for the plainness and poverty of our representation of so rich and varied an original. All our translations are new, and nearly all of those from the Dēvāram represent verses which have never before been done
p. 3
into English. One of the translators of this book learned as Śaivite child to love these hymns, and therefore is the authority in matters of interpretation, the Englishman being responsible for the form. We shall be quite satisfied if our translations serve to call attention to the poems, and are some day replaced by worthier renderings.
We have tried to reduce introductory matter to a minimum, only giving such information as is necessary to enable readers to understand the hymns and the allusions in them. But it is entirely necessary to say something about the worship of Śiva, and to give a few words of biography of each of the four authors from whose work this book contains extracts.
(B)—The
Worship of Śiva
1. Its history previous to these poems.The word Śiva occurs even in the Rig Veda, but there it is only in conjunction with Rudra. The joining together of these names provokes conjectures as to whether we have here an amalgamation of two earlier deities, an Aryan and a Dravidian, but these need not detain us here, since clearly even at this early date Śiva was an Aryan deity, identical with Rudra the storm-god, and father of the Maruts, storm-gods themselves. Rudra is a handsome god; he uses his thunderbolts chiefly for punishing evil-doers, and is on the whole a kindly being. The name Śiva means auspicious,' and must not be confused with the Tamil word for 'red,' although as it happens Rudra-Śiva was a red being,
p. 4
In the period of the Purāṇas, we find that Śiva, instead of being one of a multitude of nature-deities, has risen to be one of the great triad, Brahmā, Vishṇu, and Śiva, who are far above all gods. How the change has come about we have not yet the means of discovering. The function has changed as much as the person, Śiva being now the destroyer as Brahmā is the creator and Vishṇu the preserver. The process of reduction in the number of the superior deities goes further, and Brahmā falls practically into the background, leaving only Vishṇu and Śiva as supreme beings for the worship of the people of India. By the time Hinduism penetrated southwards into the Tamil country, probably somewhere about 500 B.C., it had two main forms, the worship of Vishṇu and the worship of Śiva, the two being not too sharply disconnected. The Tamil Hindu believed in the existence of both, but held his own god, whether Śiva or Vishṇu, to be supreme. Hinduism seemed to be Firmly established, but was dangerously shaken when the Jains and Buddhists spread over South India. Then came for the Vaishṇavites the teachers known as the Āl̤vārs, while Śaivism was defended by the poets of whose work this book gives specimens. Hinduism was saved, but it existed henceforth in two distinct forms, Vaishṇavism and Śaivism, separated by a wider gulf than in earlier days.
2. The portrait of Śiva and its interpretation.
Śiva as imagined by his worshippers has a human form, usually with one but occasionally with five or six heads. He has three eyes, the right one being really the sun, the left eye the moon, and the one in the middle of his forehead fire, His reddish hair is
p. 5
matted in the ascetic way, and on it is the crescent moon, the Ganges, and one or more cobras, while wreathed about it is a garland of konḍai (Cassia) flowers. He has four arms, though occasional representations show eight, but one body and two legs. Commonly he is seated on a grey-coloured bull. In colour he is reddish, but his body is smeared over with white sacred ash. He holds in his hands various things such as a battle-axe, a deer, fire, a trident, a bow. Round his neck, which is dark, hangs a long necklace, the beads of which are skulls. At his waist he wears sometimes an elephant's hide, sometimes a tiger-skin, sometimes only a very scanty loin-cloth. Generally his consort, Umā, is at his left side, but sometimes he is pictured as half man and half woman, the right half (Śiva) being pink-coloured, and the left half (Umā) green or black. Śiva's abode is said to be on Mount Kailāsa in the Himālayas, but among his special haunts is the burning-ground, where bodies are cremated. One of the favourite manifestations of Śiva is that as Naṭarāja, the dancer in the great hall at Chidambaram, of which we give a picture (see frontispiece). Here Śiva has one face, four arms, and two legs, performing a spirited dance. His right foot rests on a demon named Muyalahan. He is sometimes represented as dancing along with Kāḷī, not the Kāḷī who in North India is identified with Umā, but a she-devil feared in the South.
