WHY SRIVILLIPUTTUR IS KNOWN AS ‘’CHEVVAI’ (MARS) PARIHARA STHALAM ? PART 5

 Srimathe Ranga  Ramanuja Mahadesikaya Namaha:

        WHY SRIVILLIPUTTUR IS KNOWN AS ‘’CHEVVAI’ (MARS) PARIHARA STHALAM ?

             ( by Dasan   Kudanthai Amudhan)        PART - 5

Contd from last issue

 We had seen in our last issue about the connection of tamil suffix of affectionate word “pillai” pointing to the child with reference to parrots, Squirrels, mongoose and coconut trees as “killi pillai,”Anil pillai”,”keeri pillai and “Thennai pillai”, and their relative connections to this kshetram with regard to chevvai. Periazhwar was the first azhwar who adopted the literary genre in tamil known as “pillai tamizh” in which the devotee looks upon the almighty as a child. Periazhwar had shown his motherly concern for the lord and rendered pallandu for  long life to him like he blessed his child. Periazhwar visualised  and enjoyed  the thoughts of sri Krishna”s early childhood period and rendered many pasurams in his thirumozhi.This lucid verses in his hymns are called as “pillai tamizh”. Sri periyazhwar found the girl child in his garden under a tulasi plant and carried home to give his wife as they were childless till then.They named her as “kothai” and showered their affection on this child which is indicated in a vazhi tamil pasuram as “பெரியாழ்வார் பெற்றெடுத்த பெண் பிள்ளை வாழியே”.

Chevvai is called as “சேய்’ (child).The suffix “pillai”in tamil denoting the child is added  for a variety of words to indicate the “youngness of the species”  not resticted only to the  child. Hence it is used as ‘killi pillai,anil pillai,kiri pillai,Thennam pillai, pillai tamizh and pen pillai which are all invariably connected to srivilliputtur one way or other.A Parrot in Sri  andals left hand, squirrels sanctuary in srivillputtur and mongosse in senbagathoopu forest here indicate the above connections.The era of pioneering  pillai thamizh in pasurams was first started by periazhwar.The  gift of mother earth as pen pillai (girl child) to him is due to the divine grace of lord for his devotion and  dedication  to vatapatrasayee.Lord bala Krishna as a child (pillai or bala ) was resting during the pralayam  on a banyan leaf as ‘vatapatrasayee’ .

 

The suffix pillai is added in tamil not only to indicate the youngness but also attested as an appellation for affectionate child. Sri ramanujar went to king palace of mughal sultan in  Delhi to recover the utchava idol of Ramapriyan and found out the same in  possession of Sultan”s daughter who refused to part with the idol. Then Sri ramanujar called him as ‘’Varraai Enthan Selva pillai” which prompted the divine idol jump in to the hands of Sri ramanujar with joy.This is the idol known as sampath kumaran in the sannidhi of thirunarayanapuram where diamond crown is adorned for the lord yearly once. Similarly when Sri ramanujar was discoursing to his sishyas, he asked if any one could go to tirumala to render puspha kainkaryam to thiruvenkatamudiyan.None dared to express willingness to go over to tirumala during those days due to their fear of its coldness, inhabitation of wild animals and inaccessible thick forest area of hills.Only anathazhwan stood up to show his readiness to render pushpa kainkaryam to the lord. Sri ramanujar affectionately called him as ‘Nee Aan pillai’.Aanathazhvan was born in bharthwaja gothram in chittrai star in chittra month in  975 sakha era of vijaya year, later known as Sri anathazhvan pillai  considered to be the amsam of ananthan,the great serpent.He was the achariyan for  Thiruvenkatamudiyan himself who later composed thaniyans for this achariyan.chevvai influence on  anathazhvan pillai can be seen with his birth star of chevvai (chittrai),month as chittrai(mesha) and his gothram(bharthwaj) and his amsam of serpent and dedication to serve the lord without any fear in the forest hills of  tirumala before 1000 years.Many achariyans who were gifted with spiritual knowledge were due to the influence of Chevvai and most of them carry a suffix of pillai along with their name.To name some of them were Periyacchan pillai, Nam pillai, Pillai lokacharyar,Vadakku thiruveethi pillai, Thiruvaimozhi pillai, Thirukurugai piran pillai, Pillai uranga vili dasar and pillai perumal iyyengar ect. Kumara varadacharyar,son of Sri vedantha desikan rendered tamil work known as “Pillai anthathi” a beautiful  20 verses in praise of swami desikan by bringing out the divine qualities of his father achariyan. Chevvai is known for giving spiritual knowledge and enlightment and make one as an achariyar and saints and sages.The red cloth of mars worn by achariyars is  only due to the influence of this red planet.

