Raghavane Talelo

Kulasekhara Perumal's lullaby to Ram Lalla 

I was away enjoying Carnatic music in Chennai when the whole country was getting engaged with the details of the upcoming Ayodhya Ram Janmabhumi temple consecration. There was little time to look at news then, but once I returned, I could see lots of debates, especially in the Tamil country over our connections with Sri Rama. Luckily, with social media many scholars have started sharing diverse details, ranging from temples, literature, epigraphy etc., to show how deep our connections are. The last time, when the foundation stone laying ceremony happened, I blogged on one particular connection, the elaborate Ramayana dance drama of Sirgazhi Arunachala Kavi. I hope and pray some day like the Banaras Ram Lila, the Arunachala Kavi’s Rama Nataka will also be performed in Ayodhya.

This time around, coming fresh from that immersive music season where we definitely hear, debate Rama kirtanais, kritis, my mind has been thinking of the temple ceremonies. A proper temple, and traditional Nithya pujas for Ram Lalla will begin on January 22, 2024. While Nad(g)aswaram of course has been in mind, that the sounds of the vibrant instrument should play during the festivities, my preoccupation has been with the ritual of sayana. How would the baby Rama be put to sleep? A Carnatic musician should go there and sing Kulasekhara’s thaalattu. Lullaby is predominantly considered a folk genre, and recorded and unrecorded thaalattu’s galore from across the state. But, wasn’t our Alvars pioneers in giving Tamil literature the genre of thaalattu – Kulasekhara’s to Sri Rama, and Periyalvar’s to Sri Krishna. Included in the sacred corpus of the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, the sweetness and beauty of the lullabies have to be read, relished, sung and played. Periyalvar becomes Yashoda in enjoying the childhood of Krishna, and sings the lullaby like Yashoda. Kulasekhara on the other hand recreates the Ramayana in a nutshell though it is a lullaby to Ram Lalla.

Alvars didn’t show prejudice towards Sanskrit even though they chose to write in Tamil. If Kulasekhara is accepted as the author of Mukundamala then he becomes one Alvar who sang in both the languages. There is a line in Kulasekhara’s Perumal Tirumozhi while singing about Bhagawan, describing him as:

                                      Andha Tamil inba pavinai, av Vadamozhiyai

 

He is Tamil, as well as Sanskrit, and the commentators would also interpret the Vadamozhi here to mean the great itihasa of Valmiki. Alvar was so deep in Rama bhakti, it should not be an inappropriate interpretation of the Vadamozhi. (Scholars do make an attempt to find other sources of Ramayana the Alvar would have had, but that does not rule out Valmiki as the main source). The last decad of his Prabandham is a mini Ramayana, but the lullaby which the 8^th decad has indeed many deeds and incidents from the epic, and also other vibhava and archas.

 

Thirucherai Rama

I will share here, the older version of Mannupugazh, that is the first word of the first song in the lullaby decad sung in ragamalika by late vidwans B.V. Raman and Lakshmanan. Earlier in this millennium, vidushi Bombay Jayashri had come out with an album of Indian lullabies titled ‘Vatsalya’ where of course the Mannupugazh is sung in Nilmabari. Jayashri may not be able to go to Ayodhya now, wonder if any other singer would be asked to sing at Ayodhya, and later a record of Mannupugazh played every day at Ram Lalla Sannidhi like the legendary Harivarasanam of K.J. Yesudoss playing at Sabarimala.

 

Music Academy journal makes a reference to a lecture demonstration on Divya Prabandham music by Vidushi Mani Krishnaswamy and scholar T.S. Parthasarathy wherein it is reported that she sang Mannupugazh in Megharagakurunji, that is the name of the Tamil pann, equivalent of the raga Nilambari.

 It is really fascinating the different approaches Alvars take in trying to reach Bhagawan, for the vision of Bhagawan, to be in His company. The ‘Viraha Bhakti’ as in the separation of the lovers, the beloved yearning for her lord, the man taking the feminine voice to express the pangs of that separation is much commented upon, celebrated. Kulasekhara here sings of the pains of separation, that of a mother’s, Devaki’s lament –

 

 

I did not get anything, unlucky one

That divine Yashoda got it

Not that kiss from your Coral red lips

Not seeing that dangling jewellery on your forehead,

Seeing that resemblance to your dad,

Not rejoicing in the sweet baby talk, that disappointed look,

innocent, cross

Putting your little fingers on your lips

 Kausalya was not unlucky, not like Devaki who had to part with the baby and get him back as a boy, not like Yashoda who brought him up, but had to let go of him as a small boy. As a mother her separation comes much later, the adult, the prince going away to the forest, that stuck Dasaratha who gets a voice in Kulasekhara to cry out. As a mother Kausalya was there to see the baby grow, to sing lullabies and that is how Kulasekhara sees here, the mother – son of the devotee and Bhagawan.

