Soon after that Murugan appeared and asked why Arunagiri had not started to sing Thiruppugalz. Arunagiri told Him that he would'nt know how to sing. Murugan told him to go to Vayaluur.
There, Murugan commanded him again. Arunagiri said he does not know about how to sing, what to sing, and how to start singing. Thereupon, Murugan told him to sing about His garland, peacock, cockerel, vEl, the twelve arms, feet, and thalam - residences.
He sang the song, 'pakkaRai vichithramaNi poRkalanaiyitta nadai...' and dedicated it to Vinaayagar of Vayaluur. Thus started a stream of unbroken songs of unequaled beauty and quality in the whole world.
Arunagiri's mission has to be viewed carefully from a proper perspective. Just a few centuries before his time, the ancient Tamil civilisation was destroyed. Although many cultural traits and religious traits continued, what was around was not the same as what was there before. The very social fabric of the Tamils was torn asunder by the Turkish invasions and occupations.
What displaced and substituted the Turkish onslaught was not Tamilian in any way. It was Kannara/Telugu domination. And the system was militaristic. Education, social values, patronisation of poetry and many arts went down the drain. Casteism raised itself in a very rigid form which was not there during the glorious rules of the Imperial Pandyas and Cholzas.
Hinduism became encrusted with orthodoxy, casteism, prejudice, and exploitation. The poor became over-oppressed. Might was Right. Most of the rulers were not interested in philosophy, fine arts, literature, and such like. Art forms changed. So also poetry and other literary forms. Institutional slavery and prostitution were forced upon a large section of an underprivileged and oppressed population. They were carried out in the name of holiness and religion. Casteistic hegemony and chauvinism ruled supreme.
People were indoctrinated to accept their less-than-animal-like pitiable existance in the name of fate, past births, karma, and other nonsensical filth and trash. The word of Brahmins was held more in esteem than the word of God Himself. It was all stinking conditioning, brainwashing, and Hinduism became very rigid with orthodoxy. Rituals were placed on a high pedastal. Gods had to be satiated with rituals which always incorporated a large number of varieties of compulsory donations to Brahmins.
Many of the valuable agamic, tantric, yogic, and siddhic scriptures were systemically destroyed by the so-called guardians of Hinduism. Whatever did not pander to the wims and benefits of Brahmins and Saivites was destroyed. Siddhas who had their own philosophies were painted a very bad picture. They were given a false picture of being atheists and half-mad men. Their philosophies were picturised as being unintelligible and confusing and misleading. They were branded as making men discard their household duties and forsake their dependants. All these falsehoods were spread by the matams and other orthodox religious institutions.
Any thing which was considered as sacriligious by the Brahmins was punished with the utmost cruelest forms of torture and death.
In short, the common man was terrorised beyond any measure of humanity. A very large portion of human beings were not even being given a humanistic love that was shown towards pigs, goats, cows, and chicken.
Not only was there rigid casteism, but there was also a lot of infighting between the various sects of Hinduism. The worst form of rivalry existed between Saivism and Vaishnavism. This was the prevailing environment of the times of Arunagiri.
The last major composition of sacred hymns, before Arunagiri, were made during the times of the Thevaram, and Divyaprabandam composers. A compilation of hymns was made a few centuries before by NambiyaaNdaar Nambi. After that Epic Poetry held sway. And that was almost a thousand years before the time of Arunagiri.
After so many years, Arunagiri performed that task against all odds. The others had dealt with Vishnu and Siva who were considered as major gods. But Arunagiri revived the traditions of Kaumaaram - Murugan worship - and tried to make it acceptable to all.
Kaumaram is a very ancient religion of the Tamilians.
Even Siva and Vishnu do not find that much of a mention in the Sangam Poetry as Murugan. Murugan has His own Paripadals, ThiruMurugaRRuppadai, etc. During the Age of Bhakthi, Siva and Vishnu were extolled more and theirs grew into major sects of Hinduism. Kaumaram became a part and parcel of Saivism. Murugan was relegated into being the 'iLaiya piLLaiyaar'.
Arunagiri also tried an amulgamation of the various sub-religions -
Saivam, Vaishnavam, Shaktham, and Gaanaapathyam.
He incorprated these gods in and extolled them in the Thiruppugalz songs.
We will see how he accomplished that Himalayan task.
The rivalry between Saivam and Vaishnavam was very notorious and atrocious. The adherents simply would not tolerate each other. They would find any slight opportunity to belittle each other.
Arunagiri Naathar heaped praises lavishly upon all the gods equally.
He would praise Vishnu in the best of the terms and devote a couple of verses to Him and then connect Murugan with Vishnu. He would praise the deeds and achievements and greatness of Vishnu and then say that Murugan was praised by such an eminent God; Or Murugan is such a great God's nephew. In another song, he would praise Siva and then connect Murugan with Siva. Thus also with Sakthi and Vinayagar. The general pattern of many of the Thiruppugalz songs is like that.
In those times, Sanskrit was considered as a holy language. It was supposed to be the sole possession of a particular caste. Scholasticity in Sanskrit by others was neither tolerated nor encouraged. Yet there were people who made themselves into scholars by going against all odds. But still, they could get nowhere because their proficiency or creations in Sanskrit was not appreciated nor recognised.
Arunagiri made himself proficient in Sanskrit and mixed it with Tamil in a Tamil-based framework, following Tamil grammatical rules and wove them into the masterpieces of Thirupugalz.
Thus he established equality for Tamil on par with Sanskrit. He does not follow the same pattern in the other works that he has composed. They are mostly Tamil with very little admixure of Sanskrit.
The times of Arunagiri were very cruel with frequent warfare. The warring parties ranged from Turko-Afgans and Mongols to Telugu-Kannarese. Under the Telugu-Kannarese, the land was parceled among war-lords who paid tribute and homage to another bigger war-lord. These bigger war-lords were under still bigger commanders called nayaks. The nayaks were under mandaleswarars who were directly responsible to the emperor. The whole system was militaristic.
The attitude of the rulers was very petty. So were their tastes. Epic poetry creation of high literary flavour, talents in the fine arts, etc., vanished. Everything was orientated to banter to the vims and fancies of the militaristic rulers and their crude tastes and lusts and passions. Arunagiri moved with the times.
He employed a ploy to attract the attention of the common people - especially the militarists and younger people. He employed eroticism to this purpose. He would describe prostitutes and intercourse and womanising at length and finally end up by saying that we must not be disillusioned by such things; instead we must turn our hearts towards Murugan and attain salvation from birth and death.
Many Thiruppugalz songs would seem to be of belonging to eroticism genre. But they only seem so. SiRRinbam just fades into the shades of pErinbam subtly. And that is the enequaled mastery of the Great Arunagiri.
The other speciality about Thiruppugalz is that it belongs to a specific genre of poetry called 'chandhak kavi'. It is highly rhythmic. Arunagiri has employed 96 diferent combinations of rhythms and beats. This makes it into a scintillating musical work. An it is pregnant with deep meanings.
These qualities among others, make it unique and very special. It is rather unfortunate that Thiruppugalz is not being given its due respect, regards, and recognition. Is it because it is difficult to pronounce? Too fast? Perhaps Arunagiri's birth?
We will come back to Thiruppugalz later.
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