Nāthamuni

The Āzhvārs had gone, each of them, to the light that was his own, and a long time had passed since.

At Vīranārāyaṇapuram the Lord is called Maṉṉaṉār, and three men of one family served at his feet in every way there was to serve. The eldest was Īśvarabhaṭṭāzhvār. The second was his son Nāthamuni, the sage Nātha, whom the account honours as Nāthamunigaḷ. The third was Nāthamuni's son, Īśvaramuni, Īśvaramunigaḷ.

One day the three of them went before Maṉṉaṉār, laid themselves full length on the floor in the prostration called daṇḍan, the fall of a staff, and made a request.

They reminded him of his own word. He had said:

பரித்ராணாய

ஸாதூநாம்விநாஶாயசதுஷ்க்ருதாம்-தர்மஸம்ஸ்தாபநார்த்தாய ஸம்பவாமியுகே

யுகே

paritrāṇāya

sātūnāmvināśāyacatuṣkrutām-tarmasamstāpanārttāya sampavāmiyukē

yukē

To protect the good, to destroy those who do evil, to set dharma on its feet, I come into being age after age.

He had kept that word. He had come down to hold back the wicked and to guard the good, and he had played on the earth in the north: at Mathurā, at Tiruvāyppāḍi where the cowherds lived, in Bṛndāvana, on the bank of the Yamunā, on the hill of Govardhana, at Dvārakā, at Ayodhyā, at Sāḷagrāma, at Badarikāśrama, in the forest of Naimiśa, on the hill of Narasiṃha. "We must go to every one of them," they said, "and worship your feet there, and come back."

Maṉṉaṉār answered them through the mouth of his archaka, the priest who serves the image. "Do so."

They set out with their families.

In the north they worshipped at the holy places one after another, the places the Tamil hymns name together: Madurai of the north, Sāḷakkirāmam, Vaikuntam, Tuvarai, Ayōtti, and Vatari with its wide spaces. They came to the Yamunā. The Viṣṇu Purāṇa says of that river that it runs very deep, crowded in its many whirlpools, and so it ran, deep and eddying, beside them. On its bank was a village called Śrī Govardhanapuram, and there was the Lord whom the hymn calls the lord of the Yamunā ghat, of the pure great waters: Yamuṉaittuṟaivaṉ.

They worshipped him and were very glad. They made up their minds. "We shall live here, in this place, for good."

So they stayed, and served him at his feet in every way there was.

While they were living there, Maṉṉaṉār came to Nāthamuni in a dream and said, "Come to our Vīranārāyaṇapuram."

"What a dream this is!" they said to one another, and they turned it over among themselves. "What is it right for us to do now?"

They went before Yamuṉaittuṟaivar, prostrated themselves, and told him what had happened. He too answered through his archaka, and he answered as Maṉṉaṉār had answered when they left home. "Do so." He gave them tīrtha, the holy water from his worship, and prasāda, the food he had been offered, and he let them go.

They came south with their families by way of Vārāṇasī.

They came to Puruṣottama, of which it is said:

ஸப்த ஸப்தஸு லோகேஷு லோகா

லோகேசராசரே - நாஸ்திநாஸ்திஸமம்க்ஷேத்ரம் உத்தமம்புருஷோத்தமம்

sapta saptasu lōkēṣu lōkā

lōkēcarācarē - nāstināstisamamkṣētram uttamampuruṣōttamam

In the seven and seven worlds, in this world and beyond it, among all that moves and all that stands still, there is no holy field, no, there is none, equal to the supreme Puruṣottama.

There they worshipped Jagannātha. They went on to Siṃhādri and worshipped the Lord of the hill there. They went on to Ahobila and worshipped Narasiṃha at his feet, the Lord of whom the verse cries out, "Oh, the valour! Oh, the courage! Oh, the strength of those arms!"

They came to Tirumalai. They worshipped the hill itself first, the great hill of Tiruvēṅkaṭam where the Supreme went and settled, and then they climbed it. The Sanskrit says of that place:

மாயாவீபரமாநந்தந் த்யக்த்வாவைகுண்டமுத்தமம் - ஸ்வாமிபுஷ்கரிணீ

தீரே ரமயாஸஹமோததே

māyāvīparamānantan tyaktvāvaikuṇṭamuttamam - svāmipuṣkariṇī

tīrē ramayāsahamōtatē

The Lord who owns all illusion left the highest bliss, left Vaikuṇṭha the supreme; on the Svāmipuṣkariṇī's bank he is happy with Ramā.

