I was revisiting PS and came across this scene in the second chapter "alwarkadiyan nambi". While describing palayarai city, kalki mentions about thevaram and thiruvaimozhi pasurangal being sung at temples (.... Andha aalayangalil isai vallavargal iniya kuralil thevera padalgalayum thiruvaimozhi pasurangalayum padakettor paravasamadaivargal endru vandiyathevan kelviuttrirundan). We know many years later RRC retrieved thevaram from thillai ambalam. Then how come thevaram could be sung at temples even before RRC restored thevaram?? Is it a slip of pen from kalki ? Pl clarify..
Dear Member Devaram and Prabandhams were sung well before RRC's period in many temples and many Chola Kings gave grants to those who sung the poems. Lalgudi and Allur temples near Trichy have Parantakan I's inscriptions about the grants given to the singers in temples. Even before Parantaka, Pallava Vijaya Nandhivarman's inscriptions at Thiruvallam lists the workers of the temple and among them are the Singers of pasurams. SII 139/1914, 349/1918,358/1903,12 and 199/1905 inscriptions say about Thiruvembavai, Thiruchazhal, and Thiruvadha Voorali Nayanar before Parantaka's period. So, Nambiandar Nambi collected almost all the Devaram songs and named it Panniru Tirumurai. Kalki has not slipped any historical truths in these lines.
the compilation of devaram is an on going process while cleaning the plaster on a temple near koradachery near thiruvarur called thiruvidaivai(??) they discovered a complete devaaram. the first find o this centyury. in some archives of palm manuscripts in some french colection a full devaram of kiliyanur has been found. but we do not have the temple for it. there are many puzzles. whreas some saints have sung thiruvotriyur and thiruvanmiyur, they have left out mylapore, a logical stop on the way. it has to be assumed that these were lost.
In indian history, everything has been passed on by songs or writings. Songs have never been hidden or 'not available' for any period of time.
not saying that kalki could never be wrong, but with the 'poetic liberty' that presides over writing, we can assume that they were sung by word of mouth.
Devaram nu onnu irukku nu therinjathu naala thaane RJC athai thedinar... onnu irukku na - athu paadi thaane ketu theriyum :-)
I am sure Bhishma did not have a documentation specialist next to him when he was reciting the sahasranama.Yet we have it today in docs....
> Songs have never been hidden or 'not available' for any period of time. > Hi ravi who is to blame but the devaram trio. they travelled wide across the country. i am sure the local othuvar knew the temple thevaram by heart.
"hidden" in the sense was that a devaram of tirukonamalai in lanka might not have been known in kalahasthi. compilation of the whole lot is an achievement by itself.
however we still do have devarams which are cut in the middle.
Re CLASSIFICATION OF SAIVA THIRUMURAIs, Dr. Ma. Rasamanickanar writes in his book Chozhar Varalaru (Page 208 )::
hymns existed. Prior to RRC there were instances of Thevaram hymed in temples:: ( 373 of 1903, 349 of 1918, 129 of 1914, 99 of 1929 and 139 of 1925 South Indian Inscriptions - which our dear Viswaksenan also referred to 5.7.2009. thank you very much Sir.)
* It is Nambiandar Nambi who classified Thirugnanasambandar's hymns as 1,2and 3; Narukkarasar 4,5 and 6; and Sundarar as 7.
* Also refer during RRC period no Bronze was made for Manickavasagar.
* 48 Odhuvars employed in the Big temple for hymning Thiruppadhigams;
* BASED ON THE ABOVE LINE OF THINKING, PLS AGREE WITH "ULAGALANDHAN PILLAI - vide Rajarajan I pp 100 - 105 - that IT WAS NOT UMAPATHY SIVAM WHO COMPILED OR CLASSIFIED THIRUTHONDAR PURANAM.
( SUCH COMPILING AND CLASSIFICATION TOOK PLACE DURING RRC PERIOD ITSELF)
I think those 'Fill in the Blanks' were defined by Lord himself, intentional and specific for elites who come in future to enter.
out of 16K thirupugazh, only 1322 are available now. What a wealth that is missed.
It must have been the responsibility of people to protect these gems, monarchs come and go but Shaivaite / vaishnavaite philosophy and way of life wont go away, so people must have protected it. They failed then, we repent now.
No wonder our younger gen is wondering who many really are and what is really tamil:) If nakka mukka can go to cannes today, i am sure in 500 years it would be documented sung in some cult... We should be looking to pen a tv series called 'Enge thamizhan' :-)