Doubtless each of these features in the manifestation of Śiva has its history, but that is unknown at present. The legends give fanciful explanations of most of them. The tiger's skin and the elephant's hide, for instance, are those which Śiva stripped from the wild animals sent against him by the magic of his
p. 6
enemies the ṛishis of Darukāvana. But it is of more interest to find the religious ideas which these things suggest to a thoughtful Śaivite devotee to-day. The hides remind him that Śiva has all power, and all opposition to him is vain. That right foot of Naṭarāja set on Muyalahan means that God crushes down all evil. Those skulls in his necklace are the skulls of successive Brahmās, each of whom died after a life lasting many ages. This is a way of saying that while other gods at last come to their end, Śiva is eternal and unchanging. Śiva's dance suggests how easily, and how rhythmically, he performs his five functions of making, preserving, destroying, judging and purifying. And his dance in the burning-ground may sometimes carry the message that God becomes most real to men in the solemn hour when they part from their dead.
3. Four common legends and their meaning.
Of the many legends concerning Śiva four are so frequently alluded to in our poems that they should be told here, to avoid repeated explanatory notes.
1. Brahmā and Vishṇu once saw a pillar of fire that seemed to grow from the depths of the earth and to pierce beyond the highest heavens. They longed to learn its depth and height, and agreed that Brahmā should become a swan to fly to the pillar's top, and Vishṇu a boar to dig to its root. The swan flew up to the sky, but never reached the pillar's summit. The boar dug through the earth with his tusk, but never found where the pillar began. Brahmā and Vishṇu perforce acknowledged their limitations and prayed to the pillar, whereupon Śiva revealed himself, for the pillar was a form he had assumed. Not even the greatest and
p. 7
wisest of creatures can by their searching find out God. But to the humble-hearted He reveals Himself.
2. Rāvaṇa, the ten-headed giant king of Ceylon, while on his conquering progress through many realms, came to the North of India and saw Kailāsa the silver mountain. Coveting its beauty he determined to uproot and transplant it to his own island. With his ten heads and twenty arms he tried to lift it from the earth, and Kailāsa shook. All the hosts of heaven, and even Irma., were terrified by what seemed to them an awful earthquake. But Śiva simply set his big toe upon the mountain, and lo, Rāvaṇa found himself being crushed to death. Repenting of his folly, Rāvaṇa prayed for mercy, and Śiva not only forgave him but even gave him fresh boons. For God pardons sinners who repent, and gives them blessings which before they did not know.
3. Three Asuras, or supernatural beings, once by doing penance obtained from Śiva three castles, one of gold, one of silver, and one of iron. These castles could fly at the owners' desire, and settle down on towns and villages, destroying many lives. In course of time the Asuras became very proud and ignored Śiva. Determining to punish them, Śiva mounted a chariot whose wheels were the sun and moon and whose scat was the earth. Brahmā was his charioteer, the four Vedas the horses, Mount Meru his bow, the ancient serpent Ādiśesha his bow-string, and Vishṇu his arrow. At sight of these preparations the gods became conceited, thinking that Śiva could not destroy his enemies without them. Śiva knowing their thoughts simply laughed, and at that laugh the three castles were on the instant reduced to ashes.
p. 8
Those who forget God in their pride must be punished. When those whom God uses as his instruments begin to think themselves indispensable to him, he shews that his purposes can be fulfilled without them.
(Tamil: TIRU JÑĀNA SAMBANDAMŪRTI SWĀMĪ)
In the first half of the seventh century A.D. the
worship of Śiva Was at its lowest ebb, overpowered by the Jainism and Buddhism
which prevailed throughout the Tamil country. But a few pious Śaivites
remained faithful. One of them, whose name means that his heart was laid at
Śiva's foot, and who lived in the town in the Tanjore District now known as
Shiyāli, prayed to the Śiva worshipped in the Shiyāli temple that he might be
given a son who would dispel the godless dark and win men to Lord Śiva again.
Sambandar's birth was the answer to that prayer. At the tender age of three, so
orthodox Śaivites believe, this child was fed by Sivas spouse with milk from
her divine breast, mingled with divine wisdom, whence he is called in his full
name, "The man connected with wisdom divine," Tiru Jñāna Sambandar.
