Piḷḷāṉ

Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ, whom the Sanskrit verses call Kurukeśa and Kurukeśvara, was born on the hill of Tirumalai, in the house of Periya Tirumalai Nambi, Śrīśailapūrṇa.

The shorter account opens his life with a verse:

துலாயாம் வேங்கடாத்ரௌ து பூர்வாஷாடாஸமுத்பவம் |

குருகேஶம் ப்ரசண்டாம்ஶம் வந்தே ஸ்ரீஶைலபூர்ணஜம் ॥

tulāyām vēṅkaṭātrau tu pūrvāṣāṭāsamutpavam |

kurukēśam pracaṇṭāmśam vantē srīśailapūrṇajam ॥

Born on Veṅkaṭa's hill, in the month of Tulā, under Pūrvāṣāḍhā; a portion of Pracaṇḍa, the son of Śrīśailapūrṇa: Kurukeśa, him I salute.

Kiḍāmbi Āccāṉ was staying in Nambi's house in those days. Nambi's wife was his father's sister, and he had come up the hill to see her. While he was there a son was born to Nambi, and Nambi gave the child the holy name Piḷḷai.

Then a second son was born, in the month of Aippaci, under the star Pūrāḍam, and Nambi gave him the holy name Piḷḷāṉ. The account says he came as a portion of Pracaṇḍa. It does not say more of who Pracaṇḍa is.

So the shorter account tells it. The longer account does not call Piḷḷāṉ Nambi's son. It names Nambi's sons as Irāmānujaṉ and Piḷḷai Tirumalai Nambi, and when it counts Piḷḷāṉ among Uḍaiyavar's disciples it names him on his own.

He was not like other children.

Nambi used to sit expounding the sacred Tamil songs, the Divya Prabandham. Whenever he gave the meaning of a verse, any verse, Piḷḷāṉ listened to it with all his attention. He did not cry and laugh the way mere children do. He always stood there with a kind of clearness about him.

Nambi saw it and was very glad. "This is a wonderful thing," he said. And he kept a thought in his heart: "He seems like Iḷaiyāzhvār, who was born of our Bhūmippirāṭṭiyār."

The people of the house came to know all this, and they were amazed. "What is this?" they said.

Kiḍāmbi Āccāṉ was at his own studies there all the while. He watched the boy grow, and saw him learn his letters day by day, and saw how he loved the sacred songs. "What is this?" he said too, and he was glad inside himself.

One day Śrīvaiṣṇavas from Kōyil, as the Tamil calls Śrīraṅgam, climbed the hill. They worshipped the feet of Tirumalaiyappaṉ, the Lord of the hill, and prostrated at Nambi's feet and stood.

"What is the news of Kōyil?" Nambi asked.

They told him at length of the glory of Emperumāṉār, as Iḷaiyāzhvār was called by then. Nambi heard it and his joy was very great. "Our Āḷavandār's command has borne fruit," he said. He worshipped the feet of Tirumalaiyappaṉ, who had brought it about, and then he turned to the Śrīvaiṣṇavas as the old verse says, "Speak, gentle one, again and again." "Tell more," he said. "Tell more." And they told it all over again.

Piḷḷāṉ heard it.

The account gives an old verse here:

பாலா அபி க்ரீடமாநா க்ருஹத்வாரேஷு பூரிஶ: |

ராமாபிஷ்டவஸம்யுக்தாஶ் சக்ருரேவ மித: கதா: ॥

pālā api krīṭamānā kruhatvārēṣu pūriśaḥ |

rāmāpiṣṭavasamyuktāś cakrurēva mitaḥ katāḥ ॥

Even the children, playing in crowds at the doors of the houses, talked among themselves of nothing but the praise of Rāma.

So it was with Piḷḷāṉ. From then on he went about in many places and at all times, telling of Emperumāṉār's glory and of nothing else.

Nambi saw this, and he was glad inside himself.

He had Piḷḷāṉ married. Then he sent him down the hill with Kiḍāmbi Āccāṉ, who longed to take refuge at Emperumāṉār's feet. The account gives his longing in a line of Sanskrit: "When shall we see Rāma?" And Nambi sent word by them that Emperumāṉār too should come and worship the feet of Tirumalaiyappaṉ.

Āccāṉ and Piḷḷāṉ came first to Perumāḷ Kōyil, which is Kāñcī, and worshipped the feet of Pēraruḷāḷar, the Lord of great grace who stands there. Āccāṉ told his mother everything. Then they went on to Kōyil and worshipped Periya Perumāḷ, the great Lord who lies there, and they came before Emperumāṉār, and Āccāṉ fell at his feet and lay there.

"What is this?" Emperumāṉār asked.

Āccāṉ told him all that had happened in Periya Tirumalai Nambi's presence. Emperumāṉār heard of the joy in Nambi's heart, and he was glad inside himself. He took Āccāṉ by the head and lifted him up, full of delight.

Then he asked, "Is this Piḷḷāṉ?"

"Aḍiyēṉ," Piḷḷāṉ said. Your servant. He prostrated at Emperumāṉār's feet and stood.

