cakkani rAja
Sahityam
Pallavi
cakkani rAja mArgamuluNDaga
sandula¹ dUranEla O manasA
Show Word Meanings
sandula¹ dUranEla O manasA
When there are nice royal paths,
why enter bylanes? O Mind!
Anupallavi
cikkani pAlu mIgaDa² yuNDaga
chIyanu³ gaGgA⁴ sAgaramElE
Show Word Meanings
chIyanu³ gaGgA⁴ sAgaramElE
When there are condensed milk and cream,
why this detestable toddy?
Charanam
kaNTiki sundara-taramagu rUpamE
mukkaNTi nOTa celagE nAmamE tyAga-
rAjiNTanE nelakonnAdi daivamE⁵
yiTuvaNTi zrI sAkEta rAmuni bhaktiyanE (cakkani)
Show Word Meanings
mukkaNTi nOTa celagE nAmamE tyAga-
rAjiNTanE nelakonnAdi daivamE⁵
yiTuvaNTi zrI sAkEta rAmuni bhaktiyanE (cakkani)
What a most beautiful form as a feast to the eyes!
what a name shining in the tongue of Lord Siva!
and what an Ancient Lord firmly established in the very house of Tyagaraja!
O My Mind! why enter bylanes when there is this nice royal path called devotion to such a Lord Sri Rama of Ayodhya?
Renditions
Variations
- 5 nelakonnAdi daivamE (nelakonnna + Adi daivamE) – nelakonnadi daivamE ’ – which does not seem to be correct. However, if it is ‘nelakonnadhi daivamE ’, then it could be split as ‘nelakonna + adhi daivamE ’, ignoring the error in the sandhi.
References
- 4
gaGgA sAgaramu
– In all the books, this word has been taken as ‘toddy’ – a colloquial usage. However, no such word is found in any dictionary. In Sanskrit ‘tAla’, tAlagarbha
’ means toddy; in Telugu, ‘ITa’, ‘kaLLu’, ‘tATikaLLu’, ‘nIrA
’ are the words meaning toddy. Though the following explanation may be far-fetched, yet it may not be out of place.
- Ganga and all other rivers are considered to be wives of Sagara – Varuna. Varuni is Varuna’s female Energy (personified either as his wife or as his daughter, produced at the time of churning of the ocean and regarded as the goddess of spirituous liquor; Varuni also means ‘a particular kind of spirit’ (prepared from hogweed mixed with the juice of the date or palm and distilled) or ‘any spirituous liquor’. Therefore, instead of using the Varuni to mean toddy, Sri Tyagaraja might have used ‘gaGgA sAgara ’.
- The word vAruNI appears in Srimad-Bhagavatam in many places. It also appears in Lalita Sahasranamam – ‘vAruNI mada vihvalAyai namaH ’ meaning ‘Salutations to Her who is intoxicated with vAruNI (the wine of spiritual bliss)’ (333).
- According to a Quote from “Tyagaraja - Life and Lyrics” - William Jackson - Oxford University Press – “The reference is to Gangasagara Bhatt of Tanjore court, a toddy tippler about whom stories were in circulation in Tyagaraja’s time. Toddy came to be called Gangasagara.” [[http://www.rasikas.org/viewtopic.php?id=1887 Ganga Sagara Bhatt - Post #23]]
Commentary
- 1 sandulu – Though Sri Tyagaraja has not specified what these bylanes are, obviously all paths other than Bhakti may be taken as bylanes.
- 2 pAlu mIgaDa – this may mean milk and cream or cream only.
- 3 chI – this is a colloquial expression of disgust when one encounters something detestable.