Just so, the Lord of Vaikuṇṭha, who holds the strings of the whole play of the world, thinks nothing even of his own supreme abode. He longs to protect the people of this world, and so he stands on the bank of the Tirukkōṉēri with Tirumāmagaḷ, the great Lady, where anyone at all can come to him. They worshipped Tiruvēṅkaṭattappaṉ at his feet, and they thought they would stay there for good.

Maṉṉaṉār did not will it. They left very quickly.

They came to Kaḍikācalam, to the hill of Kaḍigai with its wide tanks, and worshipped Azhakiya Siṅgar, who sits on that hill like a fruit of sugar. They worshipped Emporēṟṟu Nāyaṉār at Puṭkuzhi, and Periya Uḍaiyār. They came to Kacci, to Kāñcī. It is said:

நகரீணாஞ்சஸர்வாஸாம்

புரீகாஞ்சீவிஶிஷ்யதே - கிரீணாஞ்சாபிஸர்வேஷாம் ஶ்ரேஷ்டோஹஸ்திகிரிஸ்

ஸ்ம்ருத:-வேகவத்யுத்தரேதீரே புண்யகோட்யாம்ஹரிஸ்ஸ்வயம்-வரதஸ்ஸர்வ

பூதாநாம் அத்யாபிபரித்ருஶ்யதே

nakarīṇāñcasarvāsām

purīkāñcīviśiṣyatē - kirīṇāñcāpisarvēṣām śrēṣṭōhastikiris

smrutaḥ-vēkavatyuttarētīrē puṇyakōṭyāmharissvayam-varatassarva

pūtānām atyāpiparitruśyatē

Among all cities the city of Kāñcī stands out; among all hills, too, the best is Hastigiri, so it is held. On the north bank of the Vegavatī, in Puṇyakoṭi, Hari himself, the giver of boons to every creature, is seen to this day.

There Pēraruḷāḷar stands on Hastigiri in the middle of the shrine called Puṇyakoṭi, served by every living being and giving every good thing. They worshipped him, and the other holy places there besides.

They went on to Tiruvayindirapuram and worshipped Deivanāyakaṉ. They went to Tirukkōvalūr and worshipped Āzhvārgaḷ Nāyaṉār.

They came to Śrīraṅgam. There is a saying:

ரங்கம்ரங்கமிதிப்ரூயாத் க்ஷுதப்ரஸ்கலநாதிஷு - விஷ்ணுலோக

மவாப்நோதி ஸத்ய:பாபக்ஷயாந்நர:

raṅkamraṅkamitiprūyāt kṣutapraskalanātiṣu - viṣṇulōka

mavāpnōti satyaḥpāpakṣayānnaraḥ

Let a man say ‘Raṅga, Raṅga’ when he sneezes or stumbles or the like: he reaches the world of Viṣṇu at once, for his sins are destroyed.

And so, when a sneeze or a cough or any such upset comes on a person, he says "Tiruvaraṅgam Periya Kōyil," the great temple of Tiruvaraṅgam, and the fault is taken away. They came into that great city, which takes away sin and gives release, and worshipped Namperumāḷ.

They went on to Tirukkuḍandai and worshipped Ārāvamudāzhvār, the nectar one never has enough of.

From there they came home to Vīranārāyaṇapuram and went up to Maṉṉaṉār's temple.

All the Śrīvaiṣṇavas of the place came out to meet them. They went in and worshipped Maṉṉaṉār at his feet, and stood there full of gladness.

Maṉṉaṉār was glad to his heart's content. He called together all the Śrīvaiṣṇavas who were there and said to them, "These are dear to us. Cherish them, and keep on cherishing them."

The Śrīvaiṣṇavas did as they were told. They built the family a house and gave it to them, and they saw to everything the house needed, from the daily rice onward.

And the family made Maṉṉaṉār a flower garden. They tied garlands and put them on him. They kept up his food offerings, his sandal paste, his lamps and all the rest, and nothing was ever lacking. They gathered the learned together, and they kept the teaching of the śāstras going.

That is how things stood when the ten verses came.

