SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama: SrI vAnAchala mahAmunayE nama:
avathArikai (Introduction)
When nAyanAr was asked “You said that this prabandham is equivalent to vEdham and its upabruhmaNams; there are certain qualities of such vEdham and its upabruhmaNams; are such qualities present in this too?” He responds “Just as there are many qualities for the samskrutha prabandhams matching that language, for these thamizh prabandhams, there are many such qualities matching this language”.
chUrNikai 69
udhAththAdhi padhakrama jadAvAkya panchAdhi pAdhavruththa praSna kANda ashtaka adhyAya amSa parvAdhyalankArangaL pOlE ezhuththu sIrp pandham adi thodai nirainirai Osai thaLaiyinam yAppup pAththuRai paN isai thALam paththu nURAyiram mudhalAna seykOlam idukkum uNdu.
Simple Explanation
Just are there are many qualities for the samskrutha SAsthrams, similar qualities are there for these thamizh prabandhams as well.
vyAkyAnam (Commentary)
That is – in saying udhAththAdhi, by the word Adhi (etc), anudhAththa, svaritha, prachaya are spoken about. These svaras starting with udhAththa and krama, jadA, praSna and ashtaka are specific to vEdhams. amSa, parva etc are specific to upabruhmaNams. In parvAdhi, Adhi indicates skandha etc. padha, vAkya, pAdha, vruththa, kANda, adhyAya are common to both vEdhams and upabruhmaNams. In SrI rAmAyaNam, kANda is seen as the primary division. Observe the division of adhyAya in upanishaths such as kauSIdhaki.
Thus, after explaining the qualities of vEdhams and their upabruhmaNams, subsequently the qualities of AzhwAr’s prabandhams are explained.
ezhuththu …
ezhuththu – ezhuththu includes 13 letters – i.e. short and long vowels.
asai – asai indicates nErasai and nirai asai.
sIr – sIr indicates 4 Asiriya urichchIr, 4 veNbA urichchIr and 4 vanji urichchIr, 16 common sIr, and 2 OrasaichchIr. Total 30 sIrs.
pandham … – Since thamizh scholars say that pandham and thaLai are the same, since both are mentioned here, one of those should be ignored, to avoid repetition.
adi – adi is 5 in number, viz kuRaLadi, sindhadi, aLavadi, nediladi, kazhi nediladi
thodai – mOnai, iyaibu, edhugai, muraN, aLabedai. In each of these, there are eight sub-categories. Thus 40 of those are there. And further, there are three more viz andhAdhith thodai, irattaith thodai and sendhodai, making it a total of 43.
nirai nirai – nirai nirai includes nEr nirai nirai, nirai nirai nirai etc.
Osai – Osai is 4 in number viz seppalOsai, agavalOsai, thuLLalOsai, thUngalOsai
thaLai – thaLai is 7 in number viz nEronRAsiriyath thaLai, niraiyonRAsiriyath thaLai, iyaRchIr veNdaLai, veNsIr veNdaLai, kaliththaLai, onRiya vanjith thaLai, onRAdha vanjith thaLai.
inam – Types of poem are 3 in number viz thAzhisai, thuRai and viruththam.
yAppu – yAppu means prabandham (literature).
pA – pA is 4 in number viz veNbA, AsiriyappA, kalippA, vanjippA.
thuRai – thuRai is the same as inam and hence repeated. If there is any other different meaning, please see there.
paN – paN includes mudhirndha kuRinji, nattabhAshai, nattarAgam, sendhiri, piyandhai, indhaLam etc
isai – isai is 7 in number viz kuRaL, dhuktham, kaikkiLai, uzhai, iLi, viLari and thAram which are also known as nishAdha, rishabha, kAndhAra, shatja, madhyama, dhaivatha and panchama.
thALam – thALam is gajakarNam, chOragathi, makaradhvajam etc as said in “gajakarNach chOragathir makaradhvaja thALaka: lakshmI kIrthi: pANipAdhau gaurI panchAnanas thathA, chathurAmnAya thALaScha thALOyam garudadhvaja: sangItha SAsthra vidhvathbirEthE thALA: prakIrthithA” (By those who are experts in music, gajakarNam, chOragathi, makaradhvajam, lakshmI kIrthi:, pANi, pAdham, gaurI, panchAnanam, chathurAmnAyam, garuda dhvajam are said to be thALams).
paththu – paththu (decad) is sub-divisions in nURu (centum) similar to adhyAya (chapter) etc which are sub-divisions in amSa, parva etc, and is the thiruvAimozhis (decads) as said in thiruvAimozhi 9.4.11 “ippaththum” (these 10 pAsurams), thiruvAimozhi 5.5.11 “ivai paththum” (these 10 pAsurams).
nURu – Just as the main divisions such as amSa, parva, kANda etc, the multiple collections of 100 pAsurams in each of which is known as nURu as said in thiruvAimozhi 9.4.11 “nURE sonna” (spoken in hundreds) and thiruvAimozhi 6.7.11 “paththu nURu” (ten hundreds).
Ayiram – Ayiram is the great division (rather collection) as said in SrI rAmAyaNam bAla kANdam 4.2 “chathuvimSath sahasrANi SlOkAnAm” (vAlmeeki muni composed 24000 SlOkams).
mudhalAna – Since nAyanAr has said mudhalAna (etc), that indicates, the other special classifications such as how the first three centums explain the meanings of the second part of dhvayam, the next [middle] three centums explain the meanings of the first part of dhvayam, the next three centums explain the meanings which are necessary to understand dhvayam, and the final centum speaks about the attainment of the goal, are meant to be explained.
mudhalAna seykOlam idhukkum uNdu – As said in thiruvAimozhi 4.1.11 “seykOlaththAyiram” (thousand pAsurams decorated to perfection), the thousand pAsurams have no shortcomings with respect to the decorations for poems, and hence these thousand pAsurams are also well decorated with the necessary qualities.
adiyen sarathy ramanuja dasan
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