He grew up to be a
pilgrim poet, who visited most of the Śaivite shrines with which South India
abounds, in each place singing the praise of the Śiva whom there he
worshipped. The cause he loved suffered a severe blow when the great king of
Madura, with many of his subjects, went over to the Jain religion. The
queen-consort and her prime minister (see stanzas 20 and 21) remained faithful
to Śaivism, and sent for Sambandar.
[paragraph continues]The lonely saint faced a vast multitude of Jains in the royal
presence, conquered them in argument, and reconverted the king. Eight thousand
of the stubborn Jains, with Sambandar's consent, were impaled alive. Later on,
after a similar adventure in another of the three great kingdoms of the Tamil
country of his time, Sambandar converted to Śaivism a crowd of Buddhist
opponents.
This is about all that
is known of a man who helped to sing Buddhism right out of Southern India, and
who composed the collection of hymns which stands first among the canonical
works of Śaivites. Legends make him a wonder-worker, but we must draw our
knowledge of the man from his poems themselves. He certainly was skilful in the
handling of the many metres in which Tamil poetry is written, and it is not
impossible that his productions were as effortless as the stories of him tell.
That is their weakness, for there is not very much of heart religion in them.
But they seem to have powerfully helped in that process of eliminating Jainism
and Buddhism from India of which we know so little, though it was complete
enough to be one of the marvels of history. Their author holds the foremost
place among the four great 'Śaivite Preceptors' (Śivāchāryar), and some call
him the incarnation of one of the sons of Śiva.
His date seems to be one
of the few clearly established dates in the history of the religion of the country. Stanza 19 shews that
he was a contemporary of another great early Śaivite, whose name means
"Little Servant of God," and who is known to have fought in a battle
which took place in 642 A.D.
We begin with the first
verse which the author composed. According to the legends he uttered it at the
age of three, on the banks of the temple tank at Shiyāli (once Bramāpuram),
after Śiva's consort had fed him with milk from her own breast. The stanza
itself of course contains no allusion to the story, but it is one of the best
known verses in the Śaivite hymnbook.
1. His ears are
beringed, He rideth the bull;
His head is adorned with the crescent moon's ray; White is He with ash from the burning-ground swept;
And He is the thief who my heal t steals away. Great Brahmā enthroned on the lotus’ full bloom
Erstwhile bowed him down and His glory extolled, And singing received he the grace of our lore
Who dwelleth in famèd Bramāpuram old.
His head is adorned with the crescent moon's ray; White is He with ash from the burning-ground swept;
And He is the thief who my heal t steals away. Great Brahmā enthroned on the lotus’ full bloom
Erstwhile bowed him down and His glory extolled, And singing received he the grace of our lore
Who dwelleth in famèd Bramāpuram old.
No pilgrimage in South
India is more popular than that to Tiruvaṇṇāmalai in North Arcot,
the temple by a hill celebrated in many poems. Śaivism has tried to express
the existence of the 'eternal feminine' in deity by giving Śiva a lady who not
only is His consort, but is actually a part of Him, and is so represented in
many images, which show Śiva as masculine on one side and feminine on the
other.
2. He is our only Lord,
conjoinèd still
To her whose breast no sucking lips have known.
They who in Aṇṇāmalai's holy hill,
Where falling waters noisy chatter down,
And the hill glistens gem-like, bow before
Our great one who is lord and lady too,
Unfailingly for them shall be no more
Dread fruit of good and bad deeds they may do.
To her whose breast no sucking lips have known.
They who in Aṇṇāmalai's holy hill,
Where falling waters noisy chatter down,
And the hill glistens gem-like, bow before
Our great one who is lord and lady too,
Unfailingly for them shall be no more
Dread fruit of good and bad deeds they may do.
One of the first puzzles
to a student of Śaivism is the way in which each of the numerous shrines seems
to be spoken of as if it were Śiva's exclusive abode. The broad river marked
on English maps as the Cauvery, but in Tamil called the Kāviri, which brings so
much blessing to a large part of South India that the respect in which it is
held is not difficult to understand, is fringed throughout its length with
shrines which are believed to confer the blessings of Śiva on all who visit
them. One of these is 'Neyttānam,' 'Place of Ghee.'
