evarani nirNayiJciri
Sahityam
Pallavi
evarani nirNayiJcirirA ninn-
eTlArAdhiJcirirA nara¹ varul(evarani)
Show Word Meanings
eTlArAdhiJcirirA nara¹ varul(evarani)
What did the most eminent people determine as to who You are? And, how did they worship You?
Anupallavi
zivuDanO mAdhavuDanO kamala²
bhavuDanO para-brahmamanO ninn(evarani)
Show Word Meanings
bhavuDanO para-brahmamanO ninn(evarani)
What did the most Eminent people determine as to who You are – whether Lord Siva or Lord Vishnu or Brahma – One seated in Lotus or the Supreme Lord? And, how did they worship You?
Charanam
ziva mantramunaku ma³ jIvamu
mAdhava mantramunaku rA jIvamuyI
vivaramu telisina ghanulaku mrokkeda
vitaraNa guNa tyAgarAja⁴ vinuta (evarani)
Show Word Meanings
mAdhava mantramunaku rA jIvamuyI
vivaramu telisina ghanulaku mrokkeda
vitaraNa guNa tyAgarAja⁴ vinuta (evarani)
For the Siva mantra – ‘ma’ is the soul; for the Vishnu mantra – ‘rA’ is the soul; I salute these great personages who understand this detail; O Munificient Lord, praised by this Tyagaraja! What did the most eminent people determine as to who You are? And, how did they worship You?
Renditions
Variations
- 1
nara varu(levarani) – nara varu (evarani) - nara vara (evarani)
. If ‘nara varu
’ is correct, then it could be connected to Pallavi. If ‘nara vara
’ is correct, then it should be treated as an epithet of Lord and cannot be connected to Pallavi.
- It is stated that Gopalakrishna Bharati (Tamil composer) – a contemporary of Tyagaraja visted latter and sang a song ([[Sabhapatikku]]) eulogising Lord Siva – that there is no God equal to Lord Siva. It is stated that then and there, Sri Tyagaraja extempore composed this song. If this is true, then ‘nara varulu evarani ’ would be the correct rendering.
- 2 kamala bhavuDu – kamalA bhavuDu : As the word here means ‘lOtus’, ‘kamala ’ is appropriate (kamalA – lakSmI ).
- 3 ma jIvanamu – mA jIvamu : From the discourse referred below, it is clear that the (second) syllable of ‘namazzivAya ’ is referred – ie ‘ma ’ and not ‘mA ’. Similarly, ‘rA ’ is the second syllable of ‘nArAyaNAya ’; there ‘rA jIvamu ’ is correct.
- 4 tyAgarAja vinuta – tyAgarAja vinuta ninnu
References
- General - ziva mantra – mAdhava mantra - Please refer to discourse of Kanchi Paramacharya Chandra Sekharendra Sarasvati on - [[http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/2952/mantra3.html tAraka nAma ]]
- Please also refer to Kriti ‘pEriDi ninnu’ – rAga kharaharapriya wherein Sri Tyagaraja expresses the same wonderment.
Commentary
- There is a story about initiation of (the hunter who later became) Valmiki by sage Narada. It is stated that he was so sinful that he could not repeat the mantra ‘rAma ’; therefore, sage Narada reversed it as ‘marA ’ and asked him to repeat the same which when chanted repeatedly becomes ‘rAma ’. [[http://web.onetel.net.uk/~suman11/magazine_articles_November4.htm Valmiki]] (Invoke ‘Dhyana’)