Hymns of the Tamil Saivite Saints

Hymns of the Tamil Saivite Saints by F. Kingsbury and G. P. Phillips Calcutta: Association Press; London, NY: Oxford University Press [1921] SIVA NAARJA

(A)The Hymns and their Significance THE voice of chanting and song, to the accompaniment of unfamiliar instruments, floats out over the high wall of the temple in the coolness of the evening or the dawn, making the Western passer-by wonder what it is that is being chanted and sung. If only he had a Hindu hymn-book he thinks he could learn from it the spirit of Hinduism as well as a non-Christian could learn Christianity from Christian hymns. For the Tamil country at any rate there is such a hymnbook, and our present aim is to give enough specimens from it for readers to know what the hymns are like. Englishmen are wanting to understand India more than they ever wanted before, for their debt to India is heavy. Indians are wanting more than ever before to know the wonderful past of their own country, and the wonder of it is all bound up with its religion. At such a time these hymns are worth looking into, for they are being sung in temples and homes throughout the Tamil country, and Tamil is the mother-tongue of more than eighteen millions of people. For pious Saivites they equal in authority the Sanskrit Vedas; the mere learning of them by rote is held to be a virtue, and devout. Tamil parents compel their children to memorize them in much the same way as Christian parents make their children learn the Psalms. The hymns here given are specimens from the Dvram and the Tiruvchakam. The Dvram is the first of the collections of works held as canonical by Tamil Saivites. Its hymns were composed between six and eight hundred A.D. by the three authors of whom this book gives some account, and the whole was put together in one collection of 797 stanzas by Nambi r Nambi about 1000 A.D. The Tiruvchakam, or Sacred Utterance, was written by one author, Mikya Vchaka (Tamilized as Mikka Vsahar) at a date so far unsettled that scholars are still divided on the question whether it preceded or followed the Dvram, though most scholars place it in the ninth, or early in the tenth, century. Whenever it was written, it stands even higher than the Dvram in the affections of Tamil people. Out of an immense number of hymns we have tried to select those which are most representative, those which are favourites, and those which contain the most striking thoughts. But it is amazingly difficult to give a fair or adequate idea of them in an English rendering. They are essentially songs, intended to be sung to Indian tunes, in metres which no English metre can represent. Much of their charm depends upon assonance, upon plays upon words, upon close knitting of word with word, upon intricacy of metre and rhyme, almost as much as upon the substance. We can only claim a fair degree of accuracy in our renderings, apologizing to the lovers of Tamil poetry for the plainness and poverty of our representation of so rich and varied an original. All our translations are new, and nearly all of those from the Dvram represent verses which have never before been done into English. One of the translators of this book learned as Saivite child to love these hymns, and therefore is the authority in matters of interpretation, the Englishman being responsible for the form. We shall be quite satisfied if our translations serve to call attention to the poems, and are some day replaced by worthier renderings. We have tried to reduce introductory matter to a minimum, only giving such information as is necessary to enable readers to understand the hymns and the allusions in them. But it is entirely necessary to say something about the worship of Siva, and to give a few words of biography of each of the four authors from whose work this book contains extracts. (B)The Worship of Siva 1. Its history previous to these poems. The word Siva occurs even in the Rig Veda, but there it is only in conjunction with Rudra. The joining together of these names provokes conjectures as to whether we have here an amalgamation of two earlier deities, an Aryan and a Dravidian, but these need not detain us here, since clearly even at this early date Siva was an Aryan deity, identical with Rudra the storm-god, and father of the Maruts, storm-gods themselves. Rudra is a handsome god; he uses his thunderbolts chiefly for punishing evil-doers, and is on the whole a kindly being. The name Siva means auspicious,' and must not be confused with the Tamil word for 'red,' although as it happens Rudra-Siva was a red being, In the period of the Puras, we find that Siva, instead of being one of a multitude of nature-deities, has risen to be one of the great triad, Brahm, Vishu, and Siva, who are far above all gods. How the change has come about we have not yet the means of discovering. The function has changed as much as the person, Siva being now the destroyer as Brahm is the creator and Vishu the preserver. The process of reduction in the number of the superior deities goes further, and Brahm falls practically into the background, leaving only Vishu and Siva as supreme beings for the worship of the people of India. By the time Hinduism penetrated southwards into the Tamil country, probably somewhere about 500 B.C., it had two main forms, the worship of Vishu and the worship of Siva, the two being not too sharply disconnected. The Tamil Hindu believed in the existence of both, but held his own god, whether Siva or Vishu, to be supreme. Hinduism seemed to be Firmly established, but was dangerously shaken when the Jains and Buddhists spread over South India. Then came for the Vaishavites the teachers known as the lvrs, while Saivism was defended by the poets of whose work this book gives specimens. Hinduism was saved, but it existed henceforth in two distinct forms, Vaishavism and Saivism, separated by a wider gulf than in earlier days. 2. The portrait of Siva and its interpretation. Siva as imagined by his worshippers has a human form, usually with one but occasionally with five or six heads. He has three eyes, the right one being really the sun, the left eye the moon, and the one in the middle of his forehead fire, His reddish hair is matted in the ascetic way, and on it is the crescent moon, the Ganges, and one or more cobras, while wreathed about it is a garland of konai (Cassia) flowers. He has four arms, though occasional representations show eight, but one body and two legs. Commonly he is seated on a grey-coloured bull. In colour he is reddish, but his body is smeared over with white sacred ash. He holds in his hands various things such as a battle-axe, a deer, fire, a trident, a bow. Round his neck, which is dark, hangs a long necklace, the beads of which are skulls. At his waist he wears sometimes an elephant's hide, sometimes a tiger-skin, sometimes only a very scanty loin-cloth. Generally his consort, Um, is at his left side, but sometimes he is pictured as half man and half woman, the right half (Siva) being pink-coloured, and the left half (Um) green or black. Siva's abode is said to be on Mount Kailsa in the Himlayas, but among his special haunts is the burning-ground, where bodies are cremated. One of the favourite manifestations of Siva is that as Naarja, the dancer in the great hall at Chidambaram, of which we give a picture (see frontispiece). Here Siva has one face, four arms, and two legs, performing a spirited dance. His right foot rests on a demon named Muyalahan. He is sometimes represented as dancing along with K, not the K who in North India is identified with Um, but a she-devil feared in the South. Doubtless each of these features in the manifestation of Siva has its history, but that is unknown at present. The legends give fanciful explanations of most of them. The tiger's skin and the elephant's hide, for instance, are those which Siva stripped from the wild animals sent against him by the magic of his enemies the ishis of Darukvana. But it is of more interest to find the religious ideas which these things suggest to a thoughtful Saivite devotee to-day. The hides remind him that Siva has all power, and all opposition to him is vain. That right foot of Naarja set on Muyalahan means that God crushes down all evil. Those skulls in his necklace are the skulls of successive Brahms, each of whom died after a life lasting many ages. This is a way of saying that while other gods at last come to their end, Siva is eternal and unchanging. Siva's dance suggests how easily, and how rhythmically, he performs his five functions of making, preserving, destroying, judging and purifying. And his dance in the burning-ground may sometimes carry the message that God becomes most real to men in the solemn hour when they part from their dead. 3. Four common legends and their meaning. Of the many legends concerning Siva four are so frequently alluded to in our poems that they should be told here, to avoid repeated explanatory notes. 1. Brahm and Vishu once saw a pillar of fire that seemed to grow from the depths of the earth and to pierce beyond the highest heavens. They longed to learn its depth and height, and agreed that Brahm should become a swan to fly to the pillar's top, and Vishu a boar to dig to its root. The swan flew up to the sky, but never reached the pillar's summit. The boar dug through the earth with his tusk, but never found where the pillar began. Brahm and Vishu perforce acknowledged their limitations and prayed to the pillar, whereupon Siva revealed himself, for the pillar was a form he had assumed. Not even the greatest and wisest of creatures can by their searching find out God. But to the humble-hearted He reveals Himself. 2. Rvaa, the ten-headed giant king of Ceylon, while on his conquering progress through many realms, came to the North of India and saw Kailsa the silver mountain. Coveting its beauty he determined to uproot and transplant it to his own island. With his ten heads and twenty arms he tried to lift it from the earth, and Kailsa shook. All the hosts of heaven, and even Irma., were terrified by what seemed to them an awful earthquake. But Siva simply set his big toe upon the mountain, and lo, Rvaa found himself being crushed to death. Repenting of his folly, Rvaa prayed for mercy, and Siva not only forgave him but even gave him fresh boons. For God pardons sinners who repent, and gives them blessings which before they did not know. 3. Three Asuras, or supernatural beings, once by doing penance obtained from Siva three castles, one of gold, one of silver, and one of iron. These castles could fly at the owners' desire, and settle down on towns and villages, destroying many lives. In course of time the Asuras became very proud and ignored Siva. Determining to punish them, Siva mounted a chariot whose wheels were the sun and moon and whose scat was the earth. Brahm was his charioteer, the four Vedas the horses, Mount Meru his bow, the ancient serpent disesha his bow-string, and Vishu his arrow. At sight of these preparations the gods became conceited, thinking that Siva could not destroy his enemies without them. Siva knowing their thoughts simply laughed, and at that laugh the three castles were on the instant reduced to ashes. Those who forget God in their pride must be punished. When those whom God uses as his instruments begin to think themselves indispensable to him, he shews that his purposes can be fulfilled without them. 4. The gods once began to churn the ocean in the hope of obtaining divine nectar. The mountain Mandra was their churning-stick, the primeval tortoise the pivot on which the stick rested and turned, and the serpent Vsuki was the churning-rope. As they churned, at first, great and splendid things came up. But suddenly something black rose up and darkened the whole universe. It was a mass of poison, deadly alike to gods and men. In terror of destruction, the gods and demons called on Siva. He came, drank the poison, and saved them all. That which was enough to destroy the universe could only stain his throat with a bluish colour. That is why Siva is often called the "poison-necked" or "blue-throated" god. There is a link here, small but real, with the Christian teaching of God as ready to suffer for the sake of humbler beings.