Emperumāṉār opened his lotus eyes wide and clear upon him and looked on him with cool grace. He was very glad. "The special glance of grace that Āḷavandār and Nambi turned on us," he said, "will be yours as a thing that comes of itself."

Then he gave Āccāṉ all the special meanings, and Āccāṉ became, as no one else was, the one who cared for Emperumāṉār's holy body. His own life tells that.

The account does not say what Piḷḷāṉ did in the time that followed, or whether he stayed at Kōyil or went back up the hill. When he is seen next, he is with his father again.

Emperumāṉār came there at last, as Nambi had asked, and Nambi received him on the hill. He stayed three days, and came down from the hill, and then he stayed a full year in Nambi's presence, hearing from him the meaning of the Rāmāyaṇa. When the Rāmāyaṇa was finished, Nambi had his sons take refuge at Emperumāṉār's feet. He told him of Piḷḷāṉ's good conduct, which had been in the boy from birth, and he presented Piḷḷāṉ to him.

"This one," he said, "is a fit vessel for your special grace."

Emperumāṉār agreed and accepted him. He gave him the pañcasaṃskāra, the five sacraments that make a man a Śrīvaiṣṇava, and after it every one of the special meanings.

Then he asked Nambi for Govindapperumāḷ too, and took him away to Kōyil. That is Embār's story.

Afterwards Piḷḷāṉ excelled in the Śrī Bhāṣya and the other works, in his devotion to the bhāgavatas, the Lord's own people, and in the excellence of his practice. The word the account uses for what he had in the Śrī Bhāṣya is hard to read in the print, but it is plain that he excelled. Emperumāṉār saw it, and his joy was great.

Once more the account sets Piḷḷāṉ on the hill beside his father. Emperumāṉār had come up to Tirumalai again after his journeys, and the Śaivas were disputing with Periya Tirumalai Nambi over Tiruvēṅkaṭamuḍaiyāṉ, the Lord of the hill. "He is our Nāyaṉār," they said. Emperumāṉār came with the great company of the mudalis and stopped them. The image bore no Vaiṣṇava sign and no Śaiva sign, they said, or both alike, and so it must be common to both.

Emperumāṉār had a discus and a conch made, and Tirumārvu Nācciyār, the Lady who dwells on the Lord's chest, and a trident and a small drum, and had them all laid before the Lord. The doors were shut and a guard was set. "In the early morning," he said, "we will look and know." In the early morning both parties came and looked. The trident and the drum lay broken and spurned at the Lord's feet. He was wearing the discus and the conch and the Lady on his chest.

Emperumāṉār drove the Śaivas away and had the Lord's worship carried on as before. Periya Tirumalai Nambi was overjoyed with him. He looked with cool grace on Piḷḷāṉ as well. Then he gave them leave, and Emperumāṉār set out for Perumāḷ Kōyil and Kōyil.

The account does not tell of Piḷḷāṉ parting from his father, and it does not bring him back to the hill again.

It was at Kōyil that Piḷḷāṉ received his name.

One day Emperumāṉār was walking up and down inside his maṭha, the house of ascetics where he lived, dwelling on the meanings of the Divya Prabandham. Piḷḷāṉ looked in through the keyhole of the door.

He saw that Emperumāṉār was pacing as one paces who is acting out a song.

"Is it now the meaning of the Tiruvāymozhi, 'Tirumāliruñcōlai malai eṉṟēṉ eṉṉa', that you are dwelling on?" Piḷḷāṉ asked.

Those are the opening words of a decad of Nammāzhvār's: "I said, 'the hill of Tirumāliruñcōlai', and..."

Emperumāṉār heard it and was startled. "What is this?" he said. "Is it our Piḷḷāṉ?"

"Aḍiyēṉ," said Piḷḷāṉ.

Emperumāṉār opened the door. He gathered Piḷḷāṉ up in his arms and smelled the crown of his head.

Then, in the great assembly of Periya Nambi, Mahāpūrṇa, and the other elders, where Āzhvāṉ and the other mudalis could hear too, he told them of this wonder. He had heard already, he said, of this man's good conduct, which was in him from birth, and of his love for the Prabandham. Now he had seen besides what this man had shown in the Bhāṣya and the rest, and how he depended on the bhāgavatas, and how he had caught the trace of the meaning Emperumāṉār himself was dwelling on just now. "By Nambi's command," he said, "the one fit for the special glance is this man alone."

His joy was very great. In that great assembly he took Piḷḷāṉ as his jñāna-putra, his son in knowledge. And he gave him the Āzhvār's own holy name: Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ, after Nammāzhvār, the Lord of Kurukūr.

So he fulfilled the third wish of Āḷavandār. That is how the shorter account counts it. The longer account counts the third wish fulfilled at another naming, when a son was born to Embār's younger brother and Uḍaiyavar named him Parāṅkuśa Nambi, after the same Āzhvār.

Afterwards he called Piḷḷāṉ and gave him a charge.

