Arunagirinathar

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Arunagirinathar was a Tamil poet who lived during the 15th century in Tamil Nadu, India. He was the creator of Tiruppugazh, a book of poems in Tamil in praise of the Hindu god Murugan. He was a prolific composer, who is believed to have composed over 16000 songs, of which only about 1330 remain today. His poems are known for their beautiful, flowing lyrics coupled with complex rhymes and rhythmic structures. Thiruppugazh is considered as one of the major works of mediaeval Tamil literature, both for its poetical and musical qualities, and for its religious, moral and philosophical content.

Early life

Arunagiri was born in Thiruvannamalai, a town in Tamil Nadu. His father died soon after his birth and his mother and sister brought him up in the rich cultural and religious traditions. Legends claim that Arunagiri was attracted to the pleasures of the flesh and spent his youth in pursuing a life of debauchery. He used to get money from his sister each time to go to devadasi's. His sister always give whatever she earned to make his brother happy. One day he demanded money from his sister, but unfortunately she had no money. She was very sad and said, "Oh brother, I am sorry that there is no money to give you today." Arunagirinathar shouted how its possible and he wanted money now to have pleasure. His sister then said "Brother, if you need to have pleasure then please come sleep with me, tomorrow I will get you the money somehow". Hearing that, Arunagirinathar felt how self centered and selfish he was. He decided to end his life, went to the temple hit his head in all the pillars and steps, begging for forgiveness. Then he leaped from the tower of Thiruvannamalai temple. He was however miraculously saved from the death by Lord Muruga who also transformed him to a holy saint instantaneously"^[1].
Arunagiri sang his first devotional song and thereafter decided to spend the rest of his life singing in praise of the god. He was a devotee of Lord Muruga and worshipped the God at Vedapureeswarar temple at the sacred place known as Cheyyar on the banks of the Cheyyar River.
His fame got the jealousy of chief minister of the Kingdom. He claimed Arunagirinathar as a false saint and not a true devotee of Lord Subramaniya. So the king arranged a public gathering and asked Arunagiri to show Lord Subramanya to others also. Arunagiri started singing songs towards Lord Muruga and soon after Lord Muruga appeared in a stone pillar in the form of child. He was so bright as equal to hundreds of suns and the people were unable to see this with their ordinary eyes. Due to this everybody lost their eyes including the king and ministers. It was suggested that bringing the Parijatha flower could only get sights back to the people. Arunagirinathar is said to have entered the body of a parrot in order to fetch the parijatha flower. His enemy Sambandan burnt his body & hence Arunagirinathar settled himself on the temple tower in the form of the parrot and sang his famous Kantharanubhuthi. There is a form of a parrot in one of the sthubis (Kili Gopuram), testifying to this story."^[2]

Songs

Arunagiri, rendered his first song Muthai Tharu... after the miraculous escape at Thiruvannamalai. Arunagiri visited temples all over South India and composed over 60000 songs. The songs show the way to the life of virtue and righteousness and set the tone for a new form of worship, the musical worship.^[3]

Retrieval

The Thiruppugazh songs remained in manuscript form for a number of years and ignored and forgotten. V.T. Subramania Pillai and his son V.S. Chengalvaraya Pillai of Tiruthani understood their value, retrieved them and published them.

In 1871 Subramania Pillai, a District Munsif, had the opportunity to hear a rendering of a Tiruppugazh song while he was on a tour of Chidambaram. Captivated by the song, he decided to set out on a mission to search for the entire body of Tiruppugazh songs. He toured all over south India, collected manuscripts, including palm leaves, assembled the texts and published them in two volumes, the first in 1894 and the second in 1901. After his demise, his son Chengalvaraya Pillai brought out a new edition of the songs.

See also

Thiruvannamalai

Notes

References

• Life History of Arunagiri by Kripananda Variar - Part 1 (in Tamil)
• Life History of Arunagiri by Kripananda Variar - Part 2 (in Tamil)
• Biography of Saint Arunagiri
• Saint Arunagiri by Guruji
• Arunagiri
• Arunagirinathar (15th century)
• Thiruppugazh - MP3
• Arunagirinathar - Sachi Sri Kantha
• You Tube videos about Arunagirinathar in Tamil Languague