Some Śrīvaiṣṇavas came to Vīranārāyaṇapuram from the western country. They worshipped Maṉṉaṉār, and before him they recited a decad of the Tiruvāymozhi, the ten verses that begin "Ārāvamudē," "O nectar never enough."

Nāthamuni heard it and was full of joy.

He looked at them. "It said, 'these ten out of the thousand,'" he said. "Do you have the whole of this work?"

"Only these ten verses come to us," they said.

"Is there a manuscript of it in your country? Is there anyone there who studies it?"

"This much of the text is all we have," they said. "It is not anywhere else either."

He had Maṉṉaṉār's tīrtha and prasāda given to them, honoured them, and sent them on their way.

Then he said, "This work must be in the country round Tirukkurugūr, where Śaṭhakopaṉ was born." Śaṭhakopaṉ is Nammāzhvār. So Nāthamuni went to Tirunagari, and worshipped the Āzhvār there, and Polindu Niṉṟa Pirāṉ, the Lord who stands there in his splendour.

In that place he went to pay his respects to Śrī Parāṅkuśadāsar, the disciple of Madhurakavi, and asked him, "Are there people here who have learned the Tiruvāymozhi? Are there manuscripts?"

Parāṅkuśadāsar told him how it was. "The Tiruvāymozhi and all the other holy works have been lost for a long time," he said. "But our ācārya, our teacher, Śrī Madhurakavi, gave me a holy work called Kaṇṇinuṇ Siṟuttāmpu. And he said this: if a man recites Kaṇṇinuṇ Siṟuttāmpu twelve thousand times before the Āzhvār, sitting in one posture, with his mind on one thing, meditating on the Āzhvār's feet and keeping the discipline, the Āzhvār will be gracious to him."

Nāthamuni fell at his feet. "Please give that holy work to me," he said, and he called himself adiyēṉ, your servant.

Parāṅkuśadāsar taught it to him gladly.

Nāthamuni learned it. Then he sat at the foot of the holy tamarind tree, before the Āzhvār, and with the discipline kept he recited Kaṇṇinuṇ Siṟuttāmpu twelve thousand times.

There is a Sanskrit verse about what makes a disciple.

ஆஸ்திகோதர்மஶீலஶ்ச ஶீலவாந்வைஷ்ண

வஶ்ஶுசி: - கம்பீரஶ்சதுரோதீரஶ் ஶிஷ்யஇத்யபிதீயதே

āstikōtarmaśīlaśca śīlavānvaiṣṇa

vaśśuciḥ - kampīraścaturōtīraś śiṣyaityapitīyatē

He believes, he is given to dharma, his conduct is good, he belongs to Viṣṇu, he is pure, deep, able and steady: such a man is called a disciple.

Nāthamuni had every one of those qualities, beginning with faith, and at the bidding of Periya Pirāṭṭiyār, the great Lady, the Āzhvār was very pleased with him.

The Āzhvār opened his holy mouth and spoke to Nāthamuni, the way a voice speaks out of the air with no body to it.

"Well now, why do you keep worshipping us, so many times over?"

"Please, in your compassion, give me the holy works that begin with the Tiruvāymozhi," Nāthamuni said.

The Āzhvār was full of love for him. The Lord of all had once given the Āzhvār himself a clear and good mind, with no confusion left in it, and now the Āzhvār did for Nāthamuni what the Lord had done for him. "I give you a divine eye," the old verse says, and the Āzhvār gave Nāthamuni the divine eye of knowledge. He gave him the three secrets, the rahasya-traya. He gave him the Tiruvāymozhi and the other three thousand verses of the holy works, the meaning of every school of thought, and the secret of yoga in its eight limbs.

A Tamil verse says, "He sang the inner meaning of the Veda so that it would stay, and he set it fast in my heart." So it was now with Nāthamuni. He had what he came for. He stayed on there, worshipping Polindu Niṉṟa Pirāṉ and the Āzhvār.

While he was there, Maṉṉaṉār spoke to him in a dream. "Come and recite these works once before us."

The next day Nāthamuni worshipped Polindu Niṉṟa Pirāṉ and the Āzhvār and told them of it. The Āzhvār answered through his archaka.

"If that is so, go to Vīranārāyaṇapuram. Teach these works to Śrīvaiṣṇavas who have the qualities of the self, calm and restraint and the rest, so that they learn them, and understand them, and master them."