He reminded him first what he was. Nāthamunigaḷ had received from Nammāzhvār the sacred Tamil of the Āzhvārs, and the line of the Vedānta that begins with the tirumantra, and had set them firm through an unbroken succession of teachers, and Piḷḷāṉ was bound to that line. He was the son of Periya Tirumalai Nambi, who had carried out Āḷavandār's command. He had loved the Prabandham since he was born.

"So you are a vessel for the special grace of the elders," Emperumāṉār said, "and now you have come to know how the meaning of the Tiruvāymozhi is to be dwelt on. Of the Four Thousand, this Tiruvāymozhi is the chief. Make a commentary on it of six thousand."

Piḷḷāṉ reasoned this way.

Nammāzhvār had said in the Tiruvāymozhi the very meaning of Vyāsa's sūtras, which is the meaning of the tirumantra. He had said it in a tongue that everyone has the right to hear, so that the Lord's servants might eat of the nectar. So Piḷḷāṉ resolved that the blessing Uḍaiyavar had set at the head of his commentary on the Sūtras would stand at the head of this commentary on the Tamil Vedānta too.

He wrote the Āṟāyirappaḍi, the Six Thousand, and he laid it before Uḍaiyavar.

Uḍaiyavar looked on it with grace, and his joy was very great. "The holy name Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ that was given you by Āḷavandār's command," he said, "has come true to its meaning."

He named the commentary Bhagavad-viṣayam, the Matter of the Lord. "It is to be set in the kālakṣepa, the daily teaching," Emperumāṉār commanded, "like the commentary I made on the Sūtras." Periya Nambi and the other elders took it to heart and rejoiced.

The Śrīvaiṣṇavas of Kōyil carried all this up the hill and told it in Periya Tirumalai Nambi's presence. Nambi heard it, and his joy was very great, and he was glad inside himself that Āḷavandār's command had been carried through.

Vaḍuga Nambi gathered the three wishes into three Sanskrit verses in his Yatirāja-vibhava.

அபாதிதார்த்தை ரநபாயவாசாம்

தத்வ்யாஸஸூத்ரஸ்ய யதார்த்தபாஷ்யம் |

க்ருத்வா யதீந்த்ரோ துரி யாமுநார்ய-

மநோரதம் பூரிதவாந் ஸ ஆத்யம் ||

apātitārttai ranapāyavācām

tatvyāsasūtrasya yatārttapāṣyam |

krutvā yatīntrō turi yāmunārya-

manōratam pūritavān sa ātyam ||

With meanings nothing overturns, of the one whose words never fail, Vyāsa, on his sūtras the true commentary Yatīndra made; and so, foremost of all, Yāmunārya's wish he fulfilled, the first.

பட்டாரகந் தஞ்ச பராஶராக்யங்

க்ருத்வா க்ருதந் தேந ஸஹஸ்ரநாம்நாம் |

பாஷ்யம் ப்ரதிஷ்டாப்ய ச யாமுநார்ய-

மநோரதம் பூரிதவாந் த்விதீயம் ||

paṭṭārakan tañca parāśarākyaṅ

krutvā krutan tēna sahasranāmnām |

pāṣyam pratiṣṭāpya ca yāmunārya-

manōratam pūritavān tvitīyam ||

Him he made Bhaṭṭāraka, named Parāśara, and the commentary that one made on the Thousand Names he established; and so Yāmunārya's wish he fulfilled, the second.

பிள்ளாநபிக்யம் குருகேஶ்வராக்யங்

க்ருத்வா க்ருதந் தேந ச ஷட்ஸஹஸ்ரம் |

பாஷ்யம் ப்ரதிஷ்டாப்ய ஸ யாமுநார்ய-

மநோரதம் பூரிதவாந் த்ருதீயம் ||

piḷḷānapikyam kurukēśvarākyaṅ

krutvā krutan tēna ca ṣaṭsahasram |

pāṣyam pratiṣṭāpya sa yāmunārya-

manōratam pūritavān trutīyam ||

Piḷḷāṉ he made to bear the name Kurukeśvara, and the Six Thousand that one made he established as a commentary; and so Yāmunārya's wish he fulfilled, the third.

The longer account tells the beginning of the Six Thousand another way.

In Uḍaiyavar's time, it says, all the ācāryas came to Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ, whom it calls Uḍaiyavar's mind-born son. They wanted the hard meanings of the Āzhvārs' sacred words to be known, and they asked Piḷḷāṉ to beg Uḍaiyavar for a commentary.

So Piḷḷāṉ waited until Uḍaiyavar was seated in a great assembly. Then he fell full length before him, with every limb on the ground, and humbly, pleading, he said, "I have something to ask."

"What is it?" Uḍaiyavar asked.

"Your Honour has written the Śrī Bhāṣya," Piḷḷāṉ said, "and gone through all the quarters in victory, and set the darśana firm. Now you must make commentaries on the divine songs of the Āzhvārs too, beginning with the Tiruvāymozhi, and protect them."

Uḍaiyavar turned it over in his mind.

