Srimathe Ranga Ramanuja Mahadesikaya Namaha:
WHY SRIVILLIPUTTUR IS KNOWN AS ‘’CHEVVAI’ (MARS) PARIHARA STHALAM ?
( by Dasan Kudanthai Amudhan) PART - 2
SRI VARAHA AVATAR AND SRI BHUMI PIRATTI -
Varaha avatar is the third incarnation of lord Vishnu who took the form of Varaha (white boar ) to kill the demon hiranyaksha.This asuran had stolen the vedas,the holy scriptures from lord Brahma when he was in deep meditation. He had also taken away the mother bhumi in to pataalloka,under the cosmic sea.To retrieve the vedas and bhumi, lord vishnu assumed the role of a while boar and killed the demon to bring back the earth and vedas from the ocean. Lord vishnu after fighting in a fierce battle with the demon brought back the earth in his two tusks from the ocean and restorted the vedas to the safe custody of lord brahma and placed the earth in its celestial space.This incarnation of lord vishnu in varaha avatar represents the restoration of bhumi from the deluge ( pralaya) before the creation of new cycle (kalpa).Srivilliputtur is connected to the puranas of two pralayas that happened to the earth. one is during Varaha avatar and another during the time when Sri bala Krishna floated in a tiny peepal leaf as ‘Vatapatrasayee’ before the cycle of creation of universe. This is explained by sri andal in her nachiyar thirumozhi.
“பாசிதூர்த்துக் கிடந்த பார்மகட்கு பண்டொருநாள்
மாசுடம்பில் நீர்வாரா மானமில்லாப் பன்றியாம்
தேசுடைத்தேவர் திருவரங்கச் செல்வனார்
பேசியிருப்பனகள் பேர்க்கவும் பேராவே”
நாச்சியார் திருமொழி 11-8-ஆம் பாசுரம்
There are three charma slokas out of which the very first one was rendered by Sri Varaha perumal to bhumi piratti when she sat on his lap after the lord killed demon hiranyakshan.Other charma slokas were given by lord rama during Vibhishna sarnagathi on the sea shore and later by lord Krishna in the battle field before the commencement of mahabharatha war when the lord was giving sermons of bhagvat gita to arjuna.Therefore Sri Varaha charma sloka is considered to be more important than others, since it was given by the supreme lord to bhumi pirattai herself upon her request to know various simple means and ways for attaining moksha by jivathmas.Lord Varaha perumal narrated to Sri bhumi piratti the episode in Kaisiga purana wherein Banan nambudavan showed his pure devotion and bakthi with total surrender by rendering divine songs and kirtanas on the lord of thirukurangkudi. Sri varaha perumal further added to Piratti that those who render such pure bakthi in any form will be given moksha.Sri bhumi piratti who later took avatar as Sri andal gave this hint of Sri varaha about the various means and easy ways of surrendering to the supreme lord in her ‘Thiruppavai”.Sri andal gave the essence of meanings of charma sloka in her thiruppavai by using the words “padi,“padu”and “paduvan” in verses of 14 pasurams and “parai” and “parai kolvan”in 11 pasurams to indicate the importance of bhajans, virata, pure bakthi and devotion to be practiced by people living in kali yuga as தூயோமாய் வந்து, தூமலர் தூவித்தொழுது, வாயினால்பாடி, மனத்தினால்சிந்திக்க. Hence ‘thiruppavai’ is also known as ‘parbhana gayatri’. Sri andal in her nachiyar thirumozhi indicated that she was none but sri bhumi piratti having had close comfort of her love with Lord varaha on whose lap she was seated with great affection showered by him on her.
