Home > Scriptures & Stotras > Prayers in English > Periyapuranam English poetry

		I am also a servitor of Murukan...."

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

1. 	The town that is beloved of our Lord whose matted hair
	Sports the flood of Ganga and who is embraced by
	The shoot-like soft hands of Himavant’s daughter
	Whose locks are decked with flowers of pollen,
	Is poompukaloor girt with vast flowery gardens
	Situate in the land of the Cholas of bright gemmy crowns
	And enriched by the river Kaveri.				(1017)

2. 	Like the minds of goodly devotees, white shone
	Their frames smeared with the holy ash protective;
	So, in that hoary and glorious town, night wasn’t dark;
	So too the black beetles of pretty wings that sipped honey
	Resting on flowers shone bright with lustre.			(1018)

3. 	As bees that hummed choice tunes, fluttered
	By the soft branches studded with buds about to bloom,
	They poured colourful honey; not only the mouths
	Of fragrant blooms oped but the tuneful beaks
	Of soft and young starlings which abode
	At all the sides of the cool gardens, also oped
	And poured the sweet honey of divine decads.			(1019)

4. 	As bees buzzed, it was  not only the fragrant lotus-buds
	That burgeoned with honey-dew in the glorious pools,
	But the lotus-visages of devotees too were tear-bedewed
	When they rapturously hearkened to the nectarean hymns
	And divine psalms on the God of gods.				(1020)



5. 	In that town of glory and foison and tranquil beauty
	Called Pukaloor, he came to be born in the family
	Of renowned Brahmins; in the Vedas was he well-versed;
	He stood atop Wisdom’s peak; stablished below the roseate feet
	Of the Lord whose jewels are serpents, and filled with flawless
	Devotion chaste, he -- Murukanar --, was endowed
	With a mind that melted in devotion. 				(1021)

6. 	He dwelt at Tiru-p-Pukaloor rich in fields
	Where red lotuses burgeon; thither leap the carps
	Over sluices; crabs wake up from their bed of (lotus) leaves.
	He was blessed with the true beatitude of servitorship
	To the Lord who rides the Bull; he would gather
	Fresh flower and leaves to deck the Lord’s matted hair.		(1022)

7. 	Waking before the break of day, he would bathe
	In the sacred flood; then would he fare forth and gather
	In baskets variform, innumerable flowers
	After carefully examining them, before plucking,
	To see if they are about to bloom fragrantly;
	These he collected to deck the Lord’s matted hair
	Whence course the Ganga and the moon.				(1023)

8. 	Flowers of branches, blooms of plants, blooms
	Of cool waters and petalled flowers of rich creepers
	He would gather, as flowers fit to deck the crown
	Of the Lord of beauteous smile, the Originator of the Vedas,
	Whose bow was the Mount Meru strung with the serpent.		(1024)

9. 	The wearer of the sacred thread would seek
	A clean and sequestered place and would weave
	Wreaths, chaplets, garlands, fragrant bouquets,
	Leis to engird the staves, wreaths like anklets
	And huge nosegays spilling fragrant pollen.			(1025)

10. 	He would weave wreath for the service of the Lord
	At the specified hours ordained, and carry them;
	He would deck the Lord with these, and duly perform pooja
	In love; he would ever chant the Panchakshara,
	The import of the divine decades and the sustenance
	Of his consciousness too.					(1026)

11. 	He who was in the Vedas well-versed avoided
	The forbidden, the stood stablished in the righteous way;
	He was also endowed with the glory of becoming
	A friend of the Godly son who was fed
	From a bowl of ruddy gold, the breast-milk
	-- The Godly Gnosis hailed by the clarified Gospels --,
	By Her, the Creatrix and Fosterer of all the worlds.		(1027)

12. 	Quotidian and without fail he performed pooja
	In delight great to the Lord enshrined
	At Varthamaneeccharam of Tiru-p-Pukaloor;
	Chanting the glorious Panchakshara he hailed
	And adored the Lord unknown to Brahma, the swan,
	And Vishnu, the boar.						(1028)

13. 	Divine Murukanar as a guerdon for his performance
	Of pooja in this birth and also in births previous,
	Could attend the glorious wedding of the Godly son
	Of Pukali and come by the bliss of release
	Granted by the grace of the Lord, the Rider
	Of the red-eyed Bull; he reached the divine shade
	Of the Lord’s feet, thus blessed with everlasting life.		(1029)

14. 	I adore the true service divine of Murukanar
	Of Pukaloor who by reason of his pooja to the Lord
	-- The wearer of serpent on His waist --, rests under
	His feet; I now proceed to narrate the glory
	Of the devotee-Pasupatiyar that hailed the Lord
	With Rudram, embosoming Him that ever willingly
	Comes to the guileless.						(1030)

----------------

Stanza	Line

   3	 7	Parakeets and starlings were minstrels of holy hymns in the hoary Tamil Nadu.

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