I

(Tamil: TIRU JÑNA SAMBANDAMRTI SWM) In the first half of the seventh century A.D. the worship of Siva Was at its lowest ebb, overpowered by the Jainism and Buddhism which prevailed throughout the Tamil country. But a few pious Saivites remained faithful. One of them, whose name means that his heart was laid at Siva's foot, and who lived in the town in the Tanjore District now known as Shiyli, prayed to the Siva worshipped in the Shiyli temple that he might be given a son who would dispel the godless dark and win men to Lord Siva again. Sambandar's birth was the answer to that prayer. At the tender age of three, so orthodox Saivites believe, this child was fed by Sivas spouse with milk from her divine breast, mingled with divine wisdom, whence he is called in his full name, "The man connected with wisdom divine," Tiru Jñna Sambandar. He grew up to be a pilgrim poet, who visited most of the Saivite shrines with which South India abounds, in each place singing the praise of the Siva whom there he worshipped. The cause he loved suffered a severe blow when the great king of Madura, with many of his subjects, went over to the Jain religion. The queen-consort and her prime minister (see stanzas 20 and 21) remained faithful to Saivism, and sent for Sambandar. [paragraph continues] The lonely saint faced a vast multitude of Jains in the royal presence, conquered them in argument, and reconverted the king. Eight thousand of the stubborn Jains, with Sambandar's consent, were impaled alive. Later on, after a similar adventure in another of the three great kingdoms of the Tamil country of his time, Sambandar converted to Saivism a crowd of Buddhist opponents. This is about all that is known of a man who helped to sing Buddhism right out of Southern India, and who composed the collection of hymns which stands first among the canonical works of Saivites. Legends make him a wonder-worker, but we must draw our knowledge of the man from his poems themselves. He certainly was skilful in the handling of the many metres in which Tamil poetry is written, and it is not impossible that his productions were as effortless as the stories of him tell. That is their weakness, for there is not very much of heart religion in them. But they seem to have powerfully helped in that process of eliminating Jainism and Buddhism from India of which we know so little, though it was complete enough to be one of the marvels of history. Their author holds the foremost place among the four great 'Saivite Preceptors' (Sivchryar), and some call him the incarnation of one of the sons of Siva. His date seems to be one of the few clearly established dates in the history of the religion of the country. Stanza 19 shews that he was a contemporary of another great early Saivite, whose name means "Little Servant of God," and who is known to have fought in a battle which took place in 642 A.D. We begin with the first verse which the author composed. According to the legends he uttered it at the age of three, on the banks of the temple tank at Shiyli (once Brampuram), after Siva's consort had fed him with milk from her own breast. The stanza itself of course contains no allusion to the story, but it is one of the best known verses in the Saivite hymnbook. 1. His ears are beringed, He rideth the bull; His head is adorned with the crescent moon's ray; White is He with ash from the burning-ground swept; And He is the thief who my heal t steals away. Great Brahm enthroned on the lotus full bloom Erstwhile bowed him down and His glory extolled, And singing received he the grace of our lore Who dwelleth in famèd Brampuram old. No pilgrimage in South India is more popular than that to Tiruvamalai in North Arcot, the temple by a hill celebrated in many poems. Saivism has tried to express the existence of the 'eternal feminine' in deity by giving Siva a lady who not only is His consort, but is actually a part of Him, and is so represented in many images, which show Siva as masculine on one side and feminine on the other. 2. He is our only Lord, conjoinèd still To her whose breast no sucking lips have known. They who in Amalai's holy hill, Where falling waters noisy chatter down, And the hill glistens gem-like, bow before Our great one who is lord and lady too, Unfailingly for them shall be no more Dread fruit of good and bad deeds they may do. One of the first puzzles to a student of Saivism is the way in which each of the numerous shrines seems to be spoken of as if it were Siva's exclusive abode. The broad river marked on English maps as the Cauvery, but in Tamil called the Kviri, which brings so much blessing to a large part of South India that the respect in which it is held is not difficult to understand, is fringed throughout its length with shrines which are believed to confer the blessings of Siva on all who visit them. One of these is 'Neyttnam,' 'Place of Ghee.' 3. So ye but say Neyttnam is the home Of our great Lord who wears in his long hair The crescent moon, the river, and the snake, Neyttnam where chaste maidens gather fair, On the north bank of Kviri's loud stream, Your vileness, guiltiness, the sin you dread, Your sorrows many, shall be banishèd. This specimen of a hymn connected with Palny in the Madura District alludes (in stanza 5) to the well-known legend which says in the Saivite way that those who love God need not fear death. Mrkandeya was a boy devoted to Siva, but over his life hung a terrible cloud, for the fates had decreed that he would not live beyond his sixteenth year. As the appointed time drew near his father lived in an agony of dread, but Mrkandeya, free from fear, spent all his time in the worship of Siva. The god of Death came at last. Regardless of the fact that the boy was at worship he threw over him that noose which pulls out human life from the body. The boy clung to Siva's lingam with both his hands. From within the lingam Siva burst forth, kicked the terrible death-god and pierced him with his trident. So Mrkandeya was saved. The scene is sculptured on many temples. 4. Holy Vedas chanting, Sacred thread He wears; All His hosts surround Him Whom the white bull bears. Cometh He in splendour, Tiger-skin attired. 'Lord, our naked beggar Above all desired,' Cry ye in your worship, At His feet appeal. He who dwells in Palny All your sin will heal. 5. Three eyes hath His forehead, Fair moon crowns His hair; When Death sought a victim, Siva's foot crashed there; Gory streams of blood flowed, Death it was that died, Such is He, our Father, Um a, at His side; Dwells He aye in Palny, Where bees hum around Drunk with honeyed sweetness, Till its groves resound. A multitude of hymns chant the glory of Chidambaram, ancient Tillai, holiest of all the Saivite shrines. Pious Saivites have for it a feeling not unlike the Jews feeling for Jerusalem. The tending of the sacrificial fire comes down from pre-historic times, being firmly established when the earliest hymns of the Rig Veda were composed. 6. Tending as taught of old the sacrificial fire, At Tillai Brahmans pure drive out misfortune dire. There dwells the First of all, moon-crowned, and those who cleave For ever to His foot, no cleaving sin will grieve. Conjeeveram, the ancient Tamil name of which is given in this stanza, though more famous as a Vaishavite than as a Saivite shrine, offers in its temples a remarkable compendium of the religious history of South India. See the article 'Knchipuram' in Dr. Hastings 'Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics.' 7. He is the pith of holy writ; And in the tangle of His hair The spotless crescent's ray is lit; He is both Lord and Lady fair. He our great sovereign doth abide In Kachchi Ehambam's fair town. My mind can think of naught beside, Naught beside Him, and Him alone. The next two stanzas, taken from two separate hymns associated with the great cities of Trichinopoly and Madura, both sacred places of Saivism, are set side by side in order to bring out a point which even the most sympathetic student may not ignore. Siva is commonly spoken of as all good, as in stanza 8, and yet not infrequently He includes, as in stanza 9, both good and its opposite. The pantheistic tendency even in these hymns causes God to be sometimes depicted as so all-embracing as to include evil as well as good. 8. All goodness hath He and no shadow of ill. Grey-white is His bull, fair Um shares His form. His wealth is past searching. Chirpai's hill Is His, whom to praise keeps my heart ever warm. 9. Thou art right and Thou art wrong, Lord of holy lavy; Kinsman, I to Thee belong; Never fades Thy light away. Thou the sense of books divine, Thou my wealth, my bliss art Thou, Thou my all, and in Thy shrine With what praises can I bow? No one can know Siva unless He chooses to reveal Himself. This thought constantly recurs with great emphasis. Its favourite expression is in the first legend of the four told in our introduction. Hymn singers are fond of contrasting with the vain search of Brahm and Vishu the revelation of Himself which Siva has graciously granted to them. Compare stanzas 25 and 48. 