 Similarly the saivites name their children as ‘velu pillai’ or ‘muruga Pillai’ after their affectionate god murugan who is the amsam of chevvai. Murugan is also called as “Bala Kumaran”,bala murugan and“Bala subramaniyan“. The presiding deity of lord subramaniyan in vaitheeswaran koil,the  kshetram of chevvai for saivites is known as “selva muthu kumaraswami’ on whose name the poetic text works“ Muthu kumaraswamy pillai thamizh” was written by a saivite scholar kumaragurubaraswami.This koil was believed to have been visited by jatayu and sambathi, the birds of eagle brothers in whose name there is a tank known as “jatayu kund” existing near the temple.Eagle birds are denoted by both sun and mars.The eagle symbol is used in most of the national flags of developed countries like America and germany ect.

சகோதரகாரகன் செவ்வாய் (brotherhood) and Srivilliputtur koil-

Chevvai  represents  siblings  as he is the karagha for the 3rd sign in vedic horoscope chart which denotes brothers,sisters and courage ect. Chevvai is called as “குருதி, as it indicates the blood and blood connected relationships mainly that of siblings like brothers and sisters.Srivilliputtur has three such connections of brotherhood as given below-

a) Villi and Kandhan, were the brothers born to queen malli of vallanadu who ruled this small kingdom.They were hunters and used to go on hunting missions together daily  to the nearby forest shenbaga thoopu.One day in an hunting adventure,kandan lost his life as he was killed by a tiger.This resulted in Villi to realize the divinity and sanctity of this forest by the grace of lord before he retrieved the idol of Vatapathrasayee underneath the shrubs and anthills in this forest as ordered by supreme lord.The name of this kshetram and temple owed to the sacrifices of these two brothers whose small images are portrayed in pious posture together praying before the lord Vatapatrasayee in moolavar sannidhi.

b) Sri Ramanujar and Sri andal- The episode exhibiting the incident of brother-sister relationship between them is very interesting here.Sri andal rendered in her nachiyar thirumozhi a pasuram  dedicated to the lord of thirumaliurmchoolai offering him  100 tadas of akaara adisal and butter each, if her desire to marry lord ranganathar would be fulfilled. But she could not keep up her promise since she got merged with lord ranganathar. However when sri ramanujar went to thirumaliumchoolai, after many hundreds of years past this incident, he fulfilled the promise of sri andal as per her pasuram by submitting  100 vessels of  akaara adisil  to the lord kallazhgar. Subsequently when Sri ramanujar went to Srivilliputtur, Sri andal forgetting her archameni rupam,came out of sanctum in joy and cordially invited  sri ramanujar affectionately by calling him as ‘En annave!”(my elder brother). It is believed that sri andal came out of sanctum by 16 steps outside to artha mandapam and stayed permanently here. Hence Sri andal stayed along with sri rangamannar and garudan as utsava murthis in the outer artha mandapam just before the sanctum sanctorium where all the three moolavar idols are together in the same platform.To remind the brother-sister relationship between sri ramanujar and sri andal,even now on panguni uttram day of sri andals marriage, her brothers seer (presentations) are sent from koil annan thirumaligai. Hence Sri baghwad ramanujar is called as “koil annan” and also as “Thiruppavai jeer” to show his brotherly relationship with sri andal piratti.To signify this, although sri ramanujar avatar took place many thousands of years later to the period of sri andal, his status as brother is denoted in Sri andals  thaniyan as“ பெரும்பூதூர்  மாமுனிக்குப் பின்னானாள் வாழியே”.

