Maale Manivanna
Vatapatrasayi
January 10, 2021 – it is the 26th day of the
Tamil month of Margazhi. For all those who follow Margazhi and Andal’s
Thiruppavai, today is the day of the pasuram “Maale Manivanna”. While reciting
the pasuram this morning, I realized that there has been a long pending book
post from my side. What is in it that, today’s pasuram reminded me of the
pending book post. It is how Krishna is addressed in this particular pasuram.
Andal throughout the 30-verses addresses Vishnu/Krishna by various names,
Narayana, Kanna, Govinda, Thirumal and all … in this verse she begins by
calling him Manivanna, gem hued lord, and finally ends with a prayer, asking
for a grant from “aalinilayai arulelo”, the one who slept on the banyan leaf. Soon
after I opened facebook and I found my friend Meenakshi had drawn a beautiful
kolam for today’s pasuram, representing the baby on the banyan leaf, and she
had also begun her explanation of the pasuram with Andal asking the one who
floats on the banyan leaf for grant of the required things, things to complete
their Magazhi nonbu or the month long Margazhi vrata or vow.
Here is the translation of the verse by Srirama Bharati:
Gem hued lord who slept as a child on a fig leaf during Pralaya, the great deluge! We have performed the Margali rites as our elders decreed. Now hear what we want: conches like your milk-white Panchajanya which reverberates through all creation with its booming sound, a big wide drum, and singers who sing Pallandu, a bright lamp, festoons and flags, - O Lord, grant us these.
In his commentary on Thiruppavai Uttamur Veeraraghavachar mentions that the reference to “aalinilayai” shows that Andal prayed to Vatapatrasayi at Srivilliputhur as Krishna and composed the 30-verses. That is a fact that I had not paid attention to all those years, that I have been aware of Thiruppavai, and the number of times I had visited Srivilliputhur. In fact, I was sitting there spell bound and shocked when Devangana Desai said the first and the only Vatapatrasayi temple is Srivilliputhur temple during the launch of her book ‘Krishna on a Banyan Leaf’ – Vatapatrasayi in November 2019. I went to her after the launch, and asked her, “is that the only Vatapatrasayi temple, really?” Many a times things closer to us, we don’t explore or research in the spirit of an explorer, perhaps because devotion takes precedence. Such is the case with the discovery of Srivilliputhur’s Vatapatrasayi shrine.
“The juxtaposition of the Vata patrasayi and Sesasayi , Visnu reclining on the coils of the serpent Sesa, seen in several illustrations of the theme, such as the Jnanesvari (fig. 2.2) and Kalapustaka, implies their close connection. In fact, in the Vatapatrasayi temple, the only temple by that name, at Srivilliputtur near Madurai, the sanctum has an image of Visnu who is reclining on the serpent, and shaded by a vata tree." The infant form is not seen there. Again, a late eighte enth-century scro ll from Telengana region depicts Visnu reclining on a pipalleaf (Cummins 20 11:107,fig. 35)”
Desai’s book is a beautiful exploration of the theme of Vatapatrasayi through the puranas, Alvar songs, pictures, sculptures, manuscripts. Many scholars have been of the view that the Bhagavata Purana itself was composed after the Alvars, and was influenced by the Alvar writings. The theme of Vatapatrasayi is referred to as once such inference, since Mahabharata has only a Lord on the Banyan tree reference after the great deluge or Pralaya, not as a baby floating on a Banyan leaf, the striking idea, iconography that emerged from the south. “ln the context of the sculptural and pictorial depictions of the theme, it is important for us to note that in the Mahabharata and the Matsya Purana, the child is seen on a branch of a banyan tree, while in the Bhagavata Purana he is Iying on a leaf of the tree, formed in the shape of a cup (vatapatraputa).”
She quotes the relevant Alvar songs to show how they over an again refer to the concept of the “aaliniai balakan” “aalinilai tuyinravan” etc.,
While Andal, at a very crucial point in Thiruppavai hails him as ‘aalinilayai’, her father Periyalvar who wrote several verses on the birth and childhood of Krishna makes references to the baby on the banyan leaf many a times. In this verse beginning with “uyya ulagu padaithunda manivayira” he makes the descriptions clear: “For many many ages you lie motionless on a fig leaf performing the Yoga of sleep”. In another verse earlier he says “the darling child Devaki gave Yashoda, come and see him grab his foot suck his toe”. Continuing the description of Krishna he also mentions says, see this kid who swallowed the Universe and all the worlds in it, and the one who joyously gorges on the seven worlds, lands, mountains and oceans during the Pralaya. However, the Vatapatrasayi in Srivilliputhur is not a baby Krishna, but a reclining Vishnu with the representation of the banyan tree above the serpent hood.
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