10. Thou Light whom Brahm, being's fount, and Vishu could not see, No righteousness have I, I only speak in praise of Thee. Come, Valivalam's Lord, let no dark fruit of deeds, I pray, Torment Thy slave who with his song extols Thee day by day. Astrology plays a large part in popular Hinduism, and the influence of baleful or auspicious stars must be reckoned with in daily life. Most baleful of all is the influence of the eclipse, which is caused by two dragons Rhu and Ktu which swallow the moon or the sun. This stanza enumerates the nine planets, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury; Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rhu and Ktu, and says that to the singer, who has Siva in his heart, all of them, even the dragons of eclipse, are auspicious. It is a powerful and characteristically Hindu way of saying that all things work together for good to those who love God. The reference to the bamboo constantly recurs in descriptions of ladies beauty. Everyone who has seen a feathery clump of bamboo trees waving in the breeze will understand it as a symbol of delicate grace. The va is the most delicate and beautiful instrument played in South India. 11. She shares His form whose shoulders curve vies with the bamboo's grace. His throat the poison drank, He touched the va into tune. The lustrous moon and Ganges crown His hair, and He a place Hath made Himself within my heart. Wherefore let shine the moon Or sun or any star of good or ill, or serpents twain. For Siva's slave all are benign, all work for him great gain. White ash from burnt cow-dung must be worn by all true Saivites. Every day the worshipper, facing north-east and crying 'Siva, Siva,' must dip in the ash the fingers of his right hand and draw the three middle fingers from left to right along his forehead, so leaving three horizontal white lines. The ceremonial side of Saivism is so prominent that this one stanza must be given, a specimen of many extolling the virtues and potencies of the ash. The Tantras are works inculcating ceremonies, also magic performances and mystic rites. Some of these are of an immoral nature. 12. The sacred ash has mystic power, Tis worn by dwellers in the sky. The ash bestows true loveliness. Praise of the ash ascends on high. The ash shows what tile Tantras mean, And true religion's essence tells, The ash of Him of lavy, In whom red-lippèd Um dwells. Equally important with the wearing of the sacred ash is the constant repetition of the five syllables, or panchkshara, 'Namasivya.' This, which means literally 'a bow to Siva,' is the chief mantra or mystic utterance of Saivism. In Saivite catechisms a whole chapter is devoted to its uses. 13. Those who repeat it while love's tears outpour, It gives them life, and guides them in the way. Tis the true substance of the Vedas four, The Lord's great name, wherefore 'Hail Siva,' say. The next three stanzas are from a hymn written in a very attractive short-lined metre, and promise light, freedom from rebirth, and bliss, through devotion to Siva at rr (now Tiruvar in the Tanjore District). 14. For the Father in rr Sprinkle ye the blooms of love; In your heart will dawn true light, Every bondage will remove. 15. Him the holy in rr Neer forget to laud and praise; Bonds of birth will severed be, Left behind all worldly ways. 16. In rr, our loved one's gem, Scatter golden blossoms fair. Sorrow ye shall wipe away, Yours be bliss beyond compare. Associated with the hymn from which our next verse is taken is a story of the author, Sambandar, helping a sorrowing woman by raising to life the man she loved, who had been killed by snake-bite. The hymn makes no allusion to such a miracle, but it does give an example of intercession on behalf of another, an element which is somewhat rare in these devotional books. 17. Prostrate with fear at Thy feet she cries 'Lord with matted hair, my Refuge, Rider of the bull! Lord of Maruhal where fresh water-lilies bloom, is it right to leave her in this anguish of heart? Our present writer's poems contain such frequent denunciations of Buddhism or Jainism that it is clear that they were written at a time when the struggle between Hinduism and these other religions was at its height. Buddhism and Jainism are scarcely known in South India to-day, though at one time they were supreme. It is probable that these songs helped not a little to drive them out of the country. 18. Those Buddhists and mad Jains may slander speak. Such speech befits the wandrers from the way. But He who came to earth and begged for alms, He is the thief who stole my heart away. The raging elephant charged down at Him; O marvel! He but took and wore its hide; Madman men think Him, but He is the Lord Who in great Brampuram doth abide. The "Little Servant of God" mentioned in the next verse is one of the 63 canonized saints of Saivism. According to the collection of legends known as the Periya Puram, which is a Tamil Saivite classic, he fought at the battle of Vdpi, the modern Badmi, which took place in 642 A.D. There are other indications which strengthen the view that these hymns date from the seventh century A.D. In the first three lines of the verse Siva is conceived as a lover, and the devotee as the woman whom He loves. In India the pain of absence from a lover is supposed to cause spots to appear on the skin of the woman who loves. 19. Birds in the flowering green-branched puai tree, Love writeth clear its marks on me, for He Who cured my grief, yet left unending pain. Senkttankui is His holy fane, And there His "Little Servant" dwells, who now And ever doth before Lord Siva bow. There in the burning-ground, with fire in hand, Sporteth unceasingly our Master grand. Another possible indication of date occurs in the next two verses, given in English prose because the Tamil names will not fit into English metres. The Mangaiyarkkarasi here mentioned was the wife of a king of Madura, Kn Pdiyan, known to history. According to the above-mentioned collection of stories, this king became a Jain. Then the queen and the prime minister named in our poem sent for Sambandar, our author, through whose efforts the king was reconverted, and all Jain teachers were executed by impaling. Unfortunately the date of Kn Pdiyan cannot at present be accurately determined. An able discussion of it can be seen in "The Tamilian Antiquary, No. 3." The explanation of the term 'Fish-eyed maid,' which sounds curiously in English ears, is that in Madura Siva's consort is called Mnkshi, i.e. fish-eyed. The suggestion of the epithet, frequently applied to beautiful women, is that the motion of their eyes resembles the beautiful motion of a fish in water. 20. This is Alavy, where dwells the flame-formed lord of hosts, giver of the four Vedas and their meaning, with the fair fish-eyed maid. Here, reigning like the goddess of good fortune, Mangaiyarkkarasi the Chla king's daughter, braceletted chaste Pdiyan queen, daily serves and praises God. The poem from which 20 and 21 are taken consists of stanzas like these alternately praising the queen and the king's minister, the last verse praising them both together. 21. This is lavy, Siva's abode. To those who forsake the world He reveals Himself as world-forsaking too. Head of the heavenly ones, He rides the one white bull. Praised is He by Kulachchirai, minister of that monarch who wears white ash, and loves to lay himself bare at the feet of Siva's slaves. Once, says a story, when Sambandar was about to contend with the Jains, the queen feared the consequences which might befal him, but he assured her in this verse that he could dare all when his God of Madura was on his side. 22. O fair one with the deer's glance meek, Pdya's great queen, think not of me As of some sucking infant weak, Because such wicked foes there be. If only Hara by me stand, Stronger am I than all their band. The story here is that the Janis had set fire to Sambandar's house. He prayed in this stanza that the fire, transformed into a fever, might go to the Pndyan king, then a Jain. It did so, and the king was converted. 23. O Thou whose form is fiery red, In holy Alavy, our Sire, In grace deliver me from dread. False Jains have lit for me a fire: O, let it to the Piyan ruler go, That he the torture of slow flame may know. Our specimens of Sambandar's poetry may end with a verse which is a kind of benediction, often set as an auspicious word on the front page of a book. 24. Blest be the Brahmans pure, the heavenly ones, and kine. Cool rain fall on the earth! May the king's glory shine! Perish all forms of ill! Let Hara's name resound! May sorrow pass away, from earth's remotest bound. Apparswm

II.