He gave him tīrtha and prasāda, and gave him leave.

Nāthamuni turned for home. At every holy place on the road he worshipped, and he recited there the verses that sing the glory of that place. He came into Vīranārāyaṇapuram, went to Maṉṉaṉār and stood before him after worshipping his feet, and told him the news: the Āzhvār had turned his special glance on him and had given him the holy works.

Maṉṉaṉār was very glad. In a dream he recited them once, together with Nāthamuni.

And Maṉṉaṉār thought it over. To lift up the people of this world, he had given them bodies and senses; he had given them the śāstras; he had come and been born among them himself. He had done all of that, and none of it had taken hold. After that it had come about through the holy works of the Āzhvārs, and through those the people had been set right. "Works like these must not lie lost," he thought. "We must make them known through this man."

He gave his command through the archaka. "You: make these into iyal and icai," the spoken word and the sung.

Nāthamuni called his nephews, Kīzhaiyakattāzhvār and Mēlaiyakattāzhvār.

"The Āzhvār turned his special glance on us and gave us these holy works," he told them, "and they must be made into iyal and icai. In doing it, think what they are: the great poets who sing sweet songs made them, and they are a holy garland raised up in perfect words. So we must set them in divine music and sing them."

He took the two of them with him and did it. The blessed Vedavyāsa once set the Vedas so that they could be spoken with their accents, udātta, anudātta, svarita and pracaya. In the same way Nāthamuni set these holy works in divine music, made them iyal and icai, and had them sung. It became famous in the world.

Another account, the one kept at Śrīraṅgam, follows the two nephews further.

It says that Kīzhaiyakattāzhvār and Mēlaiyakattāzhvār sang at Śrīraṅgam, at the festivals of the Tirumozhi and the Tiruvāymozhi, in the order Nāthamuni had laid down, and that they pleased Azhagiya Maṇavāḷap Perumāḷ, the beautiful bridegroom of that temple, very much. The Lord was pleased, and he gave them names. One he called Matiyāta Teyvaṅkaḷ Maṇavāḷap Perumāḷ Araiyar. The other he called Nāthavinōda Araiyar. And he gave them what he gives the Āzhvār himself, in the same order: the kullā, the cap; the ceremonial cloth, in silk and in cotton; the garlands he had worn and taken off; his prasāda. When the Lord gives Nammāzhvār leave to go, he sends with him all his own honours for the road. So he did for these two. He gave the singers his own umbrella and his fans and the rest, and he told his commander-in-chief, "Leave our singer at his house and come back." The commander took the whole retinue with him, saw the Araiyar to his door, and came back.

From that day, that account says, the two titles and the name Araiyar have stayed with the singers. The name says that they are emperors of singers, bound up in the taste of the music; the cap says that the lordship is theirs. It also says that Mēlaiyakattāzhvār taught the holy works with their music to others, told them to sing them at those two festivals as he did, and went back himself to Maṉṉaṉār's temple.

At Gaṅgaikoṇḍacōzhapuram the Cōzha was king, and two women came to his gate quarrelling. They were courtesans, and both of them sang. One sang the music of the gods, and the other sang the music of men.

They gathered the learned men together in the king's presence and sang. The king and the learned men praised the one who sang the music of men. They gave her jewels, garlands and gifts and sent her off. The one who had sung the music of the gods they made light of, and pushed her out.

"The music I sing," she said, "only the gods know it."

She went into one temple after another and sang in each, and she came to Maṉṉaṉār's temple and sang before him.

Nāthamuni heard her. He was glad of her, and praised her, and had Maṉṉaṉār's tīrtha and prasāda given to her, and his holy cloth.

She fell at Nāthamuni's feet and went away, and she went to that king and said to him, "There is someone who knows the divine music I sing. He bears the holy name Nāthamuni, and he is in Maṉṉaṉār's temple at Vīranārāyaṇapuram."

The king sent for Nāthamuni. "You must come," he said.

Nāthamuni thought about it. "We have set the holy works that begin with the Tiruvāymozhi in divine music," he said, "and the people of this country do not know what they are worth. We must make it known." So he went to the king's assembly.

The king rose, prostrated himself, and set him a seat. Nāthamuni sat down and blessed him.