“மாதவன் என் மணியினை வலையில் பிழைத்த பன்றிபோல்
ஏதுமொன்றும் கொளத்தாரா ஈசன் தன்னைக் கண்டீரே”
- நாச்சியார் திருமொழி 14-5
Earth and solar system –
Sun is the nearest star to the earth which makes it possible for our life to live with its light and heat.There are billions of stars in our galaxy “Milky way” with many stars much larger than the size of sun and producing more light and heat than sun yet they are very far away to the earth.Sun is in the center of our solar system which consists of many planets including earth, moons, comets, asteroids ect all revolving around the sun.All the planets in solar system including the earth are tied up to one another by interplanetary gravitational forces and also by mass pulls of sun on them.This make them revolve around the Sun in a fixed elliptical path.Earth spins in its own axis taking 24 hours time to complete its rotation to give day and night. Similarly earth also orbits sun in elliptical path taking one year to complete its one revolution. Since earth axis of rotation is tilted around the sun in certain degrees and also it transits around the sun in a fixed elliptical path, there is a extreme variation in distance from the sun to earth when it revolves around it. This causes greater variation in seasons of earth giving summer, spring, autumn and winter. Sri Andal who is the avatar of mother earth has mentioned the above astronomical facts in her nachiayar thirumozhi as -
“கார்த்தண் கமலக்கண் என்னும் நெடுங்கயிறு படுத்தி என்னை
ஈர்த்துக் கொண்டு விளையாடும் ஈசன் தன்னைக் கண்டீரே “
- நாச்சியார் திருமொழி 14-4-வது பாசுரம்
Lord Krishna in bhagvat gita said ‘’ Among the stars, I am the suriyan’’.When the sun rises after clearing the dark clouds,lotus flowers will bloom. Lord Vishnu is known as ‘Suriya narayanan”.Sri andal mentioned in thiruppavai pasurams as “கார்மேனிச்செங்கண் கதிர்மதியம்போல்முகந்தான்” to signify this. Sri andal here used the appropriate word as “நெடுங்கயிறு படுத்தி” to denote the ‘elliptical path’(oval shaped path) in which she as mother earth revolves around the sun, attracted by its gravitational forces and mass pulls of sun in the solar system “என்னை ஈர்த்துக் கொண்டு”.This elliptical path causes variation in distance from the sun in the center to the rotating earth making it too long. Such variation will never arise in the case of circular path with equal distance. She admits by indicating this astronomical facts in this pasuram that she is none but bhumi piratti. Sun and its solar system is also always on motion moving around the center of our galaxy “milky way”.There are many billions of galaxies like milky way each one consisting of billions of stars much bigger or equal to the star Sun.All the galaxies are also moving within the universe which is beyond our imagination.Becouse of multiple rotations like earth around sun in our solar system, entire Solar system revolving around the center of our galaxy- milky way besides the movement of our galaxy-milky way going around other billions of galaxies within the universe prompted Sri andal to use the appropriate word “விளையாடும் ஈசன்” to signify that Supreme lord play not only with mother earth but also with all galaxies in the universe.
ORIGIN OF MARS ( CHEVVAI )-
There are different versions about the origin of mars but all puranas mostly agree to the fact that mars is emanated only from Sri bhumi devi. Brahma vaivarta purana traces the origin of chevvai from Krita yuga during Sri Vishnus third avatar of Varaha in the form of white boar to restore the mother earth from the clutches of Hiranyaksha who had stolen and taken away her to pathalaloka in the cosmic ocean. Sri Varaha murti killed the demon after long fight and lifted the bhumi in his two tusks.He made Sri Bhumi devi, the personification of mother earth sit on his lap and embraced her out of love and affection when he favoured her with a ‘Red Coral ‘as a token of their courtship together.This coral was dropped in to the ocean by Sri Bhumi devi before she was restored to her place in the celestial sky by lord. From the Coral , a beautiful radiant child in red color came out.He got the name as ‘’ Kuja’ meaning “ son of earth” since ‘ku’means earth and ‘’jha’means son. He is also called as ‘’Lohitanga” meaning red limbed body.This child was not born out of a biological mother.Hence he is also called as ‘bhuma’ meaning as bhumi putra.Padma purana adds further to this with a slightly a different version.
Later this child was nurtured by sage bharatwaj, one of the saptharishes in his hermitage near narmada river where he was taught Vedas, puranas and many holy scriptures besides warfare, martial arts, mantras and sashtras.After hearing about his origin from the maharishi, Kujan went to the forest and did penance for a long time.Pleased with his devotion and penance, Lord brahma appeared before him and accorded the post of a graha as ‘Chevvai” in the celestial sky.To testimony the above version of chevvai origin ,Sri andal rendered a pasuram in her nachiyar thirumozhi which invariably points to the birth of chevvai from a red coral as
“கருப்பூரம் நாறுமோ? கமலப்பூ நாறுமோ?
