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Home > Scriptures & Stotras > Prayers in English > Periyapuranam English poetry
The Puranam of Anaya Nayanar
(AnAya nAyanAr purANam - Periyapuranam as English poetry)
"I am a servitor of Anayar of Mangkai
On the banks of the billowy river"
- The Tiru-th-Tonda-th-Tokai
1. Upper Mazhanadu is a land rich in water;
Over its girding gardens fragrant, floats the moon;
From fields where buffaloes are plied in circles
Over threshed sheaves of paddy, bees crawl to ridges;
Over piled-up hay-ricks clouds ascend fatigued;
The land is blessed with enduring wealth. (926)
2. On the dark well-oiled locks of the fair-hipped farmwives
Who are garmented in folds of tucked sarees,
The soft-winged bees and beetles slumber;
On the petalled lotuses fragrant, long carps sleep;
In the fragrant shades of the cool mango-groves
Sleep dark buffaloes. (927)
3. Noise issues when farmers circling ply
The pair of rods of the sugarcane-press;
As smoke from ovens where cane juice is heated,
Spreads near the cool fields where swans teem,
As coom, the wine-presses cause cloud-formations. (928)
4. The chanks shored up by long billowy river
Crawl and ascend the clusters of long-leaved plantains;
They move along the creepers circling the green leaves
Of plantains, and reach the tops of areca trees;
Thence they pour their pearls which fall down
Like flowers from spathes. (929)
5. Near fields where thrive petalled flowers, is a stretch
Of Mullai land; thither a new-born calf
Of a young cow romps and jumps midst trees and plants,
And anon joins the herd of deer in the nearby garden
And there in joy jumps and leaps with them.
Such commodious tracks mark this land. (930)
6. The bees that rest on cool blooms of jasmine
White as teeth, are about to pass on to dark lilies
Which are like eyes; the storks that had perched on
The beauteous and rich branches of Kaya tree
Are about to dark at the carps that leap from
The fields thick with huge paddy crops. (931)
7. There the bees wing through the clefts of trees in gardens;
Upper Mazhanadu is warmed y the rays of sun;
It is like a rare jewel unto this earth;
Thither flourishes the hoary town Tirumangkalam
As an auspicious town of foison. (932)
8. Thither thrive from the hoary past peerless clans
Thanks to which righteous wealth manifold abides
There forever; lofty and exemplary is its greatness;
From that glorious town hailed Anayar
From the ever-glorious clan of neatherds. (933)
9. He made his avatar to make resplendent
The clan of cowherds; he was a great servitor
Of the pure-rayed holy ash; by word,
Thought poised in truth, and deed, he would hail
Nought but the Lord’s feet, who dances with
His host of ghosts. (934)
10. He drove the herds of kine afield to Mullai tract;
Them he always protected from wild beasts and maladies;
He grazed them in pure, toothsome and soft pasture
And caused them drink avidly sweet potable water;
Thus he tended them in love, and caused them
To increase and multiply flawlessly. (935)
11. Calves and young cows which have ceased to lactate,
Milch cows, gravid cows whose heads have
Soft, silken and sparse growth of hair,
Cows which have recently brought forth their young
And victorious bulls: these were all reared
In their respective mangers innumerable. (936)
12. Anayar the great protector of the clan of cowherds
Fostered the cattle thus, that they might increase;
The neatherds obeyed him and honoured his words.
As he thus throve, he took to the playing of flute
Whose music was linked in love
To the divine feet of his Lord. (937)
13. Removing two parts on top and four at bottom
A stem of bamboo had to be prepared; it should be
From out of a live bamboo that hath all the marks
Pronounced in the scriptures of Music;
The hole for blowing wind must first be made;
Then the holes for the seven notes will have to be carved
With an interspace of one inch between two holes. (938)
14. In the flute thus wrought, he played the Panchakshara
Of the Lord in tuneful melody married to
The harmony of the seven notes of music;
Entia animate and inanimate were ineluctably
Riveted to his nectarean flow of music,
Meltingly merciful and all-absorbing;
Thus, even thus, he flourished. (939)
15. One day, he decked himself (as usual) with
A wreath of fragrant flowers; his shiny hair
Was brushed neatly and gathered on his right crest
And was tied into a knot; on this he wore a chaplet;
A cord of soft-leaved and green creeper decked with
Naruvili flowers ran binding it; a cord
Dight with coins of gold was fastened on his tuft of hair. (940)
16. He rolled the white kantal into which the petals
Of green-leaved and fragrant red kantal were inserted,
And these he wore on his dangling ear-lobes dazzling;
On his beauteous and firm-set forehead he wore
The holy ashes whose lustre enchanted the beholders;
His body too was with them richly besmeared. (941)
17. On his chest fully smeared with the holy ash
A garland thick with the flowers of mullai, dangled;
From the blooms of garlands worn on his shoulders strong
Bees buzzed causing the buds to burgeon sweet.