Then the king asked, with great respect, "Does your honour know the divine music this woman sings?"

Nāthamuni had them both sing, the one who sang the music of men and the one who sang the music of the gods, and listened. Then he said to the king, "The music of men that she sings, you know. The divine music that she sings, the gods know. Apart from them, you do not know it."

"Your honour says you know it," the king said. "How are we to know that?"

Nāthamuni had forty hundred tāḷams, cymbals, struck all together, and said, "This one is so much in weight. This one is so much in weight."

The king weighed them, each by itself, and checked. Not one of them came short of what Nāthamuni had said by even a muntirai, the tiniest of fractions. The king was amazed. He fell at Nāthamuni's feet and tried to give him a great deal of wealth.

Nāthamuni had no wants. He had turned down even the seats of the four-faced Brahmā, of Paśupati, of Indra of the hundred sacrifices. "We want none of these," he said, and blessed the king, and went home to Vīranārāyaṇapuram.

He lived there with one thing only in his life, the kaiṅkarya, the service, at Maṉṉaṉār's feet.

Men came and took refuge at his feet. There is a Sanskrit verse that says who is called a disciple.

ஶரீரம்வஸூவிஜ்

ஞாநம் வாஸ:கர்மகுணாநஸூந் - குர்வர்த்தந்தாரயேத்யஸ்து ஸஶிஷ்யோநே

தரஸ்ஸ்ம்ருத:

śarīramvasūvij

ñānam vāsaḥkarmakuṇānasūn - kurvarttantārayētyastu saśiṣyōnē

tarassmrutaḥ

His body, his wealth, his knowledge, his dwelling, his work, his qualities and his very breath: whoever holds these for his guru's sake is the disciple, and no one else is called so.

Eight such men came to Nāthamuni: Uyyakkoṇḍār, Kurukai Kāvalappaṉ, Nambi Karuṇākaradāsar, Ēṟutiruvuḍaiyār, Tirukkaṇṇamaṅgai Āṇḍāṉ, Vāṉamāmalai Dēvi Āṇḍāṉ, Uruppaṭṭūr Āccāṉ Piḷḷai and Cōkattūr Āzhvāṉ.

To all eight he gave the meaning of the dvaya, the twofold mantra. It is praised as the jewel among mantras, as the verse says:

அஹோ

த்வயஸ்யமாஹாத்ம்யம் அஹோவீர்யமஹோபலம் - மந்த்ரரத்நம்ஶூபகரம்

வேதஸாரம்ஸநாதநம்

ahō

tvayasyamāhātmyam ahōvīryamahōpalam - mantraratnamśūpakaram

vētasāramsanātanam

Oh, the greatness of the dvaya! Oh, its power, oh, its strength! The jewel of mantras, bringing good, the essence of the Veda, everlasting.

He taught them the holy works that begin with the Tiruvāymozhi. He had them study the Vedas and the śāstras.

He wrote the Śrī Puruṣa-nirṇaya, which is the essence of the three secrets and is about the Lord of all, the cause of the whole world; and he wrote the Nyāsa-tattva.

And meditating on the holy form of the Lord, dark and beautiful, he sat in yoga.

The king heard how great Nāthamuni was in yoga and came there. He worshipped Maṉṉaṉār, and then he and his women saw how Nāthamuni sat in yoga, and they were astonished.

As they went away, it was with Nāthamuni as a Tamil verse says: "If she sees kings in their splendour, she says, 'I have seen Tirumāl.'" He took the king and his women for Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs, the cowherd women, and he went after them, on toward Gaṅgaikoṇḍacōzhapuram.

His disciples heard of it, Uyyakkoṇḍār and Kurukai Kāvalappaṉ and the rest of the leading ones, and they all went after him. They found him at Gaṅgaikoṇḍacōzhapuram.

"May your honour do a thing like this?" they asked him.

"I thought they were Kṛṣṇa and the women," Nāthamuni said, "and I came along with them."

And he went home.

Some days later the king came again and worshipped Maṉṉaṉār. As he was leaving, he set his foot on the head of one of his vassals and climbed up onto the neck of his elephant.

Nāthamuni saw it. "Is this not just how the Lord of all sets his foot on the heads of Brahmā and Rudra and the rest, and mounts Periya Tiruvaḍi!" he said. Periya Tiruvaḍi is Garuḍa, the great bird the Lord rides.