திருப்பவளச் செவ்வாய்தான் தித்தித்திருக்குமோ?”
-நாச்சியார் திருமொழி 8-ஆம் பாசுரம்
Sri andal talked of fragrancy of pacchai karpuram and lotus flower.Karpuram is a hot white crystalline obtainable from the boiled, crushed branches and trunks of Camphor trees.It has a strong pungent taste and fragrant smell. It is applied to numb the sensory nerves. Lord Srinivasar was applied with pacchai karpuram in his chin to stop the oozing blood when he was hit by a crow bar thrown by sri anathazhwar.Lotus is the seat of Sri mahalakshmi.Sri padmavati thayar took avatar from the lotus flower.Sri andal is the only poetess azhwar who used ‘Thiru” or ‘Sri” to prefix to pavalam or coral from which ‘chevvai” came out during Sri Varaha avatar.Mars denotes the bitter taste. Hence Sri andal wonders and raises her doubt whether it will also taste sweet ?.Camphor is denoted by moon due to its fragrant smell and white color.Lotus flower is denoted by sun which opens its petals upon sunrise since suriyan is holding the lotus flowers in his both hands.‘Red coral” is denoted by Chevvai on account of its red color and its origination.”Chevvai” is the derivative of chev + vaai which means “red” and “vaai” for “opening” in tamil. Lord Krishnas beautiful red lips of his mouth is compared by azhwars with dark red color of coral as ”பவளவாய் கமலச்செங்கண்” in one of the pasurams. Child Krishna opened his red mouth to show yasodha the entire universe within his mouth.Similarly his conch was blessed with the touch of his red lips when lord Krishna had blown panchajanyam before starting the mahabaratha war as well as at the end of war as a sign of victory over enemies. Bhagvat gita was the outcome in the battle field from the mouth of lord krishna who served as charioteer to arjuna in the war. chevvai being the god of war and denoting charioteer is thus compared with the beautiful red mouth of lord Krishna.
ORIGIN OF ‘CHEVVAI’ FROM SAIVITE PURANAS -
All puranas invariably agree that ‘’Chevvai’ was born out of a ‘Red Coral’ from Sri Bhumi devi during the avatar of Varaha when the lord killed demon hiranyakshan and retrived the mother earth from pathalloha. Later lord varaha kept Sri bhumi devi on his lap out of his love with great affection and embraced her.A red coral emanated from sri bhumi devi due to their close courtship, was dropped by her in to the sea.The wifes of saptharishies who picked up this red coral, cast in to the fire for ‘’Agni suthi’for purifying it. From the fire came a small beautiful radiant red child who was taken care of and brought up by them in their ashramam. Arundhati,the wife of sage Vaishetta alone stayed away from them. This child was given many names as‘’kujan‘ –son of earth or radiant, ‘agnibhu’ –fireborn, “kumara” as virgin son,shunmugan” as the son of Six faced becouse of his six foster mothers.He was taught sastras,vedas,warfare and martial arts by sage bharathwaj, one of the seven rishies (saptharishies).After some time this child went to perform severe penance in the forest. Lord brahma who was pleased with his devotion appeared before him and accorded the post of ‘’graha’ as a god of war in the celestial sky.Therefore he got the name as ’skanda’.Lord Krishna in his bhagvath gita said’’ Among the commander in chief of army, I am the ‘’Skanda’. The saptharishes after suspicious of their wifes fidelity with agni deva, in the birth of ‘kuja” banished their six wifes while arundhati an exemplary wife alone remained with her husband vasishta.
