||   Thiruppanazhwaar     ||

Thiruppaana azhwaar is the ninth among the 12 Azhwaars. He has ten paasurams among the divine collect Four Thousand revered as "Amalanaadhipiraan” Prabhandham.

This Azhwaar's prabhandham is different from all the other aazhwaar's prabhndhams in that it does not contain any upadesams, critique of Veda-Baahya Mathams, messages sent to the Lord as His Naayaki et al. Thiruppaanar's prabhandham is an aanandha-lahari (limitless outpourings of the bliss of aanandham) at the anubhavam of the Lord's Sarvaanga Soundharyam and its redeeming effect. Azhwaar is totally lost in that blissful anubhavam and the ten paasurams arose from him as "the revelational hymns"

Thiruppaanar was born in the caste of untouchables and he felt therefore unqualified to enter into Srirangam to have the darsanam of Sri Ranganathan that he longed for. Hence, he stood on the bank of Cauvery river, closed his eyes and sang with deep anubhavam about the kalyana gunams of the Lord every morning.

A great scholar by the name of Loka Saaranga Muni was the temple servant at that time at Srirangam and was assigned the duties of bringing Thirumanjanam water (holy water for the bath of the iconic form of Lord Ranganaathan) every morning. During the collection of the water from cauvery, Loka Saaranga Muni will have a cloth over his mouth and will not speak to anyone until he brought the Cauvery waters to the Lord's sannidhi.

On one particular day, Thiruppaanar was singing on the banks of Cauvery as usual totally unawareof the fact that the place he was singing from was very close to the site, where Loka Saaranga Muni fetched water for the Lord. Since Muni could not speak, he threw a small stone at the Azhwaar signaling him to move away. That stone hit Thiruppaanar's forehead and blood began to ooze out of the wound. Recognizing his mistake, Thiruppaanar moved away to permit the uninterrupted access to the river by Muni to collect thirumnajanam water for the Lord.

Muni collected the water, reached the temple and the sacred bath was conducted for the Lord. That night, Muni had a dream in which Lord Ranganaatha ordered him (Muni) to carry His dearBhakthan on his (Muni’s) shoulders to His sannidhi.

Next morning, Muni rushed to the site, where Thiruppaanar was engaged in singing with his lute and begged him to ride on his shoulders as commanded by Lord Ranganaathan. Although Thiruppaanar was uncomfortable, he obeyed the Lord's command and rode on the shoulders of Muni with closed eyes until he reached the Lord's sannidhi. When he opened his eyes at the Sannidhi to see the Lord's auspicious and majestic Thirumeni, he (Thiruppaanar) was overwhelmed by that blissful experience. He began to salute the beauty of the Lord from Thiruppadhams (Sacred Feet) to His head in ten most moving paasurams.

At he end of his salutations through the ten paasurams of Amalanaadhipiraan, he (Thiruppaanar) declared that his eyes will not care to see anything else anymore and he merged right away in the divine jyothi of Periya Perumaal at His aasthaanam.

ThiruppAnar's prabhandham
*************************

Swamy Desikan was so moved by the Prabhandham of ThiruppANar that he addressed the AzhwAr as PaaN PerumAL. He wrote a beautiful commentary for AmalanAdhipirAn, the Prabhandham of ThiruppANar. It is pertinent to observe that this is the only prabhandham among the assembly of 24 dhivya Prabhandhams that Swamy Desikan has chosen to comment upon in extensive detail (muni Vaahana BhOgam). The other commentaries relating to the Dhivya Prabhandhams by Swamy Desikan such as Madhura Kavi Hrudhayam, Nigama ParimaLam are no longer available to us.

Home      Back