"If we make a commentary on the sacred words," he said, "the dull-witted will think they have only this much meaning, and that would be an offence. The Āzhvārs' verses pour out more and more, as much as each man's understanding can hold. If we wrote on them, it would be as though we had built a bank round them to hold them in. You make a commentary on the Tiruvāymozhi, in one manner."

So Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ, with the leave of Yatirāja, the king of ascetics, wrote the Six Thousand, the first commentary on the Tiruvāymozhi. He wrote it sweetly, the account says, following the method of the Viṣṇu Purāṇa.

Bhaṭṭar taught Piḷḷāṉ's Six Thousand to Nañjīyar, and taught it well. And Nañjīyar, when he had learned it, wrote on the Tiruvāymozhi a commentary of Nine Thousand. Their lives tell the rest.

Then the Cōzha king, urged on by scholars of other faiths, made the learned men sign that there is nothing higher than Śiva, and sent his men to bring Emperumāṉār to sign too. Kūrattāzhvāṉ, Kūreśa, put on Emperumāṉār's ochre robe and his triple staff and went with the king's men in his place, and Periya Nambi went with him.

Piḷḷāṉ was among those who stayed with Emperumāṉār. Naḍātūr Āzhvāṉ, Mudaliyāṇḍāṉ, Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ and others said to him, "Your Honour must not stay here." They dressed him in white, and they led him away toward the western country.

The account does not name Piḷḷāṉ again in the years in the west. When it speaks of him next, Emperumāṉār has come back to Kōyil and is living there with the mudalis, teaching the Bhāṣya with the commentaries on the Four Thousand.

His disciples by then were past counting, and Uḍaiyavar resolved to set an order among them.

He had seventy-four holy discuses and conches consecrated. He had four manuscripts of the Śrī Bhāṣya set up, and with them the Six Thousand that Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ had written on the Bhagavad-viṣaya at his command, and he laid them all before Pēraruḷāḷar, the Lord he himself worshipped. Then he called the mudalis. The discuses and the conches he gave to seventy-four of them. The manuscripts of the Śrī Bhāṣya he gave to four of those. And the Six Thousand he gave to one of the four, Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ.

He commanded them to give the holy seal, and the two Vedāntas, to those who came after. And he made the seventy-four heads of lion-thrones, siṃhāsanas; four of them heads of the throne of the Śrī Bhāṣya; and one of them head of both Vedāntas, the Sanskrit and the Tamil together.

When the shorter account sets out the seventy-four, Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ stands first in the roll. Of the four who held the throne of the Śrī Bhāṣya, Piḷḷāṉ, Naḍātūr Āzhvāṉ, Kiḍāmbi Āccāṉ and Mudaliyāṇḍāṉ, Piḷḷāṉ alone held the throne of both, the Śrī Bhāṣya and the Bhagavad-viṣaya. The longer account keeps its own roll of the seventy-four, and Piḷḷāṉ's name is in it, further down.

Then the account tells a thing that it says pleased Uḍaiyavar's heart.

There were mudalis who had taken refuge with him long before Piḷḷāṉ and were older than he: Kūrattāzhvāṉ, Naḍātūr Āzhvāṉ, Mudaliyāṇḍāṉ, Kiḍāmbi Āccāṉ, Embār and others. But Uḍaiyavar had taken Piḷḷāṉ as his son in knowledge. By Āḷavandār's command he had given him the name Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ. He had had him write the Six Thousand and had ordered it taught as the Bhagavad-viṣaya, side by side with the Bhāṣya. He had made him head of both Vedāntas.

So the elders did what sons adopted early do, though they are the elder, when a true son is born later: they looked to him and followed him. They held Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ above themselves, and did their own services as men placed under him.

Uḍaiyavar saw it, and saw that it was as the śāstra would have it and as his own heart wished, and his joy was very great.

The elders made verses about Piḷḷāṉ, and the shorter account keeps them.

ஜ்ஞாநாத்மஜோ யதிபதேரபி பாதுகேதி

ஸ்ரீகூரநாதமுகதேஶிக பூஜிதோ ய: |

வ்யாக்யாதவாந் ஶடரிபோஶ் சரமப்ரபந்தம்

வந்தேய தேஶிகமஹம் குருகேஶ்வரந் தம் ||

jñānātmajō yatipatērapi pātukēti

srīkūranātamukatēśika pūjitō yaḥ |

vyākyātavān śaṭaripōś caramaprapantam

vantēya tēśikamaham kurukēśvaran tam ||

He who is called the son in knowledge of the lord of ascetics, and his sandals too; who is honoured by Kūranātha and the other teachers; who explained the last work of Śaṭharipu: may I praise that teacher, Kurukeśvara.

யத்பர்யாப்தகலாக்யாதோ யதிராஜாப்தி சந்த்ரமா: |

குஶலம் தீயதாம் மேஸௌ குருகேஶ்வர தேஶிக: ||

yatparyāptakalākyātō yatirājāpti cantramāḥ |

kuśalam tīyatām mēsau kurukēśvara tēśikaḥ ||

He who is renowned as the moon full in every digit, risen from the ocean that is Yatirāja: may that teacher Kurukeśvara give me welfare.

