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		"I am a serviteur of Kootruvan, the wielder
		Of a sharp spear and the prince of Kalanthai."
						
						- The Tiru-th-Tonda-th-Tokai

1. 	Kootruvanaar, the chief of Kalanthai vanquished
	All his foes in all the battles by the strength
	Of his shoulders; he flourished in the well being
	Of chanting daily the hallowed name of the Lord
	Who wields the trident; for many a day
	He hailed and adored the feet of the Lord’s devotees
	And plied himself in their service.				(3930)

2. 	Graced with puissance by the Lord, he caused
	All other kings obey him and stand aside in awe;
	All the realms came under his rule; he came by
	Limitless wealth and glowed in splendour;
	He flourished in the pride of the fourfold
	Martial  possessions, such as victorious tuskers
	Which frightened away the foes from the field
	Of battle, racing steeds, beautiful cars
	And infantry; these scared the hostile kings away.		(3931)

3. 	Engaging himself increasingly in victorious wars
	He moved on and on in the battle fronts where
	Kings fought; he wore tumpai flowers, waged wars
	And concluded them in success; he wore the fragrant
	Garlands of opposing kings; he but lacked a crown;
	He owned all other kingly riches.				(3932)

4. 	For the ruling of the splendorous earth when he beseeched
	The Tillai Brahmins to invest him with the great crown
	Set with ninefold gems, they made answer thus: “We invest
	Not with crown any, other than the one
	That comes from the hoary Chola dynasty.” Refusing to crown
	Him they left for the Malai Naadu of the Cera.			(3933)



5. 	The Tillai-Brahins who swerve not from
	The committed and privileged way, chose
	Among them a family and bade them stay there and guard
	The glorious crown with great circumspection;
	When the Tillai-Brahmins who hailed from the twofold
	Lineage--pure and holy--, reached the Cera’s country,
	Smitten by doubt, Kootruvanaar bowed before
	The ankleted feet of the Lord-Dancer of the Ambalam.		(3934)

6. 	Unto him who ever prayed: “O Lord, I, Your serviteur,
	Should be graced with the beatific crown
	Of Your flower-feet,” during that night, in his dream
	The Lord crowned him with His flower-feet; these
	He bore by His grace and sole reigned the whole earth.		(3935)

7. 	He caused the performance of great pooja in each
	And every shrine on earth where abides in joy
	The Lord who enacts the insatiable, and nectarean dance
	In Tiruvambalam wrought of beauteous gold, 
	Ruled his realm to the delight of the celestials,
	And reached the feet of Uma’s Consort.				(3936)

8. 	Poised in the loving glory of servitorship he fostered
	And ruled over the lives of the sea-girt earth;
	His effort was to do away with flaws; we adore
	The ankleted feet of Kootruvanaar of Kalanthai
	And proceed to narrate the greatness o those
	Divinely-enlightened “Poi Adimai Illaatha Pulavar”
	Who hail the Lord that fosters the world
	Granting unto it the Naadaa-incarnate Vedas
	In works of metrical hymns.					(3937)

9. 	To dispel the bouderie of Paravaiyaar whose beauteous
	Words excel the sweetness of honey and the melody
	Of flute, when on a day divine, the Lord whose matted hair
	Holds the moon and the snake in amity, plied Himself
	As a messenger, Nampi Aaroorar cured the stoop of a hunch-back
	And the blindness of a blind man, and bade them serve Him;
	I too adore his bright flower-feet and thus do away
	With the perverting kink that gets attached to the soul
	In all its sevenfold embodiment.				(3938)

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NOTES

Verse No.

   1.	Kalanthai: This is now known as Kalappaal.  Our Naayanaar is referred to as 
	Kalappaallan by Nambi Aandaar Nambi.

   2.	Graced. . .  awe: This is also the message of verse 7 of the Puranam of 
	Sirutthondar.

   3.	he but laked a crown: According to the hoary Tamil tradition only the 
	Chola, the cera and the Paandya were the crowned monarches.

   4.	The crown of the Chola dynasty was in the keeping of the Tillai Brahmins.  
	A Chola king could get crowned in one of the five towns viz., Tillai, Karur, 
	Urantai, Aaroor and Seignaloor.

   5.	The Tillai-Brahmins were principled servitors.  They boldly declined to crown 
	Kootruvanaar.  However to avert any untoward incident, they as a body left for 
	the Cera’s country, leaving the crown in the safe-custory of one of their families.

		Very probably the Tillai-Brahmins hailed from Kerala.  Till recently their 
	tuft closely resembled that of a Kerala Brahmin’s.  They call their shrine Ambalam 
	which name is popular in Kerala.  Again the Tillai-Ambalam is very like a Kerala 
	shrine.  The renovation of Tillai Ambalam is always done by Keralites.  To this fact, 
	inscriptions bear ample testimony.

   6.	No doubt, the longing of the Naayanaar-king was not fulfilled.  However he had his 
	longing subsumed by a greater and an infinitely more glorious longing.  He prayed 
	to Siva thus: “O Lord, I, You servitor, should be graced with the beatific crown of 
	Your flower-feet.” The Lord, in His infinite mercy, fulfilled his servitor’s desire.

   7.	Our Naayanaar saw to it that the performance of pooja in each and every shrine 
	was done in the most proper way.  By his rule his reign on earth truly emerged as 
	a spiritual reign.

	
				Here ends the Puranam of Gananaatha Naayanaar

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