3. So ye but say
Neyttānam is the home
Of our great Lord who wears in his long hair
The crescent moon, the river, and the snake,
Neyttānam where chaste maidens gather fair,
On the north bank of Kāviri's loud stream,
Your vileness, guiltiness, the sin you dread,
Your sorrows many, shall be banishèd.
Of our great Lord who wears in his long hair
The crescent moon, the river, and the snake,
Neyttānam where chaste maidens gather fair,
On the north bank of Kāviri's loud stream,
Your vileness, guiltiness, the sin you dread,
Your sorrows many, shall be banishèd.
This specimen of a hymn
connected with Palny in the Madura District alludes (in stanza 5) to the
well-known legend which says in the Śaivite way that those who love God need
not fear death. Mārkandeya was a boy devoted to Śiva, but over his life hung a
terrible cloud, for the fates had decreed that he would not live beyond his
sixteenth year. As the appointed time drew near his father lived in an agony of
dread, but Mārkandeya, free from fear, spent all his time in the worship of
Śiva. The god of Death came at last. Regardless of the fact that the boy was
at worship he threw over him that noose which pulls out human life from the
body. The boy clung to Śiva's lingam with both his hands. From within the
lingam Śiva burst forth, kicked the terrible death-god and pierced him with
his trident. So Mārkandeya was saved. The scene is sculptured on many temples.
4. Holy Vedas chanting,
Sacred thread He wears;
All His hosts surround Him
Whom the white bull bears.
Cometh He in splendour,
Tiger-skin attired.
'Lord, our naked beggar
Above all desired,'
Cry ye in your worship,
At His feet appeal.
He who dwells in Palny
All your sin will heal.
Sacred thread He wears;
All His hosts surround Him
Whom the white bull bears.
Cometh He in splendour,
Tiger-skin attired.
'Lord, our naked beggar
Above all desired,'
Cry ye in your worship,
At His feet appeal.
He who dwells in Palny
All your sin will heal.
5. Three eyes hath His
forehead,
Fair moon crowns His hair;
When Death sought a victim,
Śiva's foot crashed there;
Gory streams of blood flowed,
Death it was that died,
Such is He, our Father,
Um a, at His side;
Dwells He aye in Palny,
Where bees hum around
Drunk with honeyed sweetness,
Till its groves resound.
Fair moon crowns His hair;
When Death sought a victim,
Śiva's foot crashed there;
Gory streams of blood flowed,
Death it was that died,
Such is He, our Father,
Um a, at His side;
Dwells He aye in Palny,
Where bees hum around
Drunk with honeyed sweetness,
Till its groves resound.
A multitude of hymns
chant the glory of Chidambaram, ancient Tillai, holiest of all the Śaivite
shrines. Pious Śaivites have for it a feeling not unlike the Jews’ feeling for
Jerusalem. The tending of the sacrificial fire comes down from pre-historic
times, being firmly established when the earliest hymns of the Rig Veda were
composed.
6. Tending as taught of
old the sacrificial fire,
At Tillai Brahmans pure drive out misfortune dire.
There dwells the First of all, moon-crowned, and
those who cleave
For ever to His foot, no cleaving sin will grieve.
At Tillai Brahmans pure drive out misfortune dire.
There dwells the First of all, moon-crowned, and
those who cleave
For ever to His foot, no cleaving sin will grieve.
Conjeeveram, the ancient
Tamil name of which is given in this stanza, though more famous as a Vaishṇavite than as a Śaivite shrine, offers in its temples a
remarkable compendium of the religious history of South India. See the article
'Kānchipuram' in Dr. Hastings’ 'Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics.'
7. He is the pith of
holy writ;
And in the tangle of His hair
The spotless crescent's ray is lit;
He is both Lord and Lady fair.
He our great sovereign doth abide
In Kachchi Ehambam's fair town.
My mind can think of naught beside,
Naught beside Him, and Him alone.
And in the tangle of His hair
The spotless crescent's ray is lit;
He is both Lord and Lady fair.