c) Garudan and adiseshan –Both are siblings. They were born  to the sisters Vinatha and Kadhru the twin wifes of  Sage Kashya parjapathi.This sage is father to Arunan and garudan, the eagle birds born to Vinatha, his first wife and 1000 serpents including adiseshan,vasuki and other nagas born to his scond wife kadhru.Due to the feud between the sisters -wifes of sage ,their offsprings became enemies to each other.However garudan adorns serpents as his aparanas due to his brotherly relationship. Garuda wears adisesha  and kuligan as bangles  on his left  and right wrists,Vasuki as his sacred thread while Dakshan as a  rope in his hip. Garudan wears ‘padhman’ and ‘maha padhman’ as Studs in his right and left ears while ‘Karkodagan’ is worn by him as a ‘malai” in his chest and ‘sankapalan”as a jewel in his hair.Garudan always stands just in front of lord Vishnu as his vahana while adiseshan is very much in close association with lord since he assumes as a paduka or as a bed or as a pedestal or as a simhasana or as an umbrella to lord Vishnu.In this kshetram adiseshan became a banyan  leaf to bala Krishna during the time of pralayam. poigaiazhvar mentioned in his pasuram as  

                     ‘சென்றால் குடையாம், இருந்தால் சிங்காதனமாம்,

                  நின்றால் மரவடியாம், நீள்கடலுள் – என்றும்

                  புணையாம், மணிவிளக்காம், பூம்பட்டாம், புல்கும்

                 அணையாகம் திருமாற்கு அரவு’-

Above  pasuram gives invariably an impression  that if a tiny leaf of banyan tree becomes the serpent adiseshan as  bed to  bala Krishna  which gave him the name as “vatapatrasayee in this kshetram , the big pedestal where  lord rangamanar and Sri andal stand  together with garudan is none but  adiseshan itself who holds them together since it is believed that adiseshan holds the  earth on its 1000 heads. Sri andal being the amsam of bhumi piratti and garudan being the elder brother of adiseshan, their connection is understood from above since  garudan has been accorded equal status with the lord in this Kshetram.

                                    

As this kshetram is named after ‘Villi’, besides offering equal status to garudazhwar with the lord in same pedestal in andal sannidhi and also by calling Sri Ramanujar with the title as ‘koil annan” on account of the above mentioned episode , this temple is connected closely with the brotherhood, the karagha of which is denoted by chevvai.

Periazhvar known as“Vishnu chittar” was the fifth son of a devout brahmin parents Mukuntha bhattar and padmavathi ammavaru.He was born in krothna year of tamil almanac in Aani masam on a Sunday falling Sukla paksha Ekadesi thithi in swathi  star at Srivilliputtur.From the early age,he was  engaged in pushpa  kainkaryam by plucking variety of flowers and tulasi leaves to make garlands for daily worship to the lord.One day when king of Madurai vallbhadevan came in disguise to srivilliputtur on his daily nocturnal rounds in the night,he came across a Brahmin sleeping at the front porch of a house.After enquiring his welfare,the king asked him to impart him with some worthy philosophy since this Brahmin just returned from holy pilgrimage. This person then recited a poem which struck the mind of king over his parting shot, wondering as to how one could realize the ultimate reality and get moksha.He asked his minister selvanambi to call upon all scholars and philosophers of various faiths in his country for a contest which will enlighten him and determine the ultimate truth for showing the path to moksha.