(More commonly referred to as APPARSWMI) Sambandar, whose works we have been studying, had a friend older than himself, named Appar, or Tirunvukkarasu, belonging to that Vela caste which to this day makes a very solid element in the population of the Tamil country. Left an orphan at an early age, Appar was brought up by a loving elder sister as a pious devotee of Siva. Great was the sister's grief when Appar forsook the faith of his fathers and became a religious teacher among the Janis. But her earnest prayers at last prevailed, and Appar not only came back to Saivism himself, but was the means of reconverting to Saivism the king of his country. His full name was Tirunvukkarasu, or 'King of the Tongue', but his young friend Sambandar called him Appr, or Father, and the name stuck to him. He too wandered throughout the Tamil country, sometimes alone, sometimes in company with Sambandar, singing his way from shrine to shrine. Pictures show him holding in his hand a little tool for scraping grass, with which he used to scrape the stones of the temple courts. The Jains persecuted him, and many stories tell of his miraculous escapes from their hands. His hymns show a truly religious nature, with a deep-rooted sense of sin and need, and an exalted joy in God. There is real critical acumen in the old epigram which represents Siva as appraising the three great writers of the Dvram, or Saivite hymn-book: "Sambandar praised himself; Sundarar praised Me for pelf; My Appar praised Me Myself." God, the essentially unsearchable, in His grace will reveal Himself to men. (See the first of the legends told in the Introduction.) Athihai Viranam, in the South Arcot District, is the shrine here commemorated. 25. Vishu, spouse of Lakshmi, and four-ways-facing Brahm, Searched the heights and depths, but Thy feet could never sec. Yet, O only Lord, who in Athihai dost dwell, Formless, in Thy grace, grant the sight of them to me. The notable thing about our next verse is not so much the legend of the crushing of Rvaa, who tried to storm the mountain Kailsa, where Siva had His heaven, but rather the thought of the devotee being stamped as the property of his god, a thought which recurs in other hymns. According to tradition Apparswami did receive the Hindu equivalent of St. Francis stigmata, the mark of Siva's bull as if branded on his body. We cannot help recalling St. Paul's expression in Galatians vi. 17. 26. All other worlds his sceptre swayed, But when Kailsa he would rule Thy crushing foot presumption paid. O stamp me with. Thy sacred bull, White as Himlya's snowy hill. Accent me, O our truth divine, There where the moon outsoareth still Groves of Tgnaimam's shrine. Here is the divine vision as the enraptured Saivite sees it. 27. See, there His bright trident appears to me; See, there is the moon in His tangled hair; His garland of flowers from the kondai tree, And the ear-ring white in His either ear, The cloak that He tore from the elephant wild, His glittering crown and His body's sheen. Ash-smeared, He is ever the undefiled, In Pvaam circled by groves all green. The singer, standing at the shrine of Tiruvalur (rr) in the Tanjore district, muses over the ancient connection of his lord with the holy place, suggesting that it began before the creation, before Siva wrought his greatest marvels, perhaps even before the one Supreme, svara, expanded into the triad Brahm, Vishu and Rudra. 28. When was that ancient day our Lord Chose rr should His temple be? Wast when He stood mid praising worlds Alone, or when the One grew three? Wast when in wrath He burned up Death, Or turned on Lust His flaming eye? Or when creative, immanent, He called to being earth and sky? Wast when, his young deer in his hand, He came, with Um as His part? Or ere He joined that lady fair Took He our rr to His heart? It is often said, not without truth, that Hinduism fails to create a strong sense of sin. But there are great exceptions: witness the following verses, samples of many, taken from a hymn which trembles with feeling. The author is sunk in sin. Or he has been like a swing, flying first toward evil and then towards God; but now, joy! the cord has snapped, and he lies fixed at his Lord's feet. Yet the old mood returns; his soul is bound and drugged with sleep, and life has no joys to offer unless God will save. The Soul's Bitter Cry 29. In right I have no power to live, Day after day I'm stained with sin; I read, but do not understand; I hold Thee not my heart within. O light, O flame, O first of all, I wandered far that I might see, Athihai Vranam's Lord, Thy flower-like feet of purity. 30. Daily I'm sunk in worldly sin; Naught know I as I ought to know; Absorbed in vice as twere my kin, I see no path in which to go. O Thou with throat one darkling gem, Gracious, such grace to me accord, That I may see Thy beauteous feet, Athihai Vranam's Lord. 31. My fickle heart one love forsakes, And forthwith to some other clings; Swiftly to some one thing it sways, And een as swiftly backward swings. O Thou with crescent in Thy hair, Athihai Vranam's Lord, Fixed at Thy feet henceforth I lie, For Thou hast broken my soul's cord. 32. The bond of lust I cannot break; Desire's fierce torture will not die; My soul I cannot stab awake To scan my flesh with seeing eye. I bear upon me load of deeds, Load such as I can neer lay down. Athihai Vranam's Lord, Weary of joyless life I've grown. Fresh pictures in another hymn set forth his sad condition. God's vessels are full of the sweetness of grace, but his spoon has no handle. He feels himself in the deadly grasp of fate, like the frog in the cruel mouth of the snake which is slowly swallowing it down. Or he is on a raft on the sea of life, wrecked on the rock of lust. 33. While violence is in my heart, Care of my body cage is vain. My spoon no handle hath when I Thy honey's grace to drink am fain. As in the serpent's mouth the frog, Caught in life's terrors, wild I rave. Thou, King of holy Ottiyr, Wilt Thou not care for me and save? 34. When on life's angry waves I launch, My heart's the raft I take to me, My mind's the pole I lean upon, Vexation's freight I bear to sea. I strike upon the rock of lust! O then, though witless quite I he, Grant, King of holy Ottiyr, Such wisdom that I think of Thee. It would be hard to find a more comprehensive confession of sin than our next stanza from another hymn. 35. Evil, all evil, my race, evil my qualities all, Great am I only in sin, evil is even my good. Evil my innermost self, foolish, avoiding the pure, Beast am I not, yet the ways of the beast I can never forsake. I can exhort with strong words, telling men what they should hate, Yet can I never give gifts, only to beg them I know. Ah! wretched man that I am, whereunto came I to birth? We give next a series of stanzas in various metres from different hymns, in which the saint utters in song some of the joy which his religion has brought him. God has revealed mysteries to him which tongue cannot tell, and dwells in his life's innermost places. God is to him the fabled katpaha tree, supplying his every need. God is his all in all, and His presence is sweeter than melody or evening moonlight. 36. The moving water He made stand unmoving in His hair; And He my thoughtless heart hath fixed it thought of Him alone: He taught me that which none can learn, what none can see laid bare; What tongue tells not He told; me He pursuer and made His own. The spotless pure, the holy One, my fell disease He healed, And in Pnturutti to me een me, Himself revealed. 37. O wealth, my treasure, sweetness, lustre fair of heavenly hosts, Of lustre glory that excels, embodied One, my kin, My flesh, yea heart within my flesh, image within my heart, My all-bestowing tree, my eye, pupil my eye within, Picture seen in that pupil, lord of utuai cool, Immortals king, keep far from me strong pain of fruits of sin. 38. Thou to me art parents, Lord, Thou all kinsmen that I need, Thou to me art loved ones fair, Thou art treasure rich indeed. Family, friends, home art Thou, Life and joy I draw from Thee, False world's good by Thee I leave, Gold, pearl, wealth art Thou to me. 39. As the va's pure sound, as the moonlight at even, As the south wind's soft breath, as the spring's growing heat, As the pool hovered over by whispering bees, So sweet is the shade at our Father-Lord's feet. 40. No man holds sway oer us, Nor death nor hell fear we; No tremblings, griefs of mind, No pains nor cringings see. Joy, day by day, unchanged Is ours, for we are His, His ever, who doth reign, Our Sakara, in bliss. Here to His feet we've come, Feet as plucked flowrets fair; See how His ears divine Ring and white couch-shell wear. 41. Though they give me the jewels from Indra's abode, Though they grant me dominion oer earth, yea oer heaven, If they be not the friends of our lord Mahdv, What care I for wealth by such ruined hands givn? But if they love Siva, who hides in His hair The river of Gaga, then whoeer they be, Foul lepers, or outcastes, yea slayers of kine, To them is my homage, gods are they to me. Often the Hindu devotee asks and re-asks the fundamental question 'Who am I?', coming to the saddest of conclusions, but setting against the background of his delusive life of self the great reality of God, to worship whom is to find release from the prison-house of personality. 42. Thy father, mother, brethren, wife, Ask thyself who are they? Thy children; yea, thy very self, Who art thou, canst thou say? How camst thou here, how wilt depart? Love not this world unreal. Ye anxious souls, this lesson learn, To one pure name appeal. Our father He, crowned with the moon And snake. Who Him adore, Prone lying, with ''Hail Siva, hail,'' In heavn live evermore. Our next hymn with the short-lined verses (nos. 43 to 48) is a kind of Saivite consecration hymn, mentioning successively various parts of the bodyhead, eyes, carsto be given to the worship of Siva. Verse 46 must sound sadly to a Saivite, for it is frequently sung in the ears of the dying, as a plaintive appeal to think of God. Verse 47 rises far above the usual ideas of future absorption to the thought of a blissful state of communion with and praise of God. 43. Head of mine, bow to Him, True Head, skull garlanded, A skull was His strange begging-bowl, Bow low to Him, my head. 44. Eyes of mine, gaze on Him Who drank the dark sea's bane. Eight arms He brandishes in dance, At Him agaze remain. 