Listen! Krishna is playing the flute
PREMA NANDAKUMAR
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Today is the birthday of Periazhwar, poet who pioneered the Pillai Tamizh genre. A tribute.
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DIVINE MUSIC: Lord Krishna.
Tamil literature speaks of 96 kinds of poetry, `Pillai Tamizh' being one of them. In this poetic composition, the childhood, boyhood and youth of a hero or a god is described. There are also poems about goddesses like Meenakshi and Andal. To Periazhwar (7th century), goes the credit of creating this genre.
Born in Srivilliputtur in the Tamil month of Ani under the Swati asterix (which falls on July 16 this year), Periazhwar (Vishnuchitha) tended his garden, offered garlands to the deity of the local temple and led the life of a pious Brahmin.
He won a contest in the court of the Pandyan King Vallabhadeva for expounding the Vedas. Periazhwar was not a scholar as such, but was blessed with an aesthetic approach to life and had the gift of making gracious poems in simple Tamil.
On his winning the contest, the King honoured him in a very big way and arranged for a public procession.
Taken around the Madurai city on a caparisoned elephant, Periazhwar had a vision of Narayana and Lakshmi. He immediately "blessed" the Divine Couple with a hymn revered as the opening strains of the Nalayira Divya Prabandham.
In the course of 12 verses, the "Pallandu" projects the central ideal of Sri Vaishnavism which lies in becoming a perfect servant of the Lord.
ON HAMSA MOUNT: Periyazhwar
Krishna's childhood
Most of his 473 verses in Divya Prabandham, collectively known as "Periazhwar Tirumozhi" speak of the early years of Krishna. Periazhwar was no doubt a keen reader of Vishnu Purana (third century), which gives us a glimpse of the birth of Krishna in the prison in Mathura, his growing up in Gokula and his killing of Puthana and other demon forces.
In Periazhwar's hymns, little Krishna is rocked in the cradle, he is bathed by Yasodha who combs his hair and shows him the moon in the sky, feeds him, decorates him with flowers. Krishna grows up into a mischievous boy, drinks up the milk and curds stored in other houses, and is loved by all the wives of the cowherds though they cannot stop complaining about him either.
These verses on Krishna conclude with some of the finest pictures of Krishna playing the flute in the forest.
The Vishnu Purana refers only to Krishna's singing, and not flute-playing in the fifth Amsa immediately after the Govardhana episode. But Periazhwar has, probably for the first time, described Krishna's flute-playing in 10 mellifluous verses. Down the centuries, the Lord's flute-play imaged by Periazhwar has been a powerful icon to draw the devotees to the Divine Personality.
One is naturally reminded of Sarojini Naidu's classic, "The Flute-Player of Brindavan," which brings out the agonising ecstasy that keeps the devotee in thrall:
"Why didst thou play thy matchless flute
`Neath the Kadamba tree,
And wound my idly dreaming heart
With poignant melody,
So where thou goest I must go
My flute-player, with thee?"
Periyazhwar's verses on the impermanence of the physical frame of man and the need for meditating upon the Lord at all times give a rare assurance of mental well-being because of their spiritual content as well as exquisite imagery, and their very positive outlook.
It would be no exaggeration to say that the verses of Periazhwar can be used in counselling of sick patients with great profit.
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