He our great sovereign doth abide
In Kachchi Ehambam's fair town.
My mind can think of naught beside,
Naught beside Him, and Him alone.
The next two stanzas,
taken from two separate hymns associated with the great cities of Trichinopoly
and Madura, both sacred places of Śaivism, are set side by side in order to
bring out a point which even the most sympathetic student may not ignore. Śiva
is commonly spoken of as all good, as in stanza 8, and yet not infrequently He
includes, as in stanza 9, both good and its opposite. The pantheistic tendency
even in these hymns causes God to be sometimes depicted as so all-embracing as
to include evil as well as good.
8. All goodness hath He
and no shadow of ill.
Grey-white is His bull, fair Umā shares His form.
His wealth is past searching. Chirāpaḷḷi's hill
Is His, whom to praise keeps my heart ever warm.
Grey-white is His bull, fair Umā shares His form.
His wealth is past searching. Chirāpaḷḷi's hill
Is His, whom to praise keeps my heart ever warm.
9. Thou art right and
Thou art wrong,
Lord of holy Ālavāy;
Kinsman, I to Thee belong;
Never fades Thy light away.
Thou the sense of books divine,
Thou my wealth, my bliss art Thou,
Thou my all, and in Thy shrine
With what praises can I bow?
Lord of holy Ālavāy;
Kinsman, I to Thee belong;
Never fades Thy light away.
Thou the sense of books divine,
Thou my wealth, my bliss art Thou,
Thou my all, and in Thy shrine
With what praises can I bow?
No one can know Śiva
unless He chooses to reveal Himself. This thought constantly recurs with great
emphasis. Its favourite expression is in the first legend of the four told in
our introduction. Hymn singers are fond of contrasting with the vain search of
Brahmā and Vishṇu the revelation of Himself which Śiva has
graciously granted to them. Compare stanzas 25 and 48.
10. Thou Light whom
Brahmā, being's fount, and Vishṇu could not see,
No righteousness have I, I only speak in praise of Thee.
Come, Valivalam's Lord, let no dark fruit of deeds, I pray,
Torment Thy slave who with his song extols Thee day by day.
No righteousness have I, I only speak in praise of Thee.
Come, Valivalam's Lord, let no dark fruit of deeds, I pray,
Torment Thy slave who with his song extols Thee day by day.
Astrology plays a large
part in popular Hinduism, and the influence of baleful or auspicious stars must
be reckoned with in daily life. Most baleful of all is the influence of the
eclipse, which is caused by two dragons Rāhu and Kētu which swallow the moon or
the sun. This stanza enumerates the nine planets, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury;
Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rāhu and Kētu, and says that to the singer, who has
Śiva in his heart, all of them, even the dragons of eclipse, are auspicious.
It is a powerful and characteristically Hindu way of saying that all things
work together for good to those who love God.
The reference to the
bamboo constantly recurs in descriptions of ladies’ beauty. Everyone who has
seen a feathery clump of bamboo trees waving in the breeze will understand it
as a symbol of delicate grace.
The vīṇa is the most delicate and beautiful instrument played in South
India.
11. She shares His form
whose shoulders’ curve vies with the bamboo's grace.
His throat the poison drank, He touched the vīṇa into tune.
The lustrous moon and Ganges crown His hair, and He a place
Hath made Himself within my heart. Wherefore let shine the moon
Or sun or any star of good or ill, or serpents twain.
For Śiva's slave all are benign, all work for him great gain.
His throat the poison drank, He touched the vīṇa into tune.
The lustrous moon and Ganges crown His hair, and He a place
Hath made Himself within my heart. Wherefore let shine the moon
Or sun or any star of good or ill, or serpents twain.
For Śiva's slave all are benign, all work for him great gain.
White ash from burnt
cow-dung must be worn by all true Śaivites. Every day the worshipper, facing
north-east and crying 'Śiva, Śiva,' must dip in the ash the fingers of his
right hand and draw the three middle fingers from left to right along his forehead,
so leaving three horizontal white lines. The ceremonial side of Śaivism is so
prominent that this one stanza must be given, a specimen of many extolling the
virtues and potencies of the ash.
