Recollection of lost 4000 verses - Chapter - 4
There had been a phase after 700 odd AD most of this sacred hymns / pasurams had been forgotten or lost for generations.
There is place called Veeranarayana puram in Kattu Mannar Koil town which is some 15 kms away from Gangai Konda Cholapuram, this was the home town of a vaishnavate Nathamuni adigal or Nathamuniyar during 950 AD, he was born in Annuradha Natchathiram during Jyestha month. It is believed that he lived during either Rajaraja or Rajendra chola period.This place has a perumal temple Veeranarayana perumal.
Nathamuniyar has been a servant of lord in this temple and use to do seva every day thinking of lord. One day while he was performing his daily pooja, a group of devotees came Thirunarayanapuram in Melkote. They were singing the pasuram of Aravamuthey, a pasuram from Nammazhwar thirumozhi which was praising the lord Perumal from Kumbakonam.
The devotees ended this with these pasurams as these are " 10 out of 1000". These pasurams were so great that made Nathamuniyar happy and asked them to sing remaining 990, unfortunately none of them were aware of that.
This made Nathamuniyar not able to concentrate on anything and he started to Kumbakonam in search of remaining 990 pasuram along with his 2 disciples Melaiyagattazhwar and Kilaiyagattazhwar. From there he was asked to go to Thirukarugur, however he was not able to find anything, he again went 5 km east to Thirukolur. There he got the Verses of Madura kavi Azhwar who wrote verses in praise of Nammazhwar starring with
Kannin Siruthambinaal ( கண்ணிநுண் சிறுத்தாம்பு ). He was able to get the 12 verses of this and he went straight to a tree and sat down and sung these 12 hymns 12000 times after which NammAzhwar appeared before him and handed over all the 4000 verses which we are reading today as Naalayira Divya Prabhandam.
After this he went back to his native Kattu mannar koil and started to spread this to all vaishnavaite temple and made a vaishnava sampradayam from then on
He also had couple of disciples with whom the spread of divya prabhandam started.
There is also an interesting aspect , Nathamuniyar's 'son name is Ishwaramuni and Nathamuniyar's grandson name is Yamunai Thuraivan, who is fondly called as Alavanthan, he continued to take the responsibility of spreading Vaishnavate sampradayam. His diciples include Periya Nambi, Thirukoshtiyur Nambi, Thirukachi Nambi. Alavanthar is the one who made Sri Ramanujar as Acharya after him;
The current vaishnavism is started with Nathamuniyar and with his direction Alavanthar and Sri Ramanujar started to spread and standardised it; He is the first guru of current Vaishnavaite Sampradayam;
In next chapter we will see little more details of 12 Azhwar , their birth place etc
Verses to continue...
There had been a phase after 700 odd AD most of this sacred hymns / pasurams had been forgotten or lost for generations.
There is place called Veeranarayana puram in Kattu Mannar Koil town which is some 15 kms away from Gangai Konda Cholapuram, this was the home town of a vaishnavate Nathamuni adigal or Nathamuniyar during 950 AD, he was born in Annuradha Natchathiram during Jyestha month. It is believed that he lived during either Rajaraja or Rajendra chola period.This place has a perumal temple Veeranarayana perumal.
Nathamuniyar has been a servant of lord in this temple and use to do seva every day thinking of lord. One day while he was performing his daily pooja, a group of devotees came Thirunarayanapuram in Melkote. They were singing the pasuram of Aravamuthey, a pasuram from Nammazhwar thirumozhi which was praising the lord Perumal from Kumbakonam.
The devotees ended this with these pasurams as these are " 10 out of 1000". These pasurams were so great that made Nathamuniyar happy and asked them to sing remaining 990, unfortunately none of them were aware of that.
This made Nathamuniyar not able to concentrate on anything and he started to Kumbakonam in search of remaining 990 pasuram along with his 2 disciples Melaiyagattazhwar and Kilaiyagattazhwar. From there he was asked to go to Thirukarugur, however he was not able to find anything, he again went 5 km east to Thirukolur. There he got the Verses of Madura kavi Azhwar who wrote verses in praise of Nammazhwar starring with
Kannin Siruthambinaal ( கண்ணிநுண் சிறுத்தாம்பு ). He was able to get the 12 verses of this and he went straight to a tree and sat down and sung these 12 hymns 12000 times after which NammAzhwar appeared before him and handed over all the 4000 verses which we are reading today as Naalayira Divya Prabhandam.
After this he went back to his native Kattu mannar koil and started to spread this to all vaishnavaite temple and made a vaishnava sampradayam from then on
He also had couple of disciples with whom the spread of divya prabhandam started.
There is also an interesting aspect , Nathamuniyar's 'son name is Ishwaramuni and Nathamuniyar's grandson name is Yamunai Thuraivan, who is fondly called as Alavanthan, he continued to take the responsibility of spreading Vaishnavate sampradayam. His diciples include Periya Nambi, Thirukoshtiyur Nambi, Thirukachi Nambi. Alavanthar is the one who made Sri Ramanujar as Acharya after him;
The current vaishnavism is started with Nathamuniyar and with his direction Alavanthar and Sri Ramanujar started to spread and standardised it; He is the first guru of current Vaishnavaite Sampradayam;
In next chapter we will see little more details of 12 Azhwar , their birth place etc
Verses to continue...
