Devaraja

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

In a message dated 12/15/2000 6:40:15 PM Central Standard Time,
rsrin at PACIFIC.NET.SG writes:

> "Tiruvutal Mannare kaanal Tirumale Enrum" is
>  a famous Tamil eulogy to sing the praise of the king as "Seeing the king
>  walking is like seeing Vishnu walking".

This is not really a Tamil eulogy to sing the praise of the king. The correct
version of the above line is part of tiruvAymozi 4.4.8 of nammAzvAr.

tiruvuTai man2n2araik kANil tirumAlaik kaNTEn2E en2n2um
uruvuTai vaNNaGkaL kANil ulakaLantAn2 en2Ru tuLLum
karuvuTait tEvilkaL ellAm kaTalvaNNan2 kOyilE en2n2um
veruvilum vIzvilum kaNNan2 kazalkaL virumpumE

The poem follows the CT model of a mother's utterance about her daughter's
love for the hero who is tirumAl/viSNu here. What should interest Radhika
Srinivasan is not the first line but the third line and the use of tEvil and
kOyil. Also to be considered are the etymologies of iRaivan2 and kaTavuL.

Regards
S. Palaniappan