45. Ears of mine, hear His praise, Siva, our flaming king. Flaming as coral red His form: Ears, hear men praises sing. 46. What kinsmen in that hour When life departs, have we? Who but Kulam's dancing lord Can then our kinsman be? 47. How proud shall I be there, One of His heavenly host, At His fair feet who holds the deer, How proud will he my boast! 48. I sought Him and I found. Brahm sought in vain on high. Vishu delved vainly underground. Him in my soul found I. The mystic can never be a satisfied ceremonialist. These Saivite devotees commonly praise the god of a particular shrine in language which might suggest that Siva is only to be found there. And everyone who knows India remembers the ceaseless streams of pilgrims journeying to the Ganges or the Cauvery (Tamil Kviri), to Rmswaram or Cape Comorin or a hundred other holy places. But with a fine inconsistency these ancient singers sometimes point men away from externalities to a worship inward and spiritual; witness the following hymn. As to the terms used, in v. 50, Vedas are the religious works of the highest authority, Sstras are philosophical and practical works based on them, while Vdngas are sciences subordinate to the Vedas, and there are six of them. 49. Why bathe in Gaga's stream, or Kviri? Why go to Comorin in Kogu's land? Why seek the waters of the sounding sea? Release is theirs, and theirs alone, who call In every place upon the Lord of all. 50. Why chant the Vedas, hear the Sstras lore? Why daily teach the books of righteousness? Why the Vdngas six say oer and oer? Release is theirs, and theirs alone, whose heart From thinking of its Lord shall neer depart. 51. Why roam the jungle, wander cities through? Why plague life with unstinting; penance hard? Why eat no flesh, and gaze into the blue? Release is theirs, and theirs alone, Who cry Unceasing to the Lord of wisdom high. 52. Why fast and starve, why suffer pains austere? Why climb the mountains, doing penance harsh? Why go to bathe in waters far and near? Release is theirs, and theirs alone, who call At every time upon the Lord of all. It looks like a sudden drop when the same writer in our next hymn seems to say that everything depends upon the pronunciation of the five sacred syllables which can be translated 'Hail, Siva!' In the later development of Saivism the pronunciation of these syllables was exalted into a primary religious duty. But in the creative period in which these hymns were written the name probably stood for the person, so that we have here a religious 'calling upon the name of the Lord' in the devotion of worship. In the first stanza there is a remarkable use of the term 'Word.' Modern Saivites identify this 'Word' with Um, Siva's consort. We can compare the Sanskrit Vk (Word) in the ig Vda. The last lines of verse 53 are connected in the minds of Saivites with a story that Apparswmi was actually sunk in the sea by Jain persecutors, with two great stones tied to him, but on crying 'Hail, Siva! he floated to the surface. The five products of the cow referred to in verse 54 are all used together in ceremonial purificationmilk, curds, ghee, urine, and dung. 53. O Lord of Scripture, whom the Word doth help, Celestial light of heaven, so I but praise, With hands meetly upraised, Thy golden feet, Then though men tie on me two weighty stones, And sink me in the ocean's depth, een then The cry 'Hail, Siva,' would salvation be. 54. The lotus is the glory of all flowers; The glory of all kine is Hara's use Of that which they put forth. Glory of kings Is the unswerving straightness of their deeds. But if we ask the glory of the tongue, Tis to cry out aloud, 'Hail, Siva, hail.' 55. For men who all renounce, tis glory true To wear the sacred ash. For Brhmans pure The Vdas and Vdgas are their pride. The white moon's glory is to shine serene On the long locks of Siva, while for us True glory is to cry 'Hail, Siva, hail.' Tradition connects our next stanza with a story of Apparswmi being smitten with an inward disease when he forsook Saivism and became a Jain. Thè pain proved, says the legend, a convincing argument which reconverted him, whereupon he was promptly cured. But internal evidence proves this hymn to have been composed long after his return to Saivism. Nandi is the name of Siva's bull. 56. Thou takest not my deadly pain away, My torments, Nandi-rider, never cease; At Thy feet would I worship night and day, But since my bowels writhe, and neer find peace, I can no more! O Sire, to Thee I cry, Who dwellst by Keila, in Athihai. Nature sometimes spoke to our author of God. The union of sexes even in animals one day spoke to him as a revelation of divine things. 57. I'll follow those who going to the shrine their praises sound, With blooms and water for the god who wears the moon so mild All lovely in His locks, a garland wreathed His neck around, And with Him sing they Prvati, the mountain god's fair child. Once as I went to Aiyu, with light and reverent tread, I saw come two young elephants, male by loved female led, And in that sight I saw God's foot, saw secret things unsaid. God is the great yogi, the wielder of mystic powers. 58. "O greatly loved, our King, our Lord, from all eternity, Our portion, our true mystic," thus from day to day I sing. O golden one, O hill of coral, I in love of Thee Have wandered far and wide, Athihai Vraanam's king, Have wandered far the shining blossom of Thy foot to see. One whole hymn, from which our next verse is taken, is a prayer for the opening of a door. Tradition has it that the great locked temple door at Vedranyam swung open in answer to this song. 59. Um is Thy portion, whose words are like song. In fair Maaikku men circle round Thee In worship. O graciously open this door That we Thy true servants Thy glory may see. Here is a very popular stanza. There used to be a beggar in Madras who recited it, and it alone, all day long. 60. He is ever hard to find, but He lives in the thought of the good; He is the innermost secret of Scripture, inscrutable, unknowable; He is honey and milk and the shining light. He is the king of the Devas, Immanent in Vishu, in Brahm, in flame and in wind, Yea in the mighty sounding sea and in the mountains. He is the great One who chooses Perumpattapuliyr for His own. If there be days when my tongue. is dumb and speaks not of Him, Let no such days be counted in the record of my life. Whatever karma may teach of the inevitable consequence of evil, devotees hold that they may count on receiving divine forgiveness, for which the gracious nature of God is a sufficient pledge and guarantee. 61. Thy throat the black sea's poison drank, as twere ambrosia sweet, O deer-skin wearer, Um's lord, king of the gods on high; Kailsa's hill is Thine abode, and when Thy lovers cry "Forgive our sin," great One, forgiveness is Thy duty meet; For with Thee is great grace, lord of celestial beings all, Who dwell'st in vautuai, where peacocks dance and call. The dreadful fate in store for irreligious men that is of being slowly killed by sore sickness, then being born again to a joyless life that circles round once more to death in unending cycles of dreariness. The 'letters five' in no. 63 refer to the five-syllabled phrase na-mah-Si-v-ya, whose praise is chanted in vv. 53-55. 62. The ill-starred town without a house of God, Wherein white ash on no man's brow doth glow, The town where pious praises are unsung, Where are no wayside shrines men's faith to show, Where none blow joyfully the conch-shell white, Where spread no canopies, no flags appear, Where none make flowery offerings ere they eat, Call it no town, tis but a jungle drear. 63. If men speak not His name in letters five, Nor eer the fire-formed Siva's praise repeat, And never walk in reverence round His shrine, And pluck no flowers for offering ere they eat, If they for healing wear no sacred ash, I'll tell you whereunto such men were born, Twas that foul plagues might torture them to death, Then death bring rebirths endlessly forlorn. Our last fragment from Apparswmi is in the minor key, in which so many of his refrains are pitched. It seems to prove, contrary to tradition, that Appar was once a married man. 64. Immersed in painful cherishing Of child and wedded wife, No room is there in me to feel Thy power, Lord of my life. O whereunto came I to birth? To cherish this false world? Or watch it, bubble-like, appear, Then be to nothing hurled?

III.

