Ganapathi, fondly called Pillayaar (Respected son) in Tamil is traditionally invoked for auspicious beginnings. So let’s do that for our Tamil Labs’ newsletter as well.
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So why is Pillayaar such a beloved deity in Thamizhagam, with every city, town and village having temples of varying size and scale dedicated to him? Let alone a temple, our Ganapathi takes even a tree shade as his humble abode because he loves this Thamizhagam that much.
Let’s see Pillayaar’s top 3 contributions to this Tamil speaking land.
Every great civilization in the world has been a river valley civilization. Only when food and water requirements are met, human beings can start thinking about higher needs – like art, culture and self actualization. Wasn’t it our Pillayaar who took the form of a crow at Kodagu to topple Agastya’s Gamandala and redirected river Kaveri’s route to Thamizhagam? Our Tamil civilization is primarily around Kaveri, and we have Pillayaar to thank, for that.
Some of the biggest temples of Bharat are in Tamilnadu. And some of the biggest temples in TN are in Chozha Naadu, around Kaveri. Temples are a direct byproduct of civilizational glory.
Of the 274 Shaivite Paadal Petra Sthalams, 190 (70%) are in Kaveri’s northern and southern shores.
Of the 106 Divyadesams on Earth, 40 (38%) are in Kaveri shores.
To top it all, the Ranganathar murthi, worshipped by Ikshvaku clan, and gifted by Sri Rama to Vibeeshana took firm root at Srirangam due to the playful and compassionate Vinayakar.
Crucial to remember this Pillayaar strategy in the times where political parties happily give away what’s rightfully ours to Lanka.
The third and most important contribution of Pillayaar is his help in discovering the Shavite Thirumurais. This is a delightful tale that’s a healthy mix of history and tradition. Let’s take a detailed look of this story in this newsletter.
Nambiyaandar Nambi and Polla Pillayar
Thirunaaraiyoor, a small village 20 km Southwest to Chidambaram houses a Paadal Petra Sthalam, Sri Soundareswarar Temple. The son is more famous in this temple than his father – and goes by the name Pollaa Pillayaar.
Some write it in Tamil as பொல்லாப் பிள்ளையார் which is incorrect and has a negative connotation. The proper spelling is பொள்ளாப் பிள்ளையார் meaning “unsculpted”. This is because this Pillayar murthy is believed to be a swayambhu murthy.
This temple’s priest from an Adishaivite family was blessed with a son and he was named Nambiyaandar Nambi. The young Nambi grew to be devout and accompanied his father for his temple duties.
One day, Nambi’s father had to go to a neighboring village and delegated the temple duties to Nambi. After completing the regular poojas in the temple, the young Nambi closed the screens and offered the nivedhanam to the Vinayakar and waited for him to eat.
The innocent child did not know that his father used to dedicate the offerings symbolically to the Lord and then took it back. The young devotee sincerely believed that the offering was for the real deity who would literally consume it, and kept waiting to no avail.
Nambi assumed there was some flaw in his pooja and started weeping. He kept pleading the deity to forgive him and eat the nivedhanam. Seeing no progress, Nambi started punishing himself by bashing his own head at the foot of Pillayaar. Pleased with the sincere devotion of the child, Vinayakar literally showed up and stopped Nambi from hurting himself.
Polla Pillayar ate the Kozhakattais and blessed the young Nambi. This miracle story started spreading across Chozha Naadu.
The Discovery of Thirumurais
King Rajaraja was ruling the Chola empire extremely well, but he felt something was amiss. He had heard some Odhuvaars singing a few Padhigams of Appar, Sambandhar and Sundarar. After sampling the divine honey that is Thevaaram, he wanted to compile all of these verses. But nobody knew the location of where the complete manuscripts of Thirumurais were present. Not one or two thousand, but more than 8000 palm leaf manuscripts with verses of the Samayakuravar were to be searched for. A national treasure, lost forever. Rajaraja wanted help in retrieving them. He knew its not a humanely possible task, and sought divine intervention.
Hearing the miracle of Nambiyaandar Nambi with Polla Pillayar, Rajaraja went to Thirunaaraiyur at once. The King then bowed before the child and requested him to seek information about the whereabouts of the lost treasures – the Thevaaram hymns – to Pollaa Pillayaar. With tears of devotion filling his eyes, Nambi worshipped the wise Lord to bless him with the information.
On Nambi’s request, Polla Pillaiyar, by way of a divine voice, said that the hymns were kept in a room in the Chidambaram Natarajar temple. On the door, there would be a symbol of hand to mark the spot. Pillayaar also disclosed to Nambi the total count – Sambandhar’s hymns were 16000, Appar's were 49000 and Sundarar’s were 39000, totaling over 1 lakh verses.
Because of this guidance, this Vinayakar is also praised as “Thirumurai Kattiya Vinayakar” (the lord who revealed the Thirumurais).
The king and Nambi went to the said spot with inside information from Pollaa Pillayar, and opened the ‘hand-marked’ door and were in for a shocker. They found that most of the palm leaf manuscripts were eaten by termites. Treasures lost to termites forever. What an anti-climax, thought Rajaraja, who started to weep.
An ashariri voice miraculously boomed – saying that “Don’t worry , dear King. Whatever hymns were not relevant for the current times, were consumed by time itself, and whatever remains will stand the test of time.”
So Rajaraja was consoled, and he gave the glorious voluminous task of compiling these hymns to Nambiyaandar Nambi himself. Nambi then compiled the 8000+ hymns of Appar, Sambandhar and Sundarar into seven Thirumurais.
Map Link to the Polla Pillayar temple: Temple
The takeaways
Nambi, the devotee, never gave up on his belief or conformed to “rational” norms. He kept pleading Pillayaar sincerely to accept his offerings. Unadulterated faith can cause miracles.
Rajaraja, the king, when he had an opportunity to pray for any miracle he wanted to Polla Pillayar, did not ask for material wealth, but spiritual wealth – Thirumurai hymns that open the door to Moksha.
Polla Pillayar, the god, is waiting to guide you, if only you are devout and sincere and to ask him what you want.
Time, the fatewatcher, consumes whatever it can, but something remains, that always stands the test of time. Sanatana Dharma – the eternal.
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