And he swooned. Everyone knows that story.

Again he sat in yoga for a little while. Then he looked at Kurukai Kāvalappaṉ, whose name in Sanskrit is Kurukānātha, and said, "You: practise the secret of yoga." And he taught him the order of the eight-limbed yoga.

He looked at Uyyakkoṇḍār. "You too: practise the secret of yoga."

Uyyakkoṇḍār said, "While a corpse is lying there, may anyone celebrate a wedding? It will be time enough to practise it when this body is ending."

"If so," said Nāthamuni, "then you spread the śāstras and the holy works that begin with the Tiruvāymozhi."

Then he looked at his son Īśvaramuni.

"A son is going to be born to you," he said. "Give him the holy name Yamunaitturaivar."

It was the name of the Lord they had served on the bank of the Yamunā.

And he turned to Uyyakkoṇḍār and Kurukai Kāvalappaṉ together and gave them a command. "Teach Yamunaitturaivar what we have told you: the meaning of our teaching, and the special meanings of the secret of yoga."

Then he sat in yoga as before.

After that, the same king came that way with his retinue to hunt, and was going home again.

While he was passing, Nāthamuni's daughters came to him.

"Sir!" they said. "A monkey, two bowmen and a woman came to our house. They asked, 'Where is Nāthamuni?' and they went off looking for him."

There is a verse in the Rāmāyaṇa that tells how they walked through the forest:

அக்ரத:ப்ரயயௌராமஸ் ஸீதாமத்யேஸூமத்யமா - ப்ருஷ்ட

தஸ்துதநுஷ்பாணிர் லக்ஷ்மணோ உநுஜகாமஹா

akrataḥprayayaurāmas sītāmatyēsūmatyamā - pruṣṭa

tastutanuṣpāṇir lakṣmaṇō unujakāmahā

Rāma went on in front, Sītā of the slender waist in the middle, and behind them, bow in hand, Lakṣmaṇa followed.

Nāthamuni thought of that verse, and he said in his heart, "That must be Perumāḷ and Pirāṭṭi and Iḷaiyaperumāḷ, with the scholar of the Aindra grammar": Rāma, and the Lady, and the younger lord, and the learned one with them. And he went after them.

On the road he asked everyone he met, "Did you see the ones who went this way?"

"They are going on, they are going on," people said.

He walked hard and went a long way. He came as far as the eastern gate of Gaṅgaikoṇḍacōzhapuram, and asked the people there, "Did you see the ones who went this way?"

"We did not see them," they said.

And the bowmen, going on ahead of him, vanished even as he looked.

He pined for them. He beat himself and fell down and swooned, and that was the cause of it: he went to the world of Viṣṇu. The Sanskrit says of that world:

பரந்துவைஷ்ணவம்லோ

கம் நித்யாநந்தம் ஸூகாவஹம் - தத்ரஸம்வாஹிநீந்திவ்யாம் விரஜாம்வேத

ஸம்பவாம் - ஸர்வே ஹிரண்மயாஸ்தத்ர ஸர்வேவேதமயாஶ்ஶூபா: - அப்ரா

க்ருதமயாநித்யா: புநராவ்ருத்திவர்ஜிதா:

parantuvaiṣṇavamlō

kam nityānantam sūkāvaham - tatrasamvāhinīntivyām virajāmvēta

sampavām - sarvē hiraṇmayāstatra sarvēvētamayāśśūpāḥ - aprā

krutamayānityāḥ punarāvruttivarjitāḥ

The highest, the world of Viṣṇu, eternal joy, bringing happiness; there runs the holy Virajā, born of the Veda. All there are golden, all made of the Veda, auspicious; of no earthly stuff, eternal, and none comes back from it.

And of those who reach it:

ஏகாந்திநஸ்ஸதாப்ரஹ்ம த்யாநி

நோயோகிநோஹியே - தேஷாந்தத்பரமம்ஸ்தாநம் யத்வைபஶ்யந்திஸூரய:

ēkāntinassatāprahma tyāni

nōyōkinōhiyē - tēṣāntatparamamstānam yatvaipaśyantisūrayaḥ

Those of one mind who ever meditate on Brahman, the yogins: theirs is that highest place, which the sūris see.

He reached Vaikuṇṭha, the great city where the Lord's servants live.