When the Śrīvaiṣṇavas came back from their pilgrimages to the holy places, the people asked them how Uḍaiyavar was living. They answered with a verse:

ராமாநுஜஸ்ஸப்தஶதைர் யதீநாம்

பீடைஶ் சதுஸ்ஸப்ததிபிஸ் ஸமேத: |

ஏகாந்திபிர் த்வாதஶபிஸ் ஸஹஸ்ரைஶ்

ஸ்ரீரங்க ஆஸ்தே யதிஸார்வபௌம: ||

rāmānujassaptaśatair yatīnām

pīṭaiś catussaptatipis samētaḥ |

ēkāntipir tvātaśapis sahasraiś

srīraṅka āstē yatisārvapaumaḥ ||

Rāmānuja, with seven hundred ascetics, joined with seventy-four seats, with twelve thousand who are given to the Lord alone, lives at Śrīraṅgam, sovereign of ascetics.

நாநாவிதே ச கைங்கர்யே நியதைர் பஹூபிர் ஜநை: |

அந்யைரபி யுதோ பாதி யதிராஜோ குருத்தம: ||

nānāvitē ca kaiṅkaryē niyatair pahūpir janaiḥ |

anyairapi yutō pāti yatirājō kuruttamaḥ ||

With many people set to services of many kinds, and with others besides, the king of ascetics, best of teachers, shines.

Another account, kept at Śrīraṅgam about the temple there, gives Piḷḷāṉ a place before the Lord himself. When Uḍaiyavar set the temple's servants in order, it says, he named a company of reciters, each with his own text to recite before the Lord in his shrine. To Āzhvāṉ he gave the Purāṇa; to others the Vedas, the Itihāsa, the Iyal and the rest. To Piḷḷāṉ he gave the Pūrva and Uttara Mīmāṃsā Sūtras. And when that account tells how, after the worship, the reciters come before Perumāḷ and recite in their order, it names Piḷḷāṉ among them.

There is one more scene of Piḷḷāṉ teaching, and it is kept in the longer account.

Piḷḷāṉ was staying at Siṟupputtūr. Sōmāsiyāṇḍāṉ read the Śrī Bhāṣya at his feet there, three times through. When Piḷḷāṉ was setting out to go back, Sōmāsiyāṇḍāṉ followed him.

"This is the place where your servant has to stay," he said. "Tell your servant one thing to hold to as his refuge."

Piḷḷāṉ turned to him. "You are a master who can give the meaning of all of it, the Mīmāṃsā of Bhāṭṭa and of Prābhākara," he said. "You are a teacher of the Śrī Bhāṣya. Do not go about praising yourself for that. Hold that Emperumāṉār's feet alone are your refuge."

Some days passed. Then Uḍaiyavar went before Periya Perumāḷ and prayed to be given leave to go to the higher abode. Periya Perumāḷ granted it, and gave him the garland and the other honours. Uḍaiyavar bore them on his head and went back up to the maṭha, the shorter account says, with the mudalis beginning with Piḷḷāṉ.

The mudalis learned what it meant, and they could not bear to be parted from him. They were ready to give up their bodies.

Uḍaiyavar saw it. He called the mudalis, Piḷḷāṉ first among them, and spoke to them. "If any of mine give up the body at my going," he said, "they have no part in the feet of Āḷavandār himself."

They heard it and were stricken. "Then what is it right for us to do?" they asked.

He told them. The life of the self belongs to the Lord, and the life of the body runs by karma, so the one who has surrendered has no stake in either; his mind, his speech and his body belong in service. And there are five services for the days that remain: to read the Śrī Bhāṣya and spread it; failing that, to hear the Āzhvārs' sacred words and spread them; failing that, to bring food offerings, lamps and garlands to the holy places where the Lord has been pleased to dwell; failing that, to dwell on the meaning of the dvaya, the two-line prayer of refuge; failing that, to live sheltered in the care of a Śrīvaiṣṇava who looks on one as his own.

The mudalis heard it and stood clear in their minds.

Then sickness came into his holy body, and he saw how Piḷḷāṉ, Āzhvāṉ, Āccāṉ and Āṇḍāṉ were suffering. "Is what we said before not enough?" he asked them.

Kiḍāmbi Āccāṉ said, "When we see this holy body in pain, how are your servants to live?"

Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ said, "You must command that a holy image of yourself be set up, as for the Āzhvārs."

And Mudaliyāṇḍāṉ said, "Without it the teaching will decline."

So Emperumāṉār had three images of himself made, and he embraced them. He commanded that they be set up at Kōyil, at Śrīperumbudūr, and at Tirunārāyaṇapuram, where he had already left an image in stone, and he gave them to the three, to Āccāṉ, to Piḷḷāṉ and to Āṇḍāṉ. "What fault has our Pēraruḷāḷar done?" Naḍātūr Āzhvāṉ asked, and Uḍaiyavar was so pleased with him that at his prayer he commanded such images for every holy place.