One of the commentators makes an interesting point. If young lovers pine about separation, once they are back together the lady love would express dissatisfaction about the separation inflicted on her by the lover, not a very happy situation, whereas a mother’s reaction to see the kid back would have no such situation, a mother always too happy to reunite with the baby, brimming with love. Also, the separation of the mother from her baby is more painful for the Alvar than that of the lover.

Another aspect of Alvar’s that we see here is singing of the archa and vibhava together in one place, and creating an Ayodhya at Kannapuram. The lullaby is of course to Sri Rama, but it is addressed to the dark gem of Thiru Kannapuram. The gem that was born to famous Kausalya, the one who pulled down the heads of Lanka’s king, his dear, dark gem of Kannapuram, with golden ramparts, that nectar Rama he wants to put to sleep, sing taalelo. 

மன்னுபுகழ் கோசலைதன் மணிவயிறு வாய்த்தவனே
தென்னிலங்கை கோண்முடிகள் சிந்துவித்தாய் செம்பொன்சேர்

கன்னிநன்மா மதில்புடைசூழ் கணபுரத்தென் கருமணியே
என்னுடைய இன்னமுதே ராகவனே தாலேலோ

Rama, the son in law of great Janaka, the beloved spouse of Sita and the most beautiful lines come up while describing his willing sacrifice.

 

                       Relinquished the power to rule to the earth in favour of Bharata

                        Reached the dense forests with Lakshama, with immeasurable love

                        Mountain like chest, ruled by piraatti (Sita), king of Thirukannapuram

                        My Dasarathi, long hair, reigning by the crown, talelo

 

                       Reached Dandakaranyam followed by the kith and kin

                       Lord of Ayodhya, balm to the beloved

                       The dark gem of Kannapuram, residence of the learned

                       Went to the forest, abiding by the words of step mother, talelo O Rama!  

Such simple, yet deep and beautiful retelling of Ramayana, in such sweet and lyrical Tamil verses, we drown in Rama love with the Alvar when we recite, sing. Shravanam, even listening to them is enough. Wouldn’t Ram Lalla be happy to listen to Kulasekhara call him Karumaniye, Dasarathi, Raghava, Sri Rama? He is at Kannapuram, He is also at Srirangam. The aradhya deity of Rama, passed on to Vibishana, who stayed on in the island of Srirangam, who Kulasekhara yearned to see, to reach.

தேவரையும் அசுரரையும் திசைகளையும் படைத்தவனே
யாவரும் வந்தடிவணங்க அரங்கநகர் துயின்றவனே

காவிரி நல்நதி பாயும் கணபுரத்தென் கருமணியே
ஏவரிவெண் சிலைவலவா ராகவனே தாலேலோ

 

Created the Devas, the Asuras and the directions

Rested at Arangangar, for all to come and worship

Dark gem of Kannapuram, where the bounteous Kavery flows

Expert archer deft in handling sharp arrows, Raghava talelo

 

That great devotee, a king and a renunciate Kulasekhara sang a lullaby to his dear Lord. Born in what is considered to be Thiruvanjikalam in present day Kerala, Kulasekhara’s legend as we get from the samparadaya sources show his deep love for Rama and Ramayana. Born a kshatriya, in the same star as Sri Rama, Punarvasu, Kulasekhara also establishes kinship with Rama “Engal kulathinnamudhe”, “the sweet nectar of our clan”. Rama’s aradhya deity Sri Ranganatha becomes his aradhya deity too. Rama is called Perumal, and Kulasekhara gets the title too as Perumal for his devotion. There is a saying in Tamil, “Perumalai ariyadhar perumalai ariyadhare”, if you do not get to know Perumal, you would not get to know Perumal.

His verses show how deeply affected, absorbed he was in Rama bhakti, we do not even have to look for evidence beyond what the text shows, in a way. Before Kamban wrote the Rama Kaathai, rendering of Ramayana in Tamil, Alvar brings us the condensed version. Celebrating Rama, his act of sacrifice, victory over Ravana, yet he gets dearer to his Lord in his vision of him as a Ram Lalla, singing him lullabies. Kulasekhara like a mother, like a proud father would rejoice, to see his baby find an abode after five centuries, a beautiful new abode, and would sing him lullabies on January 22.

 

 

 

Notes: 1. Vibhava is the manifestation of Vishnu as various avataras

             2. Archa is the consecrated vigrahas in the temples, the deities

             3. The lullaby verses are addressed to Rama, but the deity addressed is Sowriraja Perumal at                                                            

                      Thirukannapuram near Nagapattinam

             4. The last ten verses of Perumal Tirumoli sings Ramayana, addressed to the Govindaraja       

                       Perumal at Thiruchitrakootam, the Sannidhi at Chidambaram temple

             5. Photographs of Thirukannapuram and Thirucherai Rama from the internet