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CH. II. UYYAKKONDAR AND MANAKKAL-NAMBI. 13
CHAPTER II.
UYYAKKONDAK ANB MANAKKAL-NAMBI,
Uyyakkondar is the same as Pundai*ikaksha(r)' Ujyakkondar
is a name which has an interesting stoiy connected
with it. Once on an occasion, Vangi-purafct-Acchi, the fatherin-law
of Nathaniuni(ga]), sent a request to his son-in-law to
send his wife (i.e., Acchi's daughter), Aravinda-Pavai ou a
visit. Nathamuni(gal) sent her, escorted by Pundarikaksha(r),
his trusted disciple. Some of the dependents of Acchi looked
down upon him as of an inferior caste, he being a piirva-sikhi
(that is, of that class among Brahmans, whose custom is to
wear a tuft of hair right on the crown of the head) ; and therefore
they fed him on stale food. But he never resented this
treatment. He, on the other hand, considered it as the
greatest blessing that was conferred upon him. He returned
home, and pressed by Nathamuni(gal) to narrate all that took
place at Acchi's residence, related with joy the happiness he
derived from eating stale food ; when asked how it could be so,
he answered that it was certainly so on the principle explained
by St. Tondaradippodi-Azhvar :
" If but their broken bread the saints will grant
—
Indeed it shall my nature purify."
[TirumSlai, verse 41.
J
On hearing this, Nathamuni(ga]) embraced his disciple
and exclaimed :
" Thou art my saviour." Thus Uyyakkondar
means : he who practised the highest precepts of religion
taught by his Master.
Such was Uyyakkondar or Pundarik-aksha. He had
many disciples under him with whom he was happilj- engaged
in the delightful study and exposition of the Utterances of the
1
Born at Tiravallarai, A.C. 826, Vide No. 19. Hierarchic Table, in
our Lives of Axhodrs.