(Abbreviated as SUNDARAR) The third of these hymn-writers, named in full Sundaramrti Swmi, was, like Sambandar, a Brahman. He was born in the South Arcot District, and is generally believed to have flourished in the first quarter of the ninth century A.D. He evidently sat loose to caste scruples, for neither of his two wives was a Brahman. One was a dancing-girl in the Saivite temple at Tiruvrr, the modern Tiruvalur in the Tanjore District, while the other was a Va woman of Tiruvottiyr, now a suburb of Madras. His life seems to have been no happier than life in polygamy usually is, and to add to his difficulties he sometimes found himself without food for his ladies to eat. He frankly praised God for what he could get, and on the whole his hymns are on a lower spiritual plane than those of the first two writers, though there are some which bear the marks of real spiritual experience. Of the sixty-three saints whom Saivites hold in special honour, Sundarar seems to have been the last, for he sang the praises of the other sixty-two. Sundarar, as our first sample of him shews, was not only later than the two authors whom we have been studying; he was the last of the sixty-three canonized saints of Saivism. A serious weakness of the religion here shews its head. Siva has his favourites, who can do no wrong. The stanza is given in prose, for these names cannot fit into any English metrical line. The first two will be recognised as names of the poets whose work we have been considering. Naippvn is Nandan, the pariah saint. Silandi (= spider) is Kchchenga Chola, who figures largely in early Tamil history. 65. Ñnasambandar and Tirunvukkarasar, skilled in the Tamil tongue, Naippvn, learned Sdan, Skkiyan, Silandi, Kaappan, Kaampullan, these may do wrong, but yet Thou countst it right. Hence have I come to the sounding anklets of Thy feet, O lord of Tiruppungr with its pools where blossoms many a golden lotus gem. To English ears the metre of the next two verses, which are common favourites, has a curious sound. It is a close reproduction of the Tamil, so close that the tune of the Tamil hymn could be sung to the English words. 66. Golden art Thou in Thy form, girt around with the fierce tiger's skin, Fair shines Thy tangle of hair, crowned with blooms from the kondai's bright tree, Sovreign, great jewel art Thou, the red ruby of Malapi, Mother, on Thee, none but Thee, can my heart evermore fixèd be. 67. Clad in the little loin-cloth, my body with holy ash white, Lo I have come to Thy foot; O my head, I beseech Thee, take me. Portion of sword-eyed Um, Thou red ruby of Malapi, Friend, tis on Thee, none but Thee, can my heart evermore fixèd be. Is the Siva manifested at one shrine so distinct from the Siva manifested at another as to endanger the unity of God? If tradition is right, the danger is very real, for Sundarar was already worshipping at one shrine, Tiruvottiyr, when he remembered the lord of rr, and deciding to go to him like a returning prodigal, sang this stanza. 68. Ah sinful, I have left the path of love and service pure! Now know I well the meaning of my sickness and my pain. I will go worship. Fool! how long can I so far remain From Him, my pearl, my diamond rare, the king of great rr. The joy in God which shines in our next hymn evidently rests on some experience of divine grace which we should have liked to hear more definitely described. 69. O madman with the moon-crowned hair, Thou lord of men, thou fount of grace, How to forget Thee could I bear? My soul hath aye for Thee a place. Veey-nallr, in "Grace's shrine" South of the stream of Peai, there My father, I became all thine; How could I now myself forswear? 70. I roamed, a cur, for many days Without a single thought of Thee, Roamed and grew weary, then such grace As none could win Thou gayest me. Veey-nallr, in "Grace's shrine" Where bamboos fringe the Peai, there My Shepherd, I became all thine; How could I now myself forswear? 71. Henceforth for me no birth, no death, No creeping age, bull-rider mine. Sinful and full of lying breath Am I, hut do Thou mark me Thine. Veey-nallr, in "Graces shrine" South of the wooded Peai, there My Master, I became all thine; How could I now myself forswear? The varying mood of the saint, now joyous and triumphant, now plaintively looking for death, is reflected in the next two verses from one hymn. 72. Linked to naught else in life, my mind thinks only of Thy holy feet. I'm born anew, from this time forth I pass the way of birth no more. In Koumui, lord austere, where wise men Thee with praises greet, Should I forget Thee, my own tongue 'Hail, Siva'! crying, would adore. 73. When will the end draw nigh, sense fade, life close, and I the bier ascend? This, naught but this, is all my thought. But, lord of speech, Thou light on high, Where the bright streams of Kviri to Koumui coolness lend, Should I forget Thee, my own tongue to Thee would loud 'Hail, Siva' cry. God should deliver His own from death. The appeal here is to the familiar story of Markandeya (see No. 3). Yama is the god of death who gathers in the souls of men. 74. The young saint refuge sought from Death; To save him, Thou grim Death didst slay, Such deeds Thy might accomplisheth, And I who have beheld them pray "O Father, should dread Yama press On me, forbid him. Tis my slave"; Do Thou in green Pungr confess. I've reached Thy foot, and Thou canst save." Sundarar is sure that Siva will understand his perplexities in supplying the needs of his fair ladies. For does not Siva Himself bear the burden of two ladies, Prvati his consort, and Gang (lady Ganges) in his hair? Sundarar, in the legend with which these verses are connected, when one of his wives was suffering hunger, miraculously received some uncooked rice from Siva. This was not enough; to complete the miracle Siva must remove the rice for him to rr the abode of his fair one. This too was done in answer to the hymn of which the next two stanzas are a sample. 75. Ever I think but of Thee; Daily in worship I bow; She of the sword-piercing eyes, Leave her not suffering now. Kili's lord, Thou didst give Rice in Kuaiyr this day. No man to bring it have I, Bid it be sent me, I pray. 76. Thou art half woman Thyself; Gag is in Thy long hair. Full well canst Thou comprehend Burden of women so fair. Kuaiyr circled with gems, There didst Thou give rice to-day. Source of all, wonderful one, Bid it be sent me, I pray. The saint advises his fellow-poets to sing the praises of Siva rather than the praises of men because they seldom reward the poets. Siva rewards them here and hereafter. The Pri mentioned in 78 was a chieftain in the Tamil country in the early centuries of our era, famed for his liberality. 77. Though ye fawn on men of lies, They to saints will nothing give; Sing not them, O poets wise, But if ye would wealth receive Sing the Sire of Puhalr; Here your wants will be supplied, Pain will flee; there evermore Ye will kings in heavn abide. 78. Call the weak by Bhima's name, Style him Arjun with his bow, Give the mean man Pri's fame, Not a gift will he bestow. Sing, O bards, our holy God, White with ash, in Puhalr. In the deathless one's abode Ye shall reign for evermore. Life and experience have no value, no reality. God alone is real, the refuge from the unreal. 79. Our life is all unreal, Its end is only dust, Out of the sea of birth Come ruin, pain and lust. Delay not to do good But praise Ketram's king, Whom Vishu and great Brahm Vainly sought sorrowing.

IV.

(Sanskrit form MIKYA VCHAKA) In the days when the powerful Pndyan Kings flourished in Madura, there was once a prime minister who early became convinced of the transitoriness of this world's life and its riches. When on a visit to Perundurai, now vudaiyrkoil in the Tanjore District, he suddenly and completely came under the influence of a Brahman religious teacher, who for him was the manifestation of the very God Himself. Then and there he began to sing the "Sacred Utterance" (Tiruvsaham), and was named by his preceptor "Utterer of Jewels" (Mikka Vsahar). Returning to Madura, he forsook his high office with all its rewards, to become a religious poet wandering without earthly attachments from shrine to shrine. The stories clustering around his religious experience can be read by English readers in Dr. Pope's great edition of his work. We find him practising austerities at Chidambaram, or miraculously giving the gift of speech to the dumb daughter of the Chla king, or defeating in disputation a band of Buddhists from Ceylon, but of certain historical information about him we have practically none. Even the question of the century in which he lived is a battleground of the antiquarians. Tradition places him in the fifth century, earlier than the writers of the Dvram; but the opinion of scholars seems to be converging on the view that he lived in the latter half of the ninth, or the first half of the tenth century of our era. Another of his works is the Tirukkvaiyr, an erotic poem of four hundred stanzas. Among Tamil Saivite writers none makes a stronger devotional appeal than Mikka Vsahar. There is a common Tamil saying that nothing can melt the heart of the man who is not melted by the Tiruvsaham. Stanzas 80-92 are samples from an opening poem of one hundred stanzas, each ten of which has its own metre and is fairly complete in itself. They fairly reflect the saint's varying moods. Notice the importance he attaches to emotion; his worst self-reproach is for feeling no frenzy. As to his conception of God, see how the word 'grace' recurs in nearly every stanza. And yet that God of grace is called (in No. 84) both being and non-existence. The Hundred Verses 80. Thrills and trembles my frame; Hands are lifted on high; Here at Thy fragrant feet, Sobbing and weeping I cry; Falsehood forsaking, I shout, "Victory, victory, praise! Lord of my life, these clasped hands Worship shall bring Thee always. 81. Indra or Vishu or Brahm, Their divine bliss crave not I; I seek the love of Thy saints, Though my house perish thereby. To the worst hell I will go, So but Thy grace be with me. Best of all, how could my heart Think of a god beside Thee? 82. Though like Thy saints I seem, tis but the acting of a part. Yet wondrous swift I run to reach the heaven where Thou art. O hill of gold and precious gems, grant in Thy grace to me A heart to melt, lord of my life, in ceaseless love to Thee. 83. I have no fear of births, but quake at thought that I must die. Een heavn to me were naught; for earth's whole empire what care I? O Siva wreathed with honeyed blossoms, "When shall come the morn When Thou wilt grant Thy grace to me?" I cry with anguish torn. 84. The sky, earth, wind, the light, our very flesh and life art Thou, Being art Thou, non-being too, Thou king, who seest how Men dance like puppets with their foolish thoughts of 'I' and 'Mine,' While Thou the cords dost pull. What words can tell Thy praise divine? 85. At sound of cries like this, "O Bull-rider whose spreading hair The falling stream receives! "Heaven's Lord," true devotees there were, Whose love-thrilled heart broke forth, like stopped-up rivers rushing down. Yet Thou didst choose no one of them, but me to be Thine own. And yet my body will not turn from heel to head one heart To melt in love for Thee, one eye to shed the tears that smart In swelling floods. Ah! wretched that I am, who only moan! My two eyes are unfeeling wood, my heart a great dead stone! 