He wore on his waist a garment of the bark of trees
Over which an upper garment, silk-soft,
And woven of leaves, fluttered. (942)
18. He wore slippers of leather on his rubicund feet;
His roseate hand held a white staff and a flute
Of melodic harmony; he was encircled by
Strong cow-herds -- watchers of the folds --,
And herds of cows and calves; thus Anayar,
The protector of kine, fared forth, wearing wreaths
Whence burgeoned blooms woven into them. (943)
19. To the calling of peacocks, to the singing of mullai-p-pann
By bees on the serried rows of creepers, to the inviting smile
Of white mullai buds from lips of ruddy kopa,
And the swaying of the lightning-like waist
And the breasts that are like unto the encircling eventide,
Came Time, the Danseuse, to the grand theatre of vast earth,
To dance. (944)
20. To the hailing of neatherds who held their crooks
And drove afield the cows on all sides, came Anayar
The chief of cowherds, to the coo. Pasture land;
The bees that had in joy sipped nectar from the flowers
Of the low branches thither, wheeled their flights
Round and round the rich konrai tree; he came near unto it. (945)
21. Anayar who came thither cast his eyes straight
On the konrai tree whose clustered flowers looked like
Fragrant garlands woven of hand; the sweet bunches
Of blooms swayed in the wind; it was like the Lord
With His flowing matted hair; his mind melted;
With his chinta oned with the Lord, he unbarred
The flood gates of his love. (946)
22. It has its being in love; anon it spirals, and nectarean
Gushes f_rth; such is the music of the melodic flute;
With this he hailed the Panchakshara of the Lord
Of the Bhoota-hosts; even as is his wont he played
The flute, the one that could melt the very bones
Of every being that breathes. (947)
23. He took the musical vangkiyam in which the interspace
Between the mudra and the first of the eight holes
Measures seven fingers’ breadth;
Like bees that buzz over flowers to gather pollen,
His flute hummed, rose accelerando and stood
Still or caesural; to the pure manga cavum the great one,
-- May he flourish for ever --, applied his beauteous lips. (948)
24. He examined the centers of music, beginning with
The Mudra; his fingers played on the seven holds
Carved into the flute in accordance with works
On music, gradually; he found it properly tuned;
He played duly from shadja to nishada
In arohana and avarohana. (949)
25. After kurinchi-p-pann of varying notations, he played
The mullai-p-pann in a crescendo; then he played
The tunes of Taram and Uzhai of Palai-Yazh
Through which he melodiously hailed the Panchakshara
Of the Lord in whose matted hair the Ganga flows,
And then moved onto kodi-p-palai whose tune is ili. (950)
26. Of the fourfold classification of music, he chose that
Which was fitting to the tune of kodi-p-palai he played;
His fingers played on the stops dexterously
Now covering, now uncovering the holes in due order;
His flute blazed with the crimson lustre, music’s own;
He played the Panchakshara of the Lord,
-- The Ruler and Bestower of all wealth and foison --,
In the flawless music quintuple. (951)
27. He covered the triple holes whence issued the pitches
Of mantaram, matthimam and taram,
Slightly, semi-lightly and tightly, and played
On the other holes with a fitting movement of fingers;
His ruddy lips of fruitage and the magna cavum
Merged in a marriage of melody. (952)
28. Beauteous variations of music, such as
Peruvannam, idaivannam and vanappu which are
Esteemed great by works on music, he breathed
Through his flute in unison with the sweet sound
Of time and tune; in various movements rose the melody
And he caused the sound of music to spread everywhere. (953)
29. The inner message of the fluten music, played
On the beauteous holes, by the great patron, was truly
The Panckakshara; the melody gushed and spread
Everywhere and poured full into the ears, as in the mouths,
Of all living beings, pure ambrosia mixed with
The honey of the celestial karpaka blooms. (954)
30. Herds of kine that had grazed on aruku grass
Would not chew their cuds; they came near unto him
And stood, oblivious of all else; the calves that were
Sucking milk from their mothers’ udders, would no more
Suck; they but stood still with their milk-frothy mouths;
Herds of strong-horned bulls, antelopes and other beasts
Of forest, stood thrilled, with hair erect on their bodies. (955)
31. Dancing peacocks ceased their dance and came
Near unto him; they stood still, enthralled;
As the wafting melody streamed through the ears
And filled their bosoms, the feathered race
Flew to him and stood lost in rapturous music;
The strong neatherds who were working nearby
Abandoned their chores and stood in mute wonder. (956)
32. The denizens of the Polis of Ophidia issued out of
Their familiar apertures to this place;
The divine nymphs that dwelt on the beauteous hills,