Then he called the mudalis and put them into the hands of Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ. "Spread this teaching far and wide," he told them.

He took the tīrtha, the holy water, from Āḷavandār's sandals, drank of it himself, and gave it to the mudalis. They begged for the water of his own feet and for his sandals, and he gave them those too.

Then the temple's people came and stood before him. "What are we to do now?" they asked.

"While Piḷḷāṉ, our son in knowledge, is here," Uḍaiyavar said, "what lack have you? Carry on the services of Periya Perumāḷ without fault."

He called Piḷḷāṉ and Kiḍāmbi Āccāṉ to him and told them certain special meanings. The account sets beside it the verse in which Sugrīva speaks of the task to Hanumān:

விஶேஷேண து ஸுக்ரீவோ ஹநூமத்யர்தமுக்தவாந் ’

ஸ ஹி தஸ்மிந் ஹரிஶ்ரேஷ்டே நிஶ்சிதார்தோர்த ஸாதநே ॥

viśēṣēṇa tu sukrīvō hanūmatyartamuktavān ’

sa hi tasmin hariśrēṣṭē niścitārtōrta sātanē ॥

But Sugrīva spoke of the task to Hanumān above all others, for he was sure that the best of the monkeys would carry it through.

As Rāma gave Hanumān the ring and told him special meanings, so Uḍaiyavar did now, so that the teaching should go on unhindered for as long as time lasts. He set his holy feet on their heads.

"Periya Perumāḷ has resolved that this teaching shall stand firm through you," he said. "So give it out to worthy vessels."

He gave Piḷḷāṉ Pēraruḷāḷar, the image he worshipped himself, and the image of Śrī Lakṣmī Hayagrīva that Sarasvatī had once put into his hands. He looked on Piḷḷāṉ with cool grace.

Then he lay down facing Kōyil, with his holy head in Piḷḷāṉ's lap and his holy feet in Kiḍāmbi Āccāṉ's lap. Naḍātūr Āzhvāṉ, Embār, Mudaliyāṇḍāṉ and the other mudalis and ascetics and all who were given to the Lord alone recited the Upaniṣads from the Brahmavallī, and the Tiruvāymozhi from "Cūzhvicumpaṇimukil", the clouds massed in the sky. The servants sounded the holy conch with every instrument. And as he meditated on the feet of Periya Nambi, the crown of his head opened, and he went to the sacred land.

The longer account remembers those last days otherwise.

In it Uḍaiyavar gave the throne of the Śrī Bhāṣya to Naḍātūr Āzhvāṉ, so that he would carry the Śrī Bhāṣya on, and to Periya Bhaṭṭar he gave the throne of the Śrīsūkti, the teaching of surrender. Then he looked at the mudalis, Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ and the rest. "Keep yourselves dear to Bhaṭṭar," he said. He gave the temple's people into Bhaṭṭar's hand, and in the Lord's presence he showed Bhaṭṭar to the mudalis as the one who would carry the darśana from then on.

Then he bound them all by his oath not to do anything rash at his going, and he gave each company of disciples into the hand of an ācārya. Kiḍāmbi Āccāṉ, Kiḍāmbip Perumāḷ, Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ, Naḍātūr Āzhvāṉ and others he gave into the hand of Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ.

And in that account, when he lay down at the last, his head was in Embār's lap and his feet in Vaḍuga Nambi's lap, and his mind was on the holy form of Āḷavandār.

So the two accounts lay his head in different laps, and they give the darśana after him into different hands. On one thing they agree: the last rites were done by Piḷḷāṉ's hand.

In the shorter account, Piḷḷāṉ and the mudalis fell down fainting. They wept aloud and grieved. Then they steadied themselves, and they had every last rite done through Piḷḷāṉ, as it had been done for Āḷavandār.

The longer account tells it at length. The Lord of Śrīraṅgam grieved that he had lost his Uḍaiyavar, and sent his own garments and garlands to the maṭha. The mudalis bathed the body and adorned it, and pressed his feet to their eyes, and cried out. Then by the hand of Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ they performed for Uḍaiyavar the brahmamedha, the full rite for one who has known Brahman, as it had been done for Āḷavandār, and set him on a palanquin and bore him through the streets. Seven hundred ascetics recited the Upaniṣads, and the Araiyars sang the Tiruvāymozhi, and Amudaṉār and others recited his Nūṟṟantādi, and Embār, Piḷḷāṉ and others recited the hymns and the prose prayers of surrender, which give a joy beyond even that.

The shorter account says they held the tiruvadhyayana too, the sacred recitation for him, as Uḍaiyavar had commanded, and took the tīrtha. As Uḍaiyavar had commanded, all the mudalis showed Piḷḷāṉ special honour. And Piḷḷāṉ, as Uḍaiyavar had commanded, comforted the mudalis, and went on expounding the teaching.

