tiruvAcagam or The Sacred Utterances of the Tamil Poet, Saint and ...

Hymn VIII: THE SACRED AMMANAI
RAPTUROUS JOY.
The remarks made in the introduction to VII will apply in Some degree to this poem also, which is traditionally said
to have been composed at the same place and time by the bard, who seeing women in great numbers enjoying their
favourite game of AmmAnai and accompanying it a simple song, listened to their words, and then put the substance
into these verses. In some of them He relates his own experiences: In others he puts words into their mouths In the
play the women, generally six in number, sit in a circle and toss a number of little balls from one to another with great
dexterity and very swiftly. It is a pretty sight. They accompany their game a simple song, the rhythm of which is
suited to the action of the players. In this case there are twenty verses of six lines, each verse having but a single
rhythm. The subject of such verse .... generally some heroic exploits, such as are popular among all classes; or the
great acts of a deity. Here the title of 'rapturous joy' has been prefixed, as the editor seems to have conceived that as
the main idea of the verses.
I. His advent as Guru. The Foot
Great MAl, the fiery-eyed, delved down, but failed to reach
His foot's expanding flower! To earth that foot came down,
Our birth' cut off, made those like us His own.—Lord of
The south-landis clustering cocoa-groves, and Perun-turrai's shrine,
And Tillai's sacred court,—a sage He came, call'd me in grace'
And gave release. SING we His foot whence mercy flows ! AMMANAY, SEE ! (6)
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1-6. Here there are four lending ideas: i) Civan rising as the mountain ArunAchalam passed above and below the
roaring flight of BrahmA and the delvings of Vishnu; 2) this same Caiva graciously manifested Himself as a GURU to
the humble, loving bard in order to release him from further metempsychosis; 3) He is also worshipped in the temple
of Perun-turai, His great southern- shrine, where the saint first knew Him; and 4) in the sacred court of Tillai He
dwells, a BrAhman, one of the 3000 saints, the mystic Dancer and Dispenser of grace. There the sage is to obtain his
consummation. These four ideas perpetually recur in these poems.. This is un unfailing topic treated with inexhaustible
variety.
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II. Manifestations
To men on earth, to heavenly ones, to those beneath,
To those beyond, He's scarce made known; to us accessible !
The Name revered, the South-King, Perun-turrai's Lord
Entering our souls, with frenzy filled them, showed the final way.
Unsating Nectar, - in the billowy sea He cast His net;
The Sea of full desire SING we ! AMMAANAY, SEE ! (12)
Civan cast His net, is a fisherman. This refers to a story in the fifty-seventh of the ‘Sacred sports’. PArvathi was one
day inattentive while Civan was expounding to her the VEdic mysteries, for which she was condemned by her angry
husband and preceptor to be born on earth as a wife of a fisherman. Accordingly one day she was discovered lying as a
tender infant under a Pinnai tree(or Punnai, Calophyllam Inophyllam)by the headman of the Paravar, a great clan of
fisherman found everywhere along the coasts of the Tamil lands. By him she was adopted, and grew up a maiden of
surpassing beauty. At this time Nandi the Chamberlain of Civan, in order to bring about the accomplishment of the
god’s purpose with regard to the banished PArvathi, assumed the form of a monstrous shark; and in various ways
annoyed the poor fishermen, breaking their nets and wrecking their boats. On this the headman of the paravars issued a
proclamation that whoever should catch the sea-monster should be rewarded with the hand of his beautiful adopted
daughter. Civan forthwith made his appearance as a youth of noble aspect who had come from Madura, and at the first
throw of his net caught the shark and brought it to land. He accordingly, having himself become a fisherman, received
the fisherman’s daughter in marriage. The god now assumed his ancient form, and restored pArvathi to hers, and with
many gracious words took the foster father with Him to KailACham, the paradise of Silver Hill.
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