Accordingly the prize money of valuable jewels in a casket tied up on top of a long vertical pole was installed in the court of kings palace at Madurai. For many days, scholars from all faiths tried in vain to win over the prize money and returned unsuccessfully. One day the lord appeared in the dream of Vishnuchittar and ordered him to attend the kings court and establish his supremacy to claim the reward. As per the directive of perumal, vishnuchittar went to kings palace and proceeded to talk on ‘Sriman narayanan” as the ultimate reality. The words started flowing as a torrent as he went on quoting the Vedas,the Upanishads and the puranas.The entire assembly of scholars including the king and selvanambi were thrilled to the core by his conviction in his faith and were astounded to see the casket of prize fall on its own accord in to vishnuchittars palms.The trumpets were sounded, the conches blew. The king conferred on him with the title ‘Bhattar piran’.That evening king took vishnuchitta on a ceremonial parade around the city on his elephant.Sriman narayanan delighted to see the honors being showered on vishnuchttiar, appeared in the sky on his garuda vahana with his consorts.Vishnuchittar was happy to see this sight and at the same time was worried. Beholding the lords supernatural splendor, vishnuchittar out of concern offered benediction to the lord in verses of hymn“ pallandu” lest someone would cast an evil eye on him.

Vishnuchitta thus became as  ‘periyazhvar’ later on following reasons -

A.    He renderded the immortal Thirupallandu hymn to the lord by blessing him with verses “pallandu “ for long life to emperuman himself.

B.     He got the name as ‘periyazhvar’ because  he became the father-in-law for the periya perumal Sri Ranganathar.

C.     Since he was born as an amsam of ‘Peirya thiruvadi“, he got the name as ‘periyazhvar”.

D.    swami desikan view was that Vishnuchitta came to be known as“periazhwar” because the lord liked very much the garlands tried and worn first by andal herself. vishnuchitta was instrumental in bringing that garlands unknowingly to adorn the lord. Hence he got this name.

Influence of Chevvai on Vishnuchittar–chevvai denotes drive, motivation,courage,spirit, inspiration,initiative ect. Mars also gives success in debates, competitions, contests,   conferences and arguments besides ruling over the purse of prize money.Vishnuchitta had never read any Vedas or Upanishads or puranas nor having had any idea about sastras.He set up a garden for growing flowers near the temple of vatapatrasayee and was engaged in puspha kainkaryam.How come he was able to deliver such a scholarly talk in the midst of assembly of various scholars in kings court to establish the  para thathvam,the ultimate reality.VishnuChitta was one among  the five sons of  a pious Brahmin family who are all totally devoted to render kainkaryam only to Sri Vatapatrasayee temple. Hence Vishnuchittar never went out of Srivilliputtur as his family was known as “அஞ்சு குடி” implies as a member of five and also the one who is afraid to move or to do any work other than the kainkaryam for lord vatapatrasayee .How come he dared to step out of Srivillputtur to Madurai for participating in the contest at kings court. It was due to the influence of Chevvai, who triggered the fire in his mind to achieve the goal set by the supreme lord. Periyazhvar on his return to srivilliputtur used the entire prize money won for renovating the prakara walls,the mantapas and sannidhis for vatapatrasayee temple.Hence he was the first trustee of this koil.The prize money won in  competitions or in contests or in debates or in any game or in fighting is due to the influence of mars which signified  the episode of Periyazhvar as given above.

             Srivilliputtur Vimanam -

Srivilliputtur vimanam is called as ‘’vimala krithi’ which means  ‘’ pure creation ‘ as  the word ‘vimala’ denotes ‘pure ‘ and ‘ krithi’ means ‘’classical form of musical composition‘ or‘the creation‘ generally used to mention the work of art or literature invariably  pointing in this context to sri andals thiruppavai created by her in this kshetram.The vimana is also called as ‘’samsana vimana’. There are many variants in this word like ‘’sama + asana” with the meaning of equal position since ‘’sama’ points to equal and ‘ asana’ is referred to the “seat or position”.Indeed to testimony,this temple is credited with the equal status given by the lord to his vahana garudan  who  stands together with emperuman and Sri andal in the same platform.

On the other hand, “samsana”  has got another variant like ,‘sama’ meaning ‘melody or sweet hymn’ as sama veda is denoted, while ‘sana’ is pointed out to ‘praise of god’ which means  sweet hymn in praise of god.This word also refers to Sri andals thiruppavai.Chevvai represent Sama veda. Thirdly the word ‘sama +sana’ also gives the  meaning of ‘equal + radiance’ as ‘Sana’ or “sanam” also gives meaning as ‘radiance’.This points out that thiruppavai is considered to be giving  equal radiance or brillance like Vedas as a beacon to the people in kali yuga.Therefore Sri andals thiruppavai pasurams are glorified as ‘’வேதம் அனைத்துக்கும் வித்தாகும்- கோதை தமிழ்.