As Uḍaiyavar had commanded, Piḷḷāṉ set up Uḍaiyavar's image at Kōyil with a principal image beside it, and went on worshipping him there. Mudaliyāṇḍāṉ set one up at Śrīperumbudūr and Kiḍāmbi Āccāṉ at Tirunārāyaṇapuram. In the longer account it is Kandāḍai Āṇḍāṉ who, with the Lord's leave, set Emperumāṉār up at Kōyil as an image for all to worship.

The shorter account goes on with Piḷḷāṉ's own days.

He expounded the teaching as Uḍaiyavar had commanded. He gave the Śrī Bhāṣya and the Bhagavad-viṣaya and the other special meanings to the mudalis who came to him, and the first of them it names is Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ.

He made a rule for the Four Thousand: each work of it was to be recited with its own taṉiyaṉs, the verses of homage that go before it, joined to it in the way that suited it.

Before he went, he told Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ certain special meanings in private, and gave him tīrtha. Then he himself took the tīrtha of Uḍaiyavar's feet, and he went to the sacred land.

All the mudalis, Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ at their head, had his last rites done in full, as Uḍaiyavar had commanded, through Puṇḍarīkākṣar, the son born of his own body.

Piḷḷāṉ's birth-star is Pūrāḍam, in the month of Aippaci.

His taṉiyaṉs are kept in both accounts. One is a single line:

யஃபர்யாப்தகலஃக்யாதோ

யதிராஜாப்திசந்த்ரமாஃ - குஶலந்திஶதாம்மேஉஸௌ குருகேஶ்வரதேஶிகஃ

yaḵparyāptakalaḵkyātō

yatirājāpticantramāḵ - kuśalantiśatāmmēusau kurukēśvaratēśikaḵ

He who is renowned, full in every digit, the moon risen from the ocean that is Yatirāja: may that teacher Kurukeśvara grant me welfare.

The other says:

విఖ్యా

తోయతిసార్వభౌమజలధేశ్చన్ద్రోపమత్వేనయః శ్రీభాష్యేచయదన్వయాన్సువిదితాశ్శ్రీవిష్ణు

చిత్తాదయః। వ్యాఖ్యాంభాష్యకృదాజ్ఞయోపనిషదాంయోద్రామిడీనాంవ్యధాత్పూర్వంతంకు

రుకేశ్వరం గురువరంకారుణ్యపూర్ణంభజే.

vikhyā

tōyatisārvabhaumajaladhēścandrōpamatvēnayaḥ śrībhāṣyēcayadanvayānsuviditāśśrīviṣṇu

cittādayaḥ। vyākhyāṃbhāṣyakr̥dājñayōpaniṣadāṃyōdrāmiḍīnāṃvyadhātpūrvaṃtaṃku

rukēśvaraṃ guruvaraṃkāruṇyapūrṇaṃbhajē.

Renowned as a moon to the ocean that is the sovereign of ascetics; in whose line, through the Śrī Bhāṣya, Śrī Viṣṇu-citta and the others came to be known; who, at the Bhāṣyakāra's command, first made the commentary on the Tamil Upaniṣads: that Ku-rukeśvara, best of teachers, full of compassion, I worship.

Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ, whom his taṉiyaṉ calls Viṣṇucitta, was one of those who took refuge at Uḍaiyavar's feet while he lived at Kōyil. His name stands in the longer account's roll of those disciples, and again in its roll of the seventy-four. In the shorter account's roll of the seventy-four it stands fourth, after Piḷḷāṉ, Kūrattāzhvāṉ and Naḍātūr Āzhvāṉ.

The account does not say where he was born, or when he came.

What it keeps of him is his teacher. When Uḍaiyavar, in the longer account, gave each company of his disciples into the hand of an ācārya, Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ was among those he gave into the hand of Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ. And in the shorter account, when Piḷḷāṉ was teaching after Uḍaiyavar had gone, the first of the mudalis who learned the Śrī Bhāṣya and the Bhagavad-viṣaya from him is Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ.

When Kiḍāmbi Āccāṉ died, it was Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ and the others who had his last rites done through his son, Rāmānuja Piḷḷāṉ.

Before Piḷḷāṉ went, it was Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ alone to whom he told certain special meanings in private. He gave him tīrtha, and then he went. Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ led the mudalis in his last rites.

After that Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ expounded both Vedāntas himself.

The longer account keeps one question of his. He looked at Kākkaippāḍi Āccāṉ Piḷḷai and asked him, "When Perumāḷ was angry with you, what were you thinking?"

"That Emperumāṉār's feet alone are the refuge," he answered.

The account does not say why the Lord was angry.

And the longer account remembers a Piḷḷai Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ in the days of Nampiḷḷai. An old ascetic, Piṉpazhagiya Perumāḷ Cīyar, had lain ill and had his friends pray before Perumāḷ that he might stay here a little longer, and he had got well. Some Śrīvaiṣṇavas went to Nampiḷḷai and asked whether that befitted a man so old in knowledge and in years.

"We do not know his intention," Nampiḷḷai said. "All the śāstras are within the reach of Piḷḷai Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ. Go to him and ask."

They went and asked him.

"It must be something like an attachment to the glory of Śrīraṅgam, you see," Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ said.