The Tantras are works
inculcating ceremonies, also magic performances and mystic rites. Some of these
are of an immoral nature.
12. The sacred ash has
mystic power,
’Tis worn by dwellers in the sky.
The ash bestows true loveliness.
Praise of the ash ascends on high.
The ash shows what tile Tantras mean,
And true religion's essence tells,
The ash of Him of Ālavāy,
In whom red-lippèd Umā dwells.
’Tis worn by dwellers in the sky.
The ash bestows true loveliness.
Praise of the ash ascends on high.
The ash shows what tile Tantras mean,
And true religion's essence tells,
The ash of Him of Ālavāy,
In whom red-lippèd Umā dwells.
Equally important with
the wearing of the sacred ash is the constant repetition of the five syllables,
or panchākshara, 'Namaśivāya.' This, which means literally 'a bow to Śiva,'
is the chief mantra or mystic utterance of Śaivism. In Śaivite catechisms a
whole chapter is devoted to its uses.
13. Those who repeat it
while love's tears outpour,
It gives them life, and guides them in the way.
’Tis the true substance of the Vedas four,
The Lord's great name, wherefore 'Hail Śiva,' say.
It gives them life, and guides them in the way.
’Tis the true substance of the Vedas four,
The Lord's great name, wherefore 'Hail Śiva,' say.
The next three stanzas
are from a hymn written in a very attractive short-lined metre, and promise
light, freedom from rebirth, and bliss, through devotion to Śiva at Ārūr (now
Tiruvaḷḷūr in the Tanjore District).
14. For the Father in
Ārūr
Sprinkle ye the blooms of love;
In your heart will dawn true light,
Every bondage will remove.
Sprinkle ye the blooms of love;
In your heart will dawn true light,
Every bondage will remove.
15. Him the holy in Ārūr
Ne’er forget to laud and praise;
Bonds of birth will severed be,
Left behind all worldly ways.
Ne’er forget to laud and praise;
Bonds of birth will severed be,
Left behind all worldly ways.
16. In Ārūr, our loved
one's gem,
Scatter golden blossoms fair.
Sorrow ye shall wipe away,
Yours be bliss beyond compare.
Scatter golden blossoms fair.
Sorrow ye shall wipe away,
Yours be bliss beyond compare.
Associated with the hymn
from which our next verse is taken is a story of the author, Sambandar, helping
a sorrowing woman by raising to life the man she loved, who had been killed by
snake-bite. The hymn makes no allusion to such a miracle, but it does give an
example of intercession on behalf of another, an element which is somewhat rare
in these devotional books.
17. Prostrate with fear
at Thy feet she cries 'Lord with matted hair, my Refuge, Rider of the bull!
Lord of Maruhal where fresh water-lilies bloom, is it right to leave her in
this anguish of heart?
Our present writer's
poems contain such frequent denunciations of Buddhism or Jainism that it is
clear that they were written at a time when the struggle between Hinduism and
these other religions was at its height. Buddhism and Jainism are scarcely
known in South India to-day, though at one time they were supreme. It is
probable that these songs helped not a little to drive them out of the country.
18. Those Buddhists and
mad Jains may slander speak.
Such speech befits the wand’rers from the way.
But He who came to earth and begged for alms,
He is the thief who stole my heart away.
The raging elephant charged down at Him;
O marvel! He but took and wore its hide;
Madman men think Him, but He is the Lord
Who in great Bramāpuram doth abide.
Such speech befits the wand’rers from the way.
But He who came to earth and begged for alms,
He is the thief who stole my heart away.
The raging elephant charged down at Him;
O marvel! He but took and wore its hide;
Madman men think Him, but He is the Lord
Who in great Bramāpuram doth abide.
The "Little Servant
of God" mentioned in the next verse is one of the 63 canonized saints of
Śaivism. According to the collection of legends known as the Periya Purāṇam, which is a Tamil Śaivite classic, he fought at the battle of
Vādāpi, the modern Badāmi, which took place in 642 A.D. There are other
indications which strengthen the view that these hymns date from the seventh
century A.D.
In the first three lines
of the verse Śiva is conceived as a lover, and the devotee as the woman whom
He loves. In India the pain of absence from a lover is supposed to cause spots
to appear on the skin of the woman who loves.