Pleiades, the cluster of seven stars in the constellation of ’ursa major’ commonly known as ‘’Big dipper ( plough) appearing on the northern sky are supposed to the wifes of saptha (seven) rishies. As per the vedic mythology, six stars are the banished wifes of saptharishies due to their association with fire god-agni deva on account of suspicion of rishes in the birth of chevvai.The banished six stars of Pleiades are brightly visible to our eyes while the 7th star at the tail end is invisible to our eyes as it symbolically represent arundadhi.Only arundhati,the devoted wife of sage vaishetta could not be seduced and hence she was allowed to remain with her husband.The star “alcor”representing arundadhi appears much closer to another co-star “mizar” considered to be her husband sage vaishetta in the sky. Both the stars give visibility to our eyes in the pre-dawn sighting in the clear sky as if it appears to be a single star.One can distinguish the two stars with their excellent eyes sight. During the vedic marriage cermony,one of the symbolic ritual is that bride groom shows to the bride, this twin stars as an ideal couple for their marital loyalty and chastity.‘Chevvai” is closely connected to the constellation of “Big dipper” known as ‘plough”, the weapons of Mars and Balarama, avatar of adisesha.
Agni the god of fire is portrayed with two heads showing the dual nature of heavenly light and fire.He is mounted on a Mesha (Ram).His journey through heaven travelling on a chariot is pulled by goats. Incidentally goats/rams are the vahana of Chevvai who is believed to have come out from agnideva during agnisuthi.. Atharva veda describes murugan as ‘agnibhu” the son of agni, fire god. Mahabharatha says murugan is said to have been born from agni and svaha, after the later impersonated the six out of seven wifes of saptarishes. The actual wives then later became the Pleiades,the cluster of stars as explained above. Chevvais period of agni nakshtra falls during the period when Sun transit over Kritika star dedicated to agni deva. The star ‘Kritika’dedicated to agni deva is in this constellation and hence the name “karthikeyan’ was given to the son of agni dev.Mangalan means ‘auspicious and also have meaning as ‘agni’.Hence fire of agni dev is called as ‘Mangala jothi”and ‘mangala aarti”. Thus Mars is identified with Skanda or kartikeya as the god of war and as the son of agni deva.The name “Senthil” denotes “red” or formidable testimony the red color of chevvai. Veerabhadra with burning fire was believed to have come out from the face of Shiva dev. Hence Veerabhadra is also considered to be the amsam of chevvai.Saivites worship murugan to propitiate chevvai as they consider both are same. However it might be, since his origin goes back to varaha avatar as per puranas that Chevvai was born out of a red coral from Sri bhumi devi and called as “Bhumi putra”,worshipping Sri andal, the divine amsam of mother earth would help us get rid of all the doshas of this planet instead of propitiating the graha itself.
ORIGIN OF “ CORAL “ (PAVALAM) -the gems of chevvai
Corals are the organic gems of fossil remains of marine polyps from the deep sea.The polyps surrounded by a fleshy skin excrete a carbonic substance from which the corals grow like branches and trees on a rocky sea bed by taking calcium from seawater. Corals are called as ‘ corallium rubrum’, vidrum in sanskrit, moonga in hindi and pavalam in tamil. Red corals are the gems of mars and called as red fire stone. Corals are harvested from the coral reefs grown in the deep sea beds of Mediterranean, Japanese and red sea in ocean mostly closer to the volcano regions. Rough corals thus obtained from the sea are polished, waxed and graded to be used in ornaments. This mysterious fiery red corals are used in gold chains, rings, bangles and pendants for wearing to propitiate and win over the grace of mars graha.To test for original, if it is placed in a glass of cow milk,the color will take on to red tinge. Italy is famous for its ‘red corals’.During the ancient india, sea trade took place between Rome and Malabar coast by exchanging spices like pepper and sandal wood with corals and silk clothes from Rome. Red corals contains iron oxide which creates the red hue on corals similar to the mars having iron oxide to give its red signature color.