Nampiḷḷai heard it. "Fine," he said, and sent them on to ask others. The account does not say whether this Piḷḷai Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ is Piḷḷāṉ's disciple or another man of the same name.

The shorter account gives Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ one disciple at length.

Naḍātūr Āzhvāṉ, Uḍaiyavar's beloved nephew and holder of the throne of the Bhāṣya, had a son, Devarājap Perumāḷ. While Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ was teaching the two Vedāntas, a son was born to Devarājap Perumāḷ in the month of Cittirai under the star Citrā. He was named Varadācāryar, and he was taught the Vedas and their limbs and all the śāstras, and everyone came to call him Naḍātūr Ammāḷ.

Ammāḷ received the mantra and its meaning from his father. Then he wanted to hear the Śrī Bhāṣya.

His father saw how able he was. He saw too that the boy had no fear in him, out of pride in his father. So he sent him to learn the Bhāṣya and the rest, together with the special meanings that Piḷḷāṉ had taught, from Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ, the Cōzhiyar of Tiruveḷḷaṟai, who teaches, the account says, until the itch is gone.

Ammāḷ went to Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ, prostrated before him, and told him what his father had said.

Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ was overjoyed. All the meanings that Piḷḷāṉ had given him by Uḍaiyavar's command, he saw, would come to light through this one.

"If you give us your pledge," he said, "saying, 'We take on both sonship and discipleship to you,' then we will teach you. And bring the book of the Śrī Bhāṣya."

Ammāḷ went and told his father, and his father gave him leave. Ammāḷ brought the book and gave the pledge as he had been asked. And Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ taught him the Śrī Bhāṣya and the rest, with every objection and its answer, until it stood firm in him.

Then Ammāḷ began to expound the Śrī Bhāṣya himself. Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ watched him, and saw his devotion to his ācārya overflowing its banks. So he gave him all the special meanings that Piḷḷāṉ had given to him.

He set a verse before him:

வர்ணாஶ்ரமாசாரவதா புருஷேண பர: புமாந் |

விஷ்ணு ராராத்யதே பந்தா நாந்யஸ் தத்தோஷகாரக: ||

varṇāśramācāravatā puruṣēṇa paraḥ pumān |

viṣṇu rārātyatē pantā nānyas tattōṣakārakaḥ ||

By the man who keeps the conduct of his varṇa and āśrama, the supreme Person, Viṣṇu, is worshipped; there is no other path that pleases him.

And then he gave him these words.

"Those who have the single-minded devotion set out in the Nitya that Uḍaiyavar wrote are the ones to honour.

"To come to that state, one must practise the means that the Gadya sets out.

"To understand that clearly, one must study the Śrī Bhāṣya and the Gītā Bhāṣya and the rest.

"And for one who has not so much fullness of knowledge, if he worships at the feet of an ācārya, the ācārya will lay that man's burden at the feet of Emperumāṉ, and set him free of it."

"It is our Piḷḷāṉ's command," he said, "that these meanings be given only to a fit vessel."

Then Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ went to the sacred land.

Ammāḷ had kept his discipleship already, the account says, for he had never once argued back while his ācārya was teaching. Now he did every last rite for Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ, in full, as a son does for his own father. So he kept his sonship too, as he had pledged.

By the special grace of Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ, Ammāḷ grew very wise. He wrote works beginning with the Tattvasāra, and day by day, before Pēraruḷāḷar at Kāñcī near the Kaccivāyttāṉ maṇḍapam, he expounded the Śrī Bhāṣya and the rest. Kiḍāmbi Appiḷḷār, Sudarśanācāryar and Naḍuvilāzhvāṉ learned the Śrī Bhāṣya and the Six Thousand at his feet, and others came after.

The great ones of that time rejoiced over Appiḷḷār, the shorter account says. The full grace of Uḍaiyavar had come down by two channels, one by way of Tirukkurukaippirāṉ Piḷḷāṉ and one by way of Kiḍāmbi Āccāṉ, and it had gathered in Appiḷḷār as in a great tank, to pour out over a great field and bear fruit that all the Śrīvaiṣṇavas might eat and live.

They were the two who had once come down from the hill of Tirumalai together.

Eṅgaḷāzhvāṉ's birth-star is Svāti, in the month of Āṉi.

His taṉiyaṉ speaks in the voice of one who learned at his feet:

ஸ்ரீவிஷ்ணுசித்தபதபங்கஜஸம்ஶ்ரயாய

சேதோமமஸ்ப்ருஹயதேகிமதஃபரேண - நோசேந்மமாபியதிஶேகரபாரதீநாம்

ஹாவஃகதம்பவிதுமர்ஹதிவாக்விதேயஃ.

srīviṣṇucittapatapaṅkajasamśrayāya

cētōmamaspruhayatēkimataḵparēṇa - nōcēnmamāpiyatiśēkarapāratīnām

hāvaḵkatampavitumarhativākvitēyaḵ.

For refuge at the lotus feet of Śrī Viṣṇucitta my mind longs. What need have I of anything beyond? If not for that, of the words of the crown of ascetics, even for one like me, how could the meaning ever come within reach of speech?