86. Amid the fruits of deeds I lay. Thou didst thyself reveal With words of comfort saying "Come, I will destruction deal To evil fruit of deeds," and thus thou madst me all Thy slave. And yet I stand as if a statue made of steel, nor rave, Nor sing, nor cry, nor wailwoe's menor in my spirit faint With deep desire, so dull am I. O being ancient, Thou art beginning, Thou art end: tell me, how can I be So dead at heart? The end if this I do not dare to see. 87. Him though men seek, none fully know; in Him no evil is. None are His kindred; knowledge perfect, effortless is His. A cur am I, yet He hath givn to me in sight of men A place on earth, and shewed me things far beyond mortal ken. He told me what no ears can hear; from future births He savd. Such magic wrought my Lord who me hath lovingly enslaved. 88. Our God of gods, whom een the devas king knows but in part, Ruleth the three who in the fair world-gardens life impart, And life maintain, and life destroy; our First, Reality, Father of old, whose consort Um is, our sovereign, He p. 94 p. 95 Came down in grace and made een me to be His very own. Henceforth before no man I bow; I fear but Him alone. Now of His servants servants I have joined the sacred throng, And ever more and more I'll bathe in bliss. with dance and song. 89. The meanest cur am I; I know not how to do the right; Twere but what I deserve, shouldst Thou my wickedness requite With the dread fate of those who never saw Thy flowery feet; For though mine eyes have seen, my ears have heard saints guileless, meet, Who reached Thy fragrant presence, yet I stay, for false am I, Fit for naught save to eat and dress, Lion of victory. 90. None but myself has sunk myself. Thy name be ever praised! No blame lay I on Thee, lauds to my Master be upraised! Yet to forgive is aye a mark of greatness. Praise to Thee! Lord of the land celestial, Praise! O end this life for me. 91. The fawn-eyed maid is part of Thee! From holy writ Thourt hid! Thourt honey, yea ambrosia, by man's mind not compassèd. O king who bearest with my faults, some harsh words did I say. Thy saints have entered heaven. Without, falsehood and I still stay. 92. Since I am false, and false my heart, and false my very love, Howeer I weep, still held by deed can I reach Thee above? O honey, nectar, O essential sweetness, great as sweet, Grant grace to me to find the path that leads unto Thy feet. 93. Heavn, earth, and all that therein is, thou makest without seed. Thou dost preserve and Thou destroy. Tis Thou who hast decreed That I though treacherous, mean, should be a man who frenzied faints Before Thy temple gates, one with the band of Thy true saints. What men themselves have planted, een a poisonous mango tree, They root not up. O Lord of mine, as such a tree keep me. Our next five stanzas, taken from a hymn of fifty, are full of the pathos expressed in the title, which is a refrain recurring in every verse. Only flashes of the light of the presence of God pierce the prevailing gloom. The saint cannot free himself from sensuality, even while he hates it. He wonders whether even the God who drank poison for others sake will leave him alone. Wilt Thou Leave Me? 94. Mingling in grace with me, O rider of the bull, Thou madst me Thine. But wilt Thou leave me? Thou whose form in the fierce tiger's skin is clad, Uttaraksamagai old has Thee for king. O lord of mine With matted hair, hold Thou me up; for I am weary grown and sad. 95. Set in the marge of flowing stream that eats its banks away, the tree Shakes to its fall; and thus am I, my sense bewitchd by maids dark eyes. Uttaraksamagai's king, spouse of gem-vested Prvati, Who dwell'st in rr holy, O protector, for my help arise. 96. In ignorance I spurned thy grace. Dost Thou, my gem, now me despise, And wilt thou leave me? O destroy my sum of deeds and make me thine. Uttaraksamagai's king, tis surely true, the great and wise, When only little curs play false, to mercy ever will incline. 97. With none to cheer me from my fear, far have I wandered wearily, O Lightning-like, and wilt Thou leave me? If I truly thee compare, Uttaraksamagai's king, I find naught else resembling Thee; But a true father, mother dear art Thou to me, my treasure rare. 98. Whether I praise or curse Thee, still I'm stained with sin and sorrowing. Yet, wilt Thou leave me? Splendour shining like the red-hued coral mount, Master, thou drankest poison black, the humbler beings pitying, That I, Thy meanest one, might find no poison, but a nectar fount. Our poet made songs which maidens might sing in their rhythmical games, or as they sat at the grinding-stone. In India the boatman sings as he rows, the ryot sings as he draws from the well, the sepoy sings on his march. A feature of such songs is the refrain, which is usually a mere collection of euphonic syllables, though it may have a meaning. Here are specimens of a few songs intended for women. The refrain of the first, "lrembvy" probably means "Receive and ponder what I say, O lady." The Grinding song, strangely enough, is used at funerals, as also is the 'Antiphony.' The song of 'The Three Castles Destruction' is supposed to accompany play with a ball or a kind of shuttle called 'und.' For the legend of the Three Castles, see page 7. 'The Shoulder-Play' is for some ancient game in which women grasped each other's shoulders. Song of the Maidens 99. Older are Thou than the oldest of all, Newest of all that is new. At Thy saints feet we in service will fall, We are Thy handmaidens true. None but Thy bondsmen shall call us their own; Lord, we would none others wed; We would be slaves at their bidding alone: So be our bliss perfected. lrembvy. 100. "Sure for Thy child there is refuge with Thee," Trembling we take up the cry. Hear, O our Lord, while we bring Thee one plea, Grant but one boon for our joy. May only Thy lovers rest on our breast, Let our hands labour be theirs. Only on such our eyes night and day rest, Then sun rise west, east, who cares? lrembvy. The Grinding Song 101. Grind we the powder gold, that He may bathe; For He is Scripture, He is sacrifice; He's being's truth, and being's falsehood too; Light is He, yea, and He is darkness deep; He is deep sorrow, and true bliss is He; He is the half, and He again the whole; Bondage is He, but He is true release; He is the alpha, He the omega. Siva's Mysteries (An Antiphony) 102. "His form is smeared with ashes white; the snake His strange adornment is; The secret scriptures utters He: what kind of god, my friend, is this? "Why talk of ash-smear, holy speech, adornment strange? This only know, This god, of every living thing is the true nature. Chal." 103. "My father and my master, He of all men Lord supreme, is clad With but a hanging loin-cloth stitched; pray tell me, friend, is He not mad? "The Vedas four with meaning fraught, the everlasting Sstras, know That these are but the threads whereof is wove His loin-cloth. Chal." 104. The burning-ground's His temple fine; the tiger's skin His raiment is; Father or mother hath He none; He's all alone; my friend, see this.'' "Though He no parents hath, no kin, yet should His anger kindle, lo, The whole wide world would straightway turn to dust and ashes. Chal." 105. "Though I am but a cur, yet when I turned to Him who hath no end, Into a sea of bliss He made me sink oerwhelmed; see this, my friend." "Those holy feet that sank thee in the sea of bliss oerwhelmèd, know, Een to the very gods in heavn they're richest treasure. Chal." The Three Castles Destruction 106. Bent was the bow, begun the fight, The castles three were whelmèd quite, (Fly, und) Three castles blazing with one light. (Fly, und) 107. One bolt in Siva's hand saw we, One single bolt for castles three, (Fly, und) And een that one scarce needed He. (Fly, und) 108. Cleft lay the car at His foot's tread, The axle was all shatterèd, (Fly, und) Three castles ruined lay and dead. (Fly, und) The Shoulder-Play 109. Poor slave was I, how long I poured out all my days for naught, To Him the all-supreme no homage rendering! Yet see, How He, the jewel from eternal ages incorrupt, Has come and drawn the prison-bolt of births, and set me free. Play we Tkkam In the poetry of all lands lovers have appealed to birds to be their messengers to the distant loved one. This is so common in Indian poetry as to have become a recognised convention. Here the saint sends his message of love and devotion, in one case by a humming bee, in the other by the Indian cuckoo, to Siva who dwells in Tillai, i.e. Chidambaram. The Bee's Message 110. Hard-hearted thief, stiff-necked was I, but no such name He called me; My stony heart He melted, and by mercy He enthralled me. The swans abound in Tillai's lovely hall of gold, His dwelling. Fly, king of bees, at His gold anklets hum, my message telling. 111. Cur though I am, my lord has set me His great glory singing; To me, the mad, His patient grace is aye forgiveness bringing; Scorning me not, He deigns to take the service I can do Him. Mother and God. Go, king of bees, hum thou my message to Him. 112. Far would my heart and mind have gone from Him, but He compelled me, The lord with tangled locks, and His fair spouse, they saved and held me. He is the sky, the mighty sea, east, west, north, south, indwelling. His feet with honey drop. There, king of bees, my praise be telling. 113. In this world's treasure false immersed lay I, and self-deceivèd, Held it for treasure true, but for His own He me receivèd. My precious life itself is He, in Tillai's hall abiding. Go, king of bees, at His red lotus feet my words confiding. The Cuckoo's Errand 114. Hear, little cuckoo in the honeyd orchard groves. Heavn did He spurn; to save us men, to earth He calve, Boundless in giving, reeking naught of flesh of mine, Entered my mind, and there my very thought became. He, the alone, the spouse of her whose pure eye's ray Shames the gazelle in softness, call Him hither, pray. One of the little childishnesses involved in idolatry is that every morning with solemn ceremony the idol must be wakened from his sleep, bathed, and dressed. Here is a song with which he is roused from slumber. But notice how successfully our author has filled his poem with the fresh morning feeling, and the sights and sounds of the sudden break of the Indian dawn. The Idol's Awakening 115. Hail to Thee, treasure rare, Source of all prosperity, Dawn has come, at Thy feet, Flowers themselves, fair flowers lay we. Praising Thee, we await Smiles that blossom fair and sweet In Thy face, as we fall Prone adoring at Thy feet. Siva, Lord, dweller in Perunduai, where expand Lotus flowers, petalled white, In the cool moist pasture land, Thou whose flag is the bull, Thou the Lord of all my ways, Now O Lord of us all, From Thy couch rise in Thy grace. 