19. Birds in the
flowering green-branched puṇṇai tree,
Love writeth clear its marks on me, for He
Who cured my grief, yet left unending pain.
Senkāttankuḍi is His holy fane,
And there His "Little Servant" dwells, who now
And ever doth before Lord Śiva bow.
There in the burning-ground, with fire in hand,
Sporteth unceasingly our Master grand.
Love writeth clear its marks on me, for He
Who cured my grief, yet left unending pain.
Senkāttankuḍi is His holy fane,
And there His "Little Servant" dwells, who now
And ever doth before Lord Śiva bow.
There in the burning-ground, with fire in hand,
Sporteth unceasingly our Master grand.
Another possible
indication of date occurs in the next two verses, given in English prose
because the Tamil names will not fit into English metres. The Mangaiyarkkarasi
here mentioned was the wife of a king of Madura, Kūn Pāṇdiyan, known to history. According to the above-mentioned
collection of stories, this king became a Jain. Then the queen and the prime
minister named in our poem sent for Sambandar, our author, through whose
efforts the king was reconverted, and all Jain teachers were executed by
impaling. Unfortunately the date of Kūn Pāṇdiyan cannot at present
be accurately determined. An able discussion of it can be seen in "The
Tamilian Antiquary, No. 3."
The explanation of the
term 'Fish-eyed maid,' which sounds curiously in English ears, is that in
Madura Śiva's consort is called Mīnākshi, i.e. fish-eyed. The suggestion of
the epithet, frequently applied to beautiful women, is that the motion of their
eyes resembles the beautiful motion of a fish in water.
20. This is Alavāy,
where dwells the flame-formed lord of hosts, giver of the four Vedas and their
meaning, with the fair fish-eyed maid. Here, reigning like the goddess of good
fortune, Mangaiyarkkarasi the Chōla king's daughter, braceletted chaste Pāṇdiyan queen, daily serves and praises God.
The poem from which 20
and 21 are taken consists of stanzas like these alternately praising the queen
and the king's minister, the last verse praising them both together.
21. This is Ālavāy,
Śiva's abode. To those who forsake the world He reveals Himself as
world-forsaking too. Head of the heavenly ones, He rides the one white bull.
Praised is He by Kulachchirai, minister of that monarch who wears white ash,
and loves to lay himself bare at the feet of Śiva's slaves.
Once, says a story, when
Sambandar was about to contend with the Jains, the queen feared the
consequences which might befal him, but he assured her in this verse that he
could dare all when his God of Madura was on his side.
22. O fair one with the
deer's glance meek,
Pāṇdya's great queen, think not of me
As of some sucking infant weak,
Because such wicked foes there be.
If only Hara by me stand,
Stronger am I than all their band.
Pāṇdya's great queen, think not of me
As of some sucking infant weak,
Because such wicked foes there be.
If only Hara by me stand,
Stronger am I than all their band.
The story here is that
the Janis had set fire to Sambandar's house. He prayed in this stanza that the
fire, transformed into a fever, might go to the Pāndyan king, then a Jain. It
did so, and the king was converted.
23. O Thou whose form is
fiery red,
In holy Alavāy, our Sire,
In grace deliver me from dread.
False Jains have lit for me a fire:
O, let it to the Pāṇḍiyan ruler go,
That he the torture of slow flame may know.
In holy Alavāy, our Sire,
In grace deliver me from dread.
False Jains have lit for me a fire:
O, let it to the Pāṇḍiyan ruler go,
That he the torture of slow flame may know.
Our specimens of
Sambandar's poetry may end with a verse which is a kind of benediction, often
set as an auspicious word on the front page of a book.
24. Blest be the
Brahmans pure, the heavenly ones, and kine.
Cool rain fall on the earth! May the king's glory shine!
Perish all forms of ill! Let Hara's name resound!
May sorrow pass away, from earth's remotest bound.
Cool rain fall on the earth! May the king's glory shine!
Perish all forms of ill! Let Hara's name resound!
May sorrow pass away, from earth's remotest bound.
CONTINUE........
No comments:
Post a Comment