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		"I am a servitor to the servitors of Vattayan
		Who desired to perish when his service failed."

					- The Tiru-th-Tonda-th-Tokai.

1. 	And there is a town called Kanamangalam,
	A splendid place for dwelling, enriched by
	The flood of the Cauvery; here hum honey-bees,
	Male and female, and soft nodes of sweetcanes
	Burst and seep out a rich saccharic ooze.			(903)

2. 	In its paddy-fields when the farmers
	Weed out lotuses from them, fall down pearls
	Bred thither by chanks; the farm-hands thus,
	Like the celestials, look endowed with Padma-Nidhi.		(904)

3. 	In that town of foison, in the visages of damsels
	Whose koontals display fivefold plaits, bees buzz;
	Their eyes like unto blue lilies roll and reach their ears;
	Their necks are decked with jewels of blue gems;
	In pools beside the fields where sport the finny drove
	Nelumbos rich in leafy wealth burgeon.				(905)

4. 	In that town was a great householder,
	Righteous, proper and honourable;
	With immense wealth ancestral was he endowed;
	He was the chief of husbandmen.					(906)



5. 	Tayanar was the name he bore.
	Though for a long time, Vishnu pursued
	Burrowing, he could not find and was bewildered;
	But to those feet of tapas, he could hold fast.			(907)

6. 	For the Lord-Brahmin of ruddy matted hair
	Which flashes like lightning, he daily offered
	Food of rice, lush greens well-cooked
	And condiment savoury of tender mangoes.			(908)

7. 	To behold him pursuer this service willingly
	Indigence notwithstanding, and approve it in joy
	The Lord of the hoary Gospels caused the traceless
	Disappearance of his ancestral wealth.				(909)

8. 	His wealth became like unto the wood-apple
	Attacked by Vezham, and perished;
	Yet in love he adored Ammai-Appar as before;
	Tayanar swerved not from his flawless service.			(910)

9. 	In chill penury, as a harvesting coolie
	He earned by way of wages goodly paddy;
	With that, he provided in love
	His nectarean offerings for the Lord.				(911)

10. 	He would go from place to place in search of employers,
	Get paddy and use it up all, to provide
	Ambrosial offerings divine; while thus he throve,
	One day the Lord who is unknown to Vishnu,
	Chose to change the course of events.				(912)

11. 	In all the fields the Lord caused growth of crops
	Rich in paddy sheaves that could be daily harvested;
	Beholding this the glorious Tayanar thought thus:
	“This indeed is my punya.” He felt happy
	and he engaged himself in harvesting; with the paddy
	Thus secured, he rendered rich service to his deity.		(913)

12. 	Though for many days they had no rice to eat
	His wife suffered no loss of love for the Lord;
	She would from the backyard daily gather wild greens
	Cook and serve it; they had only this for food;
	Thus they spent their days, though their service
	Continued as usual.						(914)

13. 	When even the wild greens were unavailable
	His wife, verily an Aruntati, served him with water;
	With that for his food, the loving devotee pursued
	His daily service; I am truly blessed to narrate
	What took place one day, when he spent his days thus.		(915)

14. 	When as before to provide offerings for the Lord
	The servitor bore on his head the basket
	That contained the goodly rice, pure as his spiraling love,
	The tender greens and the tender mangoes, and fared forth
	With a mind untouched by trouble, his wife followed him
	With the pot of panchakavya.					(916)

15. 	As he was proceeding thus, by reason of his fatigue
	His foot slipped; with her hand that covered
	The earthen pot, his loving wife tried to hold him;
	Yet as all slipped into the fissure of the field,
	The servitor of the Lord of the Bhootas exclaimed:
	“Of what avail is my going there, henceforth?”			(917)

16. 	When goodly greens, tender mangoes pure and rice spilled,
	He said: “I am denied the grace of the Lord
	Who can rid me of my misery, and rule me,
	As I, the one of endless evil,
	Canst not offer food to my Lord.”
	He set the sickle on his neck and began to saw it.		(918)

17. 	“My Lord who could redeem me, could not eat my offering”
	He cried, and holding the sickle set on his neck,
	He, poised in the flawless way of love, began to saw away
	The neck from behind through bone, cord and pipe.
	He was like him who would cut away his transmigration.		(919)

18. 	To prevent the act of the fierce and flawless hand
	Of the blemishless servitor who wielded the sawing sickle,
	The sticking out of the Gracious hand of the Dancer-Lord
	And the sound of Videl-Videl of biting
	And cracking the tender mango, was seen and heard
	Simultaneously from the fissure.				(920)

19. 	When the divine hand held the strong hand that wielded
	The sickle, he was seized with inopinate wonder;
	His wound healed
	And he stayed his fierce act;
	Great was his joy;
	He thought of the grace great of His Lord
	And folded His hands in worship;
	He stood (in awe) and adored Him thus:				(921)

20. 	“O Supreme Ens, You beheld my nescience, and yet
	Would approve my servitorship; so were You pleased
	To feast on my offering from the fissure; praise be!
	O flame pure and good who is concorporate with Her
	Whose waist is tudi-like, praise be!
	O Ancient One of matted hair whose frame of coral hue
	Is besmeared with the Holy Ash, praise be!”			(922)

21. 	When he thus hailed Him, He appeared on His Bull
	And said: “Great indeed is your deed; with her 
	Of fair brow, may you for ever abide in Our world!”
	With them following Him, the Lord-Dancer of the Ambalam
	Moved away on His mount, the Bull ever-young.			(923)

22. 	As the devotee of loving chinta felt that the Supreme Ens
	-- The Great One --, could not be by him fed,
	And as he set his sickle on his tough neck and began
	To saw it, before he could hearken to the cracking sound
	Of videl of the tender mango (from the fissure(,
	He came to be called by the holy name Arivattayar.		(924)

23. 	I hail and bless the feet of the servitor
	Who heard the Lord’s biting sound of tender mango
	From the fissure of the field into which slipped
	His offering of rice, and whence the Lord consumed it.
	I now proceed to indite the service of Anayar
	Of over-abiding glory as is known to me.			(925)

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Stanza 	Line

   2		Padma-Nidhi	: 	A lotus shaped “Horn of plenty.”

   8		Vezham		:	A disease attacking wood-apples. 
					The fruit in this condition, would 
					retain its outward form while its 
					contents waste away.

  12	 1	No rice to eat	: 	Paddy obtained by way of wages, 
					belonged to the samba category, 
					and was, in entirety, offered to Siva.

  14		Panchakavya	: 	This is compounded of cow’s milk, 
					curds, ghee, urine and dung, and is 
					used in the sacred ablutions of the 
					Lord. The comments of the not-so-pure,
					about this concoction, are to be totally 
					ignored by a true devotee. There is 
					nothing profane in Nature.  Filth has 
					its being only in a filthy mind.

  17	 4	Bone		: 	Vertebra.

		Cord		:	Spinal Cord: the downward extension 
					of the brain.

		Pipe		: 	Trachea: the wind-pipe.

	 5	Transmigration	:	The cycle of birth and death.

Sincere thanks to Sri. T N Ramachandran of thanjavur, for permitting his English rendering of the holy text periyapurANam be published here.