Hastagiri Arulalane!!

The Lord @ Athigiri engira Vishnu Kanchi is hailed by that epithet by Thirumangai alwar. A mis nomer that many make from the 4000 is that they believe that it was sung at each temple by the alwars and then collected. Actually this is not so.

The division of temples into 108 was in a period very very later than the Prabhandam and might be erroneous too. The hymns were read and the temples identified with the help of the geographical pointers present. "Thiruvallikeni kandene" prompts that the song could only be on Thiruvallikeni. But for names long forgotten and places ruined under the age of time, only guesses could be made.

For example, for the temple @Kabisthalam also called Kannan Kabisthalam, the only song sung sang of a Krishna temple on a river's bank. Using this the spot was guessed as Kabisthalam. Similarly with Thirupreethi in the North. Temple on the banks of Ganges was the only pointer. They could not locate it and arbitrarily chose Joshir Mutt as the one.

The reason I wish to acclimatise the reader with this is because there are lot of inconsistencies with the Prabhandam itself. To get a round number of 4000, many hymns were condensed into one. Thirukurunthandagam, Periya Thirumadal and Siriya Thirumadal are all examples. So was the grouping of the 108 Thirupathis. For example, the shrine of Sri Varahar in Sri Moshnam was not sung by any alwar even though Thirumangai had visited and sung shrines 10 miles away. And it is one of the syamvrata kshetras which says that the Lord is syambhu like Sri Srinivasar.

The temple town of Kumbakonam was sung and resung by the 11 alwars but nobody even lay claim to Sri Rajagopalan of Mannargudi even though there is reference to a "kal sthambam" which is a solid granite second Dwajasthambam in the premises of the temple. We shall go over this when we talk about Kumbakonam.

This inconsistency comes to play at Kozhiyur enapadum Thiru Urayoor. There is not direct song for Urayoor. Expert analysts of the 4000 claim that a passing reference as "Kozhiyur" in a song sanctifying another divyadesam refers to Uraiyoor.

The reason behind going prolonged in this discussion is the hurt that I bear for there is no song in the 4000 glorifying Lord Varadarajar of Athigiri. No alwars had sung this Lord. As experts claim. There is a reference in another hymn as "athigiri arulalanukke". Which could only only only refer to Shri Varadar as we shall see but the claim was rejected.

But the Lord at Hastagiri could not be denied as the temple is one of the oldest and most sanctified of the temples in India and dates back to most alwars.

It is the third most important of all Vaishnavaite sthalas and is so because it is the pillar of Shri Vaishnava Sampradyayam. The Vadagalai philosphy was evolved and rooted here. Also the Vishistadvaitam of Shri Ramanuja. We shall learn more of the temple in the next blog.

Adipaninthen Athigiri Arulalanukke!!!