Mars in space – Mars is the 4th nearest planet to Sun .It takes 687 earth days for orbiting around the sun for one time.Mars like earth spins on its own axis at about the same speed of earth does.It takes 24 hours and 37 minutes to rotate one time.Mars atmosphere is very thin and made up of carbon-di-oxide 95%,nitrogen 3pct,argon and other gases 1 pct each. Lowest surface temperature in mars is -123 dec-c while the hottest temp is 32 dec-c.It is the second nearest plant to the earth. Its average surface temperature is -23 dec c and is believed to be having water due to its polar caps.Unlike earth, mars have two moons.Its surface is occasionally covered by dust storm. Mars resemble closer to the earth by having seasons and polar caps.Even though mars is one half of the size of earth,there are several volcanoes in it.Mars red color is due to iron oxides present in this planet.This planet stands as a proof for the accretion theory bearing many scars of creation like craters and mounds ect. Satellite photos of various space craft’s including Nasa shows mars is found to be having large anti-hills (mounds) and green clusters formation similar to the appearance of dense banyan trees as found which images have puzzled the astronomers to look for possibility of life in mars.This scientific evidences matches with our ancient vedic jyotish theories on mars and its characteristics.
Sri andal and influence of Chevvai –
Sri andal ,the divine amsam of Sri bhumi piratti, consort of Sri Varaha perumal took avatar at Srivilliputtur in a nandavanam owned by sri Vishnuchittar who found her as a child just below the tulsi plant. vishnuchittar was childless for many years till the couple was blessed by lord vatapatrasayee for whom he was rendering puspha kainkaryam from his young age. Sri Vishnuchittar found this divine child in the tamil year of “Nala” during the month of Aadi –dakshinayanam on a Tuesday in sukla paksha chathurthi in pooram star.This date, year and star correspondence to the period of 98th year after passing of 97 years from the birth of kali yuga.They named the child as “kodhai” and showered their affection and brought up her as their daughter who developed everlasting love and devotion with lord ranganatha from her childhood onwards. She got the name ‘kodhai ‘ due to its meaning as ‘a sting of flowers’.She is called as “andal” since she won the hands of lord ranganathar and ruled over him out of her love and devotion.She rendered the pasurams of ‘Thiruppavai’ and ‘Nachiyar thirumozhi” at very young age besides having made the lord of srivailliputtur adorn the garlands already tried and worn by her first everyday which was delightfully accepted by the lord. Therefore Sri andal got the name as ‘சூடிக் கொடுத்த நாச்சியார்” and “பாடிக் கொடுத்த நாச்சியார்”.
Kujan took birth in the month of Aadi on a Tuesday in the tamil year Rakshasa in anuradha star on a sukla paksha dhasami in bharadwaj gothra. Sri andal also took avatar in Aadi month on a Tuesday from earth.Kuja means the son of earth as ‘ku’ means bhumi and ‘jha’ means son. Andal is the amsam of Bhumi pirrati. Srivilliputtur is a varaha kshetram connected to bhumi piratti. Chevvai denotes the direction of south while Srivilliputtur is situated in south aspected by lord ranganathar from srirangam.Vedas describe that ant-hills mounds are the ears of bhumi which swami desikan also mentioned in sri gotha sthuti.Sri andal kondai in head crown resemble to the mounds of earth as she is the mother of earth.Sage valmiki came out from ant-hills of earth and became the poet to write Ramayana. Andal was the only women poetess who became a prominent azhwar excelling other azhwars in all respects.This is mentioned in upadesa rathnamalai- 24 as-
“அஞ்சு குடிக்கு ஒரு சந்ததியாய் ஆழ்வார்கள்
தம் செயலை விஞ்சிநிற்கும் தன் மையளாய் – பிஞ்சாய்ப்
பழுத்தாளை ஆண்டாளைப் பக்தியுடன் நாளும்
வழுத்தாய் மனமே மகிழ்ந்து.” - உபதேச ரத்தினமாலை-24
Chevvai denotes brain,and its abnormal growth inappropriate to the age.Sri andal became a poetess at very young age itself.she was called “பிஞ்சாய்ப் பழுத்தாளை ஆண்டாளை” in above pasuram due to her early maturity and intelligence above a normal human being at very young age on account of her divine avatar.She hailed from a family who were afraid to do anything beyond the doctrines prescribed in sastras..Yet Sri andal wanted to marry the supreme lord himself and worn the garlands first before being adorned to the lord vatapatrasayee thereby rendering apasaram fearlessly.However perumal accepted this with great pleasure.Mars denotes boldness and fearless nature that influenced her to do so.
Sarvam sri krishnarpanam
!!OM NAMO NARAYANAYA!!