By music enchanted, thither came in throngs;
Fadeless Vidhyatara, Charanas, Kinnaras
And gods on high, left their abodes and thither came
Drawn by music, borne by their mounts. (957)
33. With their soft parakeets still holding in their bills
The fruit fed to them by their flowery hands,
The ethereal damsels of the celestial regions, from the edens
Of Karpaka flew swiftly on their carriers
Whilst their fragrant locks were tossed by the wind,
And came thither and drank with their ears
The ambrosial music sevenfold. (958)
34. As the teasers and the teased shared alike the harmony
The white-fanged adder, bewitched by music
Fell on the peacock; the tireless lion and the tusker huge
Moved together; the fawn with grass in mouth
Passed by the open-mouthed tiger. (959)
35. Wind would not move, branches would not sway;
Cascades from dark hill would not fall down;
Jungle rivers would neither gurgle nor flow;
Heavens would not rumble and the seven seas stood still. (960)
36. As the playing of the flute by the roseate lips
Of the servitor of the Lord’s feet whose crest is decked
With beauteous and incense-breathing konrai blooms,
Did melt all, lives – moving and stationary --,
Lay oned with music; their life and limb
And their inner sensorium too partook
Of one common musicality. (961)
37. The flute’s music which emerged from the loving mind
Of the true devotee filled the earth, brought under
Its spell the celestial world and wafted near
The divine ears of the Supreme One who is not to be
Gained by pseudo-love, and who doth enact
The dance divine in the Golden Ambalam. (962)
38. It pleased the Lord to hearken to the music
Of Anayar’s flute; with His Consort -- a liana of tapas --,
Whose heart is grace and compassion divine,
The brow-eyed Lord -- the Cause and Source of Music --,
Through heaven’s highway, with His matted hair
Bright with the crescent, thither appeared. (963)
39. When from all directions came the hosts of Gananatas
And stood before the celestial lords, no alien sound
Was breathed to mar the flute’s marvel;
The Lord-Dancer who was pleased to listen to the music
Which in vibrant ripples of flute’s own melody
Hailed the Lord’s Panchakshara,
Graced him with a darshan of His presence. (964)
40. The First One that on His Young Bull appeared before him
Desiring to hear for ever the flute’s melody
Of the great one of righteous and pious mind,
Spake thus: “May you abide with Us even as you are now here.”
Thus, even thus, was he translated to the Lord’s divine presence.(965)
41. Gods showered flowers of karpaka thick on earth;
Innumerable munis great chanting the Vedic hymns
Hailed; the glorious one played on the flute
And walked beside Him; thus the Lord, the One of pure Punya,
Entered into His Golden Ambalam. (966)
In Praise Of St. Sundarar
42. To conciliate here who indulged in bouderie
He caused the Dancer of ruddy hair to ply twice
As a messenger at night when His dazzling ear-rings
Chased murk away; such was he who had enslaved us;
We would not henceforth the path of evil tread
(That leads to the cycle of birth and death). (967)
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Stanza Line
2 5-6 cf. Kamban. : “Nizhalitai urangkum methi”
6 4 Kaya : Memecylon tinctorium.
9 6 The ghosts are as sacred as they are holy.
13 The scriptures of
Music : Gandharva Vedam. Making of the flute:
If the stick is divided into eighteen
parts, the stick will be 30 fingers’
breadth in length. Its circumference
should be of 4 1/2 fingers’ breadth.
With (2 + 4) six parts gone, it will
measure 20 fingers’ breadth in length.
15 Naruvili : Cordia obliqua.
19 Kopa : Indra-kopa. (Cochineal insect)
Time : The Danseuse.
Call of peacocks: (Mayuradhwani, Antholika) -- the
ragas played during the concert.
Kopa : The lips.
Mullai-buds : The smile of white teeth.
Lightning : The waist.
Eventide : The breasts.
Vast earth : The theatre.
Vangkiyam is a wind-instrument. It refers to the flute and
/ or the pipe. Flute is made out of bamboo stem, sandal
wood, bell-metal, senkali and karunkali which are varieties
of mahogany.
Pull is grass and bamboo is a grass.
The flute measures twenty fingers breadth in length and
its circumference is 4 1/2 fingers’ breadth. The left end
of the flute is closed and the right end of left open. The
hole into which wind is blown by the lips is called perum
thanitthulai (the grand hole). In the context of the stanza,
we translated it as a magna cavum. It is called mudra.
Apart from the big or the grand hole, eight holes are
made in the flute, from about its middle to the right end.
The last hole is not used when the instrument is played.
The other seven represent yezhisai (sapta swaras).
Sincere thanks to Sri. T N Ramachandran of thanjavur, for permitting his English rendering of the holy text periyapurANam be published here.
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