Pirāṭṭi was with her Lord and then was parted from him, and she lived through ten months of that parting. Nāthamuni could not. Before he could see them and be glad, the loss of not seeing them snatched him away, and he went.

Uyyakkoṇḍār and Kurukai Kāvalappaṉ and Īśvaramuni and the others heard the news and were thrown into distress. They went there. They saw his body, spotless, the last form he had worn, and they filled their eyes and their hearts with it. They lay there struck down with grief, writhing. Then among themselves they steadied one another and stood up, and saw to the last service.

They had Īśvaramuni perform with his own hands the full rite of the brahmamedha, the funeral of a knower of Brahman. They buried him. They went back to Vīranārāyaṇapuram and had all the other rites done that had to be done.

And Kurukai Kāvalappaṉ sat in yoga near the place where Nāthamuni had always sat in yoga.

Nāthamuni's birth-star is Anurādhā, in the month of Āṉi.

His taṉiyaṉ, the verse of salutation that belongs to him, says this:

வ்யோம்ந:பரஸ்தாத்ஸவிதம்ஸமேத்ய லக்ஷ்ம்யா

நியோகாத்குருகாதிராஜ: - ஸமந்த்ரரத்ந்த்வயமாஹயஸ்மை நாதாயதஸ்மை

முநயேநமோஉஸ்து.

vyōmnaḥparastātsavitamsamētya lakṣmyā

niyōkātkurukātirājaḥ - samantraratntvayamāhayasmai nātāyatasmai

munayēnamōustu.

From beyond the sky he came near, at Lakṣmī's bidding, the king of Kurukā, and told him the dvaya, the jewel among mantras. To that Nātha, that sage, let there be salutation.

That is the end of his life as the account tells it. Of the others who belong with him here it tells little more, and of one it tells almost nothing.

Īśvaramuni had served beside his father and grandfather at Maṉṉaṉār's feet. He went north with them and came home with them, he heard from his father that a son would be born to him and what that son must be called, and he performed his father's last rites with his own hands. What became of him, and of the son, belongs to the lives of those who came after.

Of Tirukkaṇṇamaṅgai Āṇḍāṉ the account gives only his name. He was one of the eight who took refuge at Nāthamuni's feet and were given the dvaya and the holy works. It says nothing more about him.

Kurukai Kāvalappaṉ was the disciple to whom Nāthamuni taught the eight-limbed yoga, and the last the account shows of him here is a man sitting in yoga near the place where his teacher had always sat. He and Uyyakkoṇḍār were charged together to teach the grandson who had not yet been born.

The singers went on. At Śrīraṅgam the Araiyars sang the holy works with their music from Nāthamuni's time into Rāmānuja's. When Rāmānuja was ordering the service of that temple, he gave Nāthamuni's Araiyars, the singers, āśrayaṇa, the rites by which one takes refuge, and gave them the name Viṇṇappañ seyvār, those who make petition before the Lord. Once, when the Āzhvār could not be brought from Tirunagari for the festival of recitation, Rāmānuja had the Āzhvār consecrated in the temple at Śrīraṅgam, and the other Āzhvārs except Tirumaṅgai Maṉṉaṉ, and Nāthamuni with them; and when the Lord called the Āzhvārs by name, the call was given to the Araiyars too, the Āzhvārs' instruments, through whom their words were sung. And he laid down that when the prasāda was given out at the great festivals, a share went into the Araiyar's hand for Nāthamuni before the bearer of the sceptre was called. The honour of the Araiyar, that account says, belongs to Nāthamuni's two nephews, Kīzhaiyakattāzhvār and Mēlaiyakattāzhvār, and to no one else.

One saying of his own was kept, and the account takes it to have been about Rāmānuja. Water standing in a puddle, Nāthamuni said, is drunk by a sparrow and gone; water standing in the lake of Vīranārāyaṇapuram makes the land bear.

Rāmānuja spoke of him once to Piḷḷāṉ. Nāthamuni, he said, had received from Nammāzhvār the holy words of the Āzhvārs and the teaching of the Vedānta that begins with the tirumantra, and had set them going and kept them alive through an unbroken line of teachers. And when Kūreśa died, it was as Nāthamuni had laid down that Rāmānuja had Bhaṭṭar perform the rites of the twelve days for him.