R: Arunagirinathar

[nas_ng at lms420.jsc.nasa.gov]

5/1/96
            Arunagirinathar 
           ****************

Sujata Ghosh asked for some references.

K. Zvelebil, Arunagirinathar - Confessor of beauty
New Orient, v. 4, no. 5, p. 155-156, Oct. 1965

He also write a paper on shaktic features of Arunakiri's bhakti
and of course, a chapter in "The Smile of Murugan".

The only other serious Western study is:
Fred Clothey, Quiescence and Passion, the vision of Arunakiri,
Tamil mystic. Madurai university, 1984, 159 p.
(available in many US universities.)
It is very badly printed with many printing errors.

It has Kandhar Anubhuti translation and a nice essay on
how Tiruppukazh was found and edited.
Arunakiri's Kandhar AndhAti is much more difficult piece.
On the musical aspects of Arunakiri's songs,
many articles are in Jl. of Music Academy, Madras.

There are two good commentaries in tamil on the entire Arunakiri corpus.
One by Dr. V. S. Chengalvaraya Pillai, son of VadakkuppaTTu
cuppiramaNiya pillai who was the one who printed tiruppukazh.
Both the father and later the son (incidentally he was first M. A.
in tamil from madras univ.) labored their entire lives to print,
propagate, preserve tiruppukazh of aruNakiri.


M. Arunachalam, (was prof. of saiva siddhanta at bhu, benaras),
author of multivolume history of tamil literature in 3000+ pages
says that there are many manuscripts that escaped their attention.
If new efforts are made for a critical edition many more beautiful
Arunakiri songs set to 'tALam' - time measure can be found.

My hope is one day, French Institute at Pondichery will do that
monumental work with a team of tamil experts. Just like
their tEvAram edition. (Those connected with the institute:
Please pass on this message.)

N. Ganesan
nas_ng at lms420.jsc.nasa.gov