Discovering Desika Prabandham through Steven Paul Hopkins
Abuse me
for the title if you are a traditionalist, but don’t stop reading it. It is
indeed a shameful discovery of a great text through the book that was in its
origins a doctoral thesis of an American scholar. It was in 2003, a compulsory
confinement at home, and spending time on that large sofa all alone at home, I resorted
to use internet to find books, articles, though I was struggling with an
awfully slow internet connection and a laptop not in a great condition. I was
reading whatever I could, random as ever. The days spent in the hospital and
then the bed rest at home were spent reading many Karen Armstrong books. Around
that time somewhere I found the title Singing the Body of God: The
Hymns of Vedāntadeśika in Their South Indian Tradition (Oxford University
Press, 2002).
But, why am
I saying discovery of Desika Prabandham here? It is sad to say, but we had very
little knowledge, insights into the Tamil poems of Desika. Yes, we had heard
those verses that grand father or father recited as part of the
Nityanusandanam. One that was etched in my memory was “Ninnarulaan gadhiyinri
…” which I had picked up only through my grand father’s loud recitation. Our
growing up years were very tough. I cannot blame my parents, grand parents or
anyone for not doing enough to teach us. It was a race to livelihood, survival.
In the 90s when I started working I started my exploration, buying books,
reading through, and picking up information wherever I can. We were scared of
asking anyone, so it was a slow and haphazard journey of learning. I bought two
volumes, one Desika Stotramala, and the other Desika Prabandham, both with
annotated commentary of U.Ve. Srirama Desikan. The volumes stayed with me, and
I used to read them on Swami Desikan thirunakshatram, or any of the important
festival days. Otherwise, life as a journalist hardly left any time for
reading, and no time for any spiritual exploration. Though the inclination was
always there.
At least in
our household, or in the extended family circles, it was not a Tamil, Sanskrit
divide as the North and South school divisions are supposed to be. In, fact
after my father I don’t think any one else in the family has had even a cursory
schooling in Sanskrit. Tiruppavai, Tiruppalliyezhuchi, and Alvar verses were
always recited. Therefore, it was not a question of neglect of Tamil works of
Desika. Except for Adaikalapathu can’t remember any other Prabandham that was
recited in full at home. In that background, the book by Hopkins and discovery
of Desika Prabandham was very significant for me. To quote Hopkins:
“Desika was
a master of many genres of philosophical prose and poetry. He wrote long ornate
religious poems (kavyas) in Sanskrit; a Sanskrit allegorical drama (natyam);
long religious lyric hymns (stotras and prabandhams) in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and
in Tami; and commentaries and original works of philosophy, theology, and logic
in Sanskrit and in a combination of the Sanskrit and Tamil languages called
manipravala (“jewels” and “coral”). Tradition ascribes to him the resounding
epithets of kavitarkikasimha, “a lion among poets and philosophers (or
logicians),” and sarvatantrasvatantra, “master of all the arts and sciences …
Yet in spite of his laudatory epithets and impressive body of work, on the
whole this poet-philosopher has been relatively ignored in Western comparative
studies of Indian philosophy and literature. Such neglect not only skews our
sense of the history and character of South Indian devotion but obscures a
compelling example of creative cultural and linguistic synthesis.”
What stuck
me was, no not that the West has ignored or been ignorant, but that within
India he was hardly known or appreciated. It is interesting that Ramadesikachar
himself says how the Prabandhams didn’t have a wider following perhaps for lack
of a single authentic volume. That was the point where the work on compilation
and publication of the Desika Prabandham started.
“Ramatecikacaryar’s
Desika Prabandham was produced in a politically and socially turbulent time in
south India, one that saw the veritable apotheosis of a long process by which
the literary history of the South had been constructed as a pointedly “Tamil
history, and the history of Sanskrit learning and brahmanic influences in South
India had been systematically suppressed,” says Hopkins comparing it with
U.Ve.Swaminatha Iyer’s ‘En Caritam’. He calls both of them the most significant
Tamil works of the early 20th century, and gets into details on the
Tamil revivalism etc.,
“it is not
difficult to see Ramatecikacaryar’s edition of Desika’s Tamil prabandhams as a
phenomenon of-and perhaps a response to-this period’s Tamil “revivalism” in its
(sometimes excessive) defence of the “Tamilness” of the brahman Desika, the
poet and religious scholar who also composed exemplary Sanskrit works. It is as
if Ramatecikacharyar wanted to say:Desika, this
brahman poet is also “Tamil,” says Hopkins - should I can say
conjectures? My biggest regret when I read this was that I had all the access
to Ramatecikachar if only I had been on the spiritual and a research path much
earlier. Families that discuss all sorts of mundane things, why didn’t they
ever discuss how significant was his contribution. I had heard about what a
great scholar he was, a devoted Sri Vaishnava who lived and worked out of
Oppiliappan Koil, near Kumbakonam. He was my aunt (periamma)’s father, and
there I was not only discovering Desika Prabandham through Hopkins, but also
the editor, publisher of that significant work. May be one day I will have an
opportunity to ask his son who is a scholar too, and continuing his service at
the temple town after retirement about the point Hopkins has raised in the book.
Why am I
writing all this today? Because, reading ‘Meiviratamanmiyam’ on the day of
Chithirai Hastam, the avatara day of Kanchipuram Varadaraja Perumal took me
back to the day I discovered this wonderful, unparalleled beauty of a Tamil
Prabandham. I couldn’t recite it till I heard it being recited, followed it word
by word, as is the case with the Sanskrit works. The simplicity of language and
expression like where Desika describes Brahma’s condition to be like a small
child that cries asking for the moon, and the extraordinary change of meter to
“padhimoonru seer aasiriya virutham” to give that dynamism, hurry, anger of
Saraswati gushing down to douse Brahma’s Yagna at the “Satyavrata Kshetram”.
This Prabandham is an extraordinary composition. The way he changes meter every
time to narrate the story, matching them to the occasion is so beautiful and
makes on ecstatic while reciting it every time. For someone to whom Varada is
so dear, what else can be more uplifting than chanting his name, to celebrate
his arrival in the great city. It is sheer joy, and I can give a translation of
the verse Hopkins has done, but that won’t do justice – it is bliss to hear it.
Sharing a link to listen to the audio of the Prabandham.
Comments
Keep it up!