I heard my wife sing a song one day. The Pallavi went like Thandhai Thai Irundhal ulagattil umakkindha thazhvellam varumo ayya?
Immediately smitten by a song of profound meaning, I asked her to tell me the whole song and found out from her that this was in an old CD of mine, a collection of songs by N C Vasanthakokilam.
The song that captivated my mind with wonderful imagery and snippets from the past was penned by Sri Ponnaiah Pillai. He inturn based his research on the Periya Puranam.
Below is the rough translation (can do no justice to the lyrical beauty expounded in beautiful tamil by Ponnaiah Pillai), of the song set to Raaga Shanmukha Priya.
thandhai thaai irundhaal ulagattil umakkinda thaazhvellaam varumo ayyaa
anda migunda shri ambala vaanare arumaiyudane petru perumaiyudan valharttha
Would you have undergone such tribulations had you had Parents who lovingly gave birth to and proudly raised the temple resider who fills the whole universe?
kallaal oruvan adikka udal shilirkka kaalin sheruppaal oru vaedan vande udhaikka
One hit you with stones and a hunter kicked you with his feet wearing slippers
villaal oruvan adikka (gaandhibhamenum) kooshaamal oruvan kai kodaaliyaal vetta
One hit you with a bow (called Gandiva) and another shamelessly chops you with an axe.
koottatthil oruvan pittaa paeyaa ena thitta veeshi madurai maaran pirambaal adikka
And in a crowded place, one abused you as a mad man and a ghost and the king of wide spread Madurai caned you
anda velai yaarai ninaindhiro ayyaa
When all this happened who did you think off?
Thandhai thaai irundhal ulagattil umakkinda thaazhvellaam varumo ayyaa
Would you have undergone such tribulations sir, had you had Parents
Now, It was too much for me to resist from finding about the ones who heaped such travesty on Lord Shiva and perhaps trace out the place where it happened.
For people like me, it is easy from childhood bed time stories that the hunter who kicked shiva with a shoe adorned leg was Kannappa nayanmar. And the name Gandiva itself is a straignt give away that it was Arjuna who hit Shiva with a bow. And it was Pittukku Man sumandha padalam (the episode of carrying sand to build the dam on vaigai river in return for rice cake) where the Pandiya king Arimarthana pandian, caned Shiva. And for movie buffs, who'd watched Thiruvarutchelvar starring Shivaji, one knows it was Sundaramurthy nayanmar who called Shiva a mad person and a devil himself. One can't associate Axe with anyone other than Parashurama himself.
However, I had no clue of who hit Shiva with stones. And the thought was gnawing me for weeks. Who? Why? Where? What? And the search engines were working overtime.
Thanks to my wife again, the person was traced out to be Saakkiya Nayanaar.
Having found out all the persons, It was interesting to find out the stories of each episode and perhaps find out any part of history lost in translation.
The subsequent posts will explore the 5 episodes separately and try to trace the events to the place and time they happened.
Lastly, if not for the great periyapuranam that's 1000s of years old (during the Idai changam of Madurai of the past), such interesting episodes would have remained as myths....
Let us look at Arjuna's act first....