Radiance or brilliance is denoted by chevvai  who was born with radiance of red color similar to the red color of Sun.Samsana in one word invariably gives another meaning as ‘’To extinguish ‘or‘’to burn ‘the sins of all jeevathmas to get rid of ocean of samsara, the birth and rebirth cycles.Mars planet has many volcanoes which erupt the fires  often but it has  carbon-di-oxide 95% in the atmosphere which extinguish the fire .In this temple, Sri andal is in Eka simhasana with Sri Rangamannar in the middle and garudan on the left as a‘’pranava roopam’.Sri Rangammanar represent‘Akaram’,Sri andal represent “ukaram’ and garudan  represent’ Makaram”. Therefore  Srivilliputtur is known as ‘Pranava kshetram’ with emperuman as ‘eswara’,Sri andal stands for ‘chit’ and garudan signify ‘achit’.

Tulsi plant ( Holy basil ) –This plant known as Vishnu priya or Hari priya is the repellant of mosquitoes,  poisonous snakes ,reptiles and insects. Tulsi leaves and its juice are taken to bring down fever, as cough syrup and in reliving cold, flu, asthma ect. It is the best digestive agent and for curing leprosy. Wherever tulsi plant is there, it keeps away the inflectional diseases like smallpox, malaria ,typhoid,the diseases normally  governed by chevvai.Tulsi leaves are good for blood purifying and its seeds are worn  as ‘malai” (chain)  to control abnormal heart beat and blood pressure,the karagathvam of chevvai. Besides above, tulsi leaves are  good for  controlling  piles and respiratory problems. Wherever tulsi plant is grown, that place will be free from misery and sorrow. There are two types of tulsi plants  one as Krishna tulsi in purple color of blackish leaves and another as lakshmi or rama tulsi in green color leaves grown in india. Sri andal took avatar just below the plant of tulsi as the amsam of Sri bhumi devi. The origin of tulsi ( brinda or vrinda in sanskrit) plant  is given  below in nutshell.

TULSI DEVI -Tulsi plant is believed to be the incarnation of vrinda, the daughter of asura kalanemi and virtuous wife of jalandhar. According to the legend when indra  out of his ego  angered shiva  in the presence of brahaspati, shiva got angry and opened his third eye from which fire balls emanated and started chasing indra. Brahaspati prayed to shiva for sparing the life of indra. Accordingly shiva ensured that fire balls chasing  indra  was cast in to the salty ocean from which an asura came out. He got the name as “jalandhar” as he was born out of sea water and  adopted by Samudra rajan as his son thereby becoming the brother of goddess lakshmi. Jalandhar did long penance and got boon from Brahma that he would not be killed by anyone till the time his wife was in her chastity.Hence jalandhar drew his strength from his wife purity and chastity that enabled him to conquer the three worlds of devas and started troubling them true to his demonic nature. So firm was the chastity of his wife , jalandhar could not be defeated even by shiva .So shiva asked devas to surrender to lord vishnu who later disguised as her husband  jalandhar,went to vrinda devi during his absence and greeted her with hung.This  virtually made her lose chastity and purity maintained by her.Taking advantage of this, devas killed jalandhar. An enraged and deceived vrinda devi cursed lord vishnu to be the rolling stones for his stone hearted trick. Lord accepted this curse with pleasure and gave her boon that her body to be the river kandaki and her hair to be the tulsi plant which leaves he would wear as garland always.Thus Lord vishnu wears  garland of tulsi  thereby allowing Vrinda to curse him to become stones in which he would manifest himself as ‘Salagrama sila” in her body “Kandaki river”. Vrinda performed 1000 years austerity to get lord vishnu as her husband.    

Sarvam sri krishnarpanam

!!OM NAMO NARAYANAYA!!