116. Now anigh Indra's East Draws the sun; dark flies apace At the dawn; and the sun Of the kindness in Thy face Riseth highr, ever highr, As like fair flowers opening, Eyes unclose from their sleep, Eyes of Thee our beauteous king. Hear how now clouds of bees Humming bright fill all the air. Siva, Lord, dweller in Holy Perunduai fair, Thou wilt come to bestow Favours rich, Oh shew Thy face! Mountain-joy, ocean-bliss, From Thy couch rise in Thy grace. 117. Cocks now crow to the morn, While the cuckoos loudly call; Little birds sweetly sing, And the conch-shell sounds oer all; Light of stars fades away Into common light of day; Dawn and sun come as one, Now to us, O God, display In Thy love Thy twin feet, Gracious, decked with anklets rare. Siva, Lord, dweller in Holy Perunduai fair, Hard for all men to find, Yet to me Thou shewedst Thy face. Now O Lord of us all, From Thy couch rise in Thy grace. 118. On this side some men play Lutes and vas sweet of sound; On that side some men chant Ancient ik, their songs resound; In their hands some have brought Wreaths of many blossoms wove; Some bow down, some men weep, Some men sway, oercome by love; Clasping hands oer their heads, Others stand with reverent air; Siva, Lord, dweller in Holy Perunduai fair, Even me didst thou save; Sweet to me have been Thy ways. Now, O Lord of us all, From Thy couch rise in Thy grace. The rest of our specimens of the 'Holy Utterances' may be left to explain themselves without comment, save for a single line of title. Where two or more stanzas are given from a poem, the title here given is a translation from the Tamil. Only with Thee and Thy Saints! 119. Our lady aye is in Thy heart, As Thou in hers; and if ye both In mine do dwell, grant me a part Among your slaves, O ever First. Unending lord, in Tillai's hall who dost abide, Let this deep yearning of my soul be satisfied. What Can I Give Thee? 120. Thou gavst Thyself, Thou gainedst me; Which did the better bargain drive? Bliss found I in infinity; But what didst Thou from me derive? O Siva,. Perunduai's God, My mind Thou tookest for Thy shrine: My very body's Thine abode: What can I give Thee, Lord, of mine? Passion's Pain 121. Caught am I in passion's snare from women's liquid eyes; Stabbed at heart, a cur. O wisdom's light, no aid I see. Only lord, whose lady's feet are softer than the down, How I long to hear Thy coral lips speak cheer to me. Longings For Death 122. Our lord supreme, both earth and heavn indwelling, See how I have no other help but Thee. Thou king of Siva's world, bright beyond telling, Dweller in Perunduai, look on me. Who'll hear my cry, who list to my complaining, If Thou Thy grace deny, who savedst me? I find in sea-girt earth no joy remaining. Now let Thy grace speak, bid me come to Thee. 123. In Thee she dwells whose feet than down are softer; See how I have no other help but Thee. Thou king of Siva's world, my gracious master, Dweller in Perunduai, look on me. Fear holds me; for, in dark confusion godless, I did forget the grace that savèd me. Dog and deceitful am I. Life is joyless. Now let Thy grace speak, bid me come to Thee. 124. In Thee she dwells whose ancient praise is faultless; See how I have no other help but Thee. Thou king of S`iva's world, the bright moon wearing, Dweller in Perunduai, look on me. Whom save Thee could I worship with my praises? Can any other refuge give for me? O Rider of the bull, my life is joyless. Now let Thy grace speak, bid me come to Thee. The Balancing of Deeds 125. O lord of Perunduai, place of peace, To them who call Thy name, beyond compare True joy art Thou. Thou mad'st my woe to cease When good and ill deeds done were balanced fair. Then lest unwithring seeds of birth should grow, In Kalukunu Thy fair self didst shew. Life's Consuming 126. Myself I cannot understand, nor what is day nor night; He who both word and thought transcends has reft my senses quite, He who for bull has Vishu, and in Perunduai dwells, O Light supreme, in Brhman guise has cast on me strange spells. 127. I ask not fame, wealth, earth or heavn. No birth, no death for me. None will I touch who love not Siva. Now tis mine to see Abiding Perunduai, wear the King's foot as my crown; Never will I leave this His shrine, nor let Him leave His own. 128. Art Thou like honey on the branch too high for me to climb? Or art Thou nectar ocean-churned? O Hara, King sublime, In Perunduai, circled with moist fields, I can set Thee With form ash-smeared, the spotless. Can I bear my ecstasy? 129. Many in this great earth who live do penance; I alone Bearing this frame of flesh, a barren jungle-tree have grown. Dweller in Perunduai old where blooms the kondai tree, May I the sinner cry "Wilt Thou not grant Thyself to me"? Pious Fear 130. I fear not serpents lurking smooth; I fear no liars feignèd truth; But when I see fools venturing Een to the foot of Him our king, Our three-eyed Lord with matted hair, Of His great godhead unaware, Fools thinking other gods can be, Terror such sight inspires in me. 131. I fear no javelin's gory blade; Nor sidelong glance of bangled maid; But when I see men void of grace Drinking no sweetness from the praise Of my unchiselled Gem, whose dance In Tillai's hail is seen, whose glance Melts men's whole frame in ecstasy Terror such sight inspires in me. I Cling to Thee 132. King of the heavenly ones! All-filling Excellence! Een to vile me Thou Thy wonders hast shown; Balm of true bliss, ending false earthly bliss of sense, Thou my whole household didst take for Thine own. Meaning of holy writ! Wondrous Thy glory! True wealth, our Siva, to Thee, Lord, I cling. Never to loose my hold, firmly I cling to Thee; Where canst Thou go, leaving me sorrowing? 133. King of celestial ones, ever with bull for steed, Evil am I, yet my riches art Thou; Lest I should rot in my foul flesh, and die indeed, Thou hast preserved me, and Thine am I now. Thou art our God; Thou of grace art a boundless sea, Saved from my flesh, now to Thee, Lord, I cling. Never to let Thee loose, firmly I cling to Thee; Where canst Thou go, leaving me sorrowing? 134. Thou didst come into my vile fleshly body, Een as twere into some great golden shrine; Softning and melting it all, Thou hast savèd me, Lord condescending, Thou gem all divine! Sorrow and birth, death, all ties that deceivèd me, Thou didst remove, all my bonds severing; True bliss, our kindly Light, firmly I cling to Thee; Where canst Thou go leaving me sorrowing?

135. I ask not kin, nor name, nor place, Nor learnèd men's society. Men's lore for me no value has; Kuttlam's lord, I come to Thee. Wilt thou one boon on me bestow, A heart to melt in longing sweet, As yearns oer new-horn calf the cow, In yearning for Thy sacred feet? Longing for Union 136. I had no virtue, penance, knowledge, self-control. A doll to turn At others will I danced, whirled, fell. But me He filled in every limb With love's mad longing, and that I might climb there whence is no return, He shewed His beauty, made me His. Ah me, when shall I go to Him? The Wonder of Grace 137. Fool's friend was I, none such may know The way of freedom; yet to me He shewd the path of love, that so Fruit of past deeds might ended be. Cleansing my mind so foul, He made me like a god. Ah who could win that which the Father hath bestowed? 138. Thinking it right, sin's path I trod; But, so that I such paths might leave, And find His grace, the dancing God, Who far beyond our thought doth live, O wonder passing great!to me His dancing shewed. Ah who could win that which the Father hath bestowed?

dutuai, or vadutuai, in Tanjore District, now a station on the South Indian Railway. Aiyu, twelve miles from Tanjore. lavy, or Uttarakosaimangai, Madura. Amalai, or Tiruvamalai, in South Arcot District. rr, Tiruvallur, Tanjore District. Athihai Viranam, South Arcot District. Brampuram, Shiyali, Tanjore District. Chenkankui Chidambaram, or Tillai, or Perumpattapuliyr, in S. Arcot District, the most venerated place of Saivism. Chla, one of the three great kingdoms into which the ancient Tamil country was divided. Comorin, extreme southern point of India, still a great place of pilgrimage. Dharmapuram, near Tranquebar, Tanjore District. Kviri, or Cauvery, the most sacred river in South India. Kachchi Ehambam, or Knchipuram, the modern Conjeeveram, in North Arcot District. Keila Ktram Koumui, near Erode, Coimbatore District. Kili, near the modern Tiruvallur, Tanjore District. Kongu Kundaiyr, near Tiruvallur, Tanjore District. Kuttlam, Tanjore District. Malapdi, South Arcot District, near Trichinopoly. Maaikkdu, the modern Vetharaniam, Tanjore District. Curiously enough, the modern name is the Sanskrit translation of the Tamil, meaning 'Forest of the Vedas,' i.e., lonely place where Vedas are studied. Maruhal, on the Cauvery River, Tanjore District. Neyttnam, on the Cauvery River, Tanjore District. Ottiyr, better known as Tiruvottiyur, a few miles north of Madras, now practically a suburb. Palanam, Tanjore District. Perumpattapuliyur, see Chidambaram. Perunduai, vudaiyrkoil, Tanjore District. Puhalr Pungr, seven miles from Shiyali, Tanjore District. Pnturutti Puvaam, twelve miles from Madura. Tillai, see Chidambaram. Tiruputtr, Ramnad District, near Pudukottah. Tiruvamalai, see Amalai. Tiru Neyttnam, see Neyttnam. Tngnaimdam Uttaraksamangai, Ramnad District. Valivalam on the Cauvery, Tanjore District. Venneynallr, South Arcot District. N."Tiru" is an epithet meaning "Holy," but where it has become practically part of the place-name, that name is given in this list as if it began with T.