When Ranganayaki Thayar
shut the door on Lord Ranganatha
This
historic annual event dating back to the period of the origins of Araiyars was
re-enacted on the occasion of Panguni Uthiram last Friday morning at the Thayar
Sannidhi of the Ranganathaswamy temple in Srirangam.
Thayar’s anger
Ranganayaki
Thayar was furious. She had heard from her sources about Lord Ranganatha’s
secret trip to Woraiyur, earlier that week, to meet his beloved Kamalavalli
Nachiyar. To add fuel to fire, her sources also told her that he had presented a
ring at Woraiyur.
Clearly
she was upset and was waiting for an opportunity to express her disapproval of
his trip. And the opportunity presented itself on the morning of Panguni
Uthiram when Lord Ranganatha was to come and meet with her.
As
he tried to make a hurried entry into her Sannidhi just after 10am, she shut
the door on him. Shortly after, as he tried to make a re-entry, a fuming Thayar
directed her representatives to pelt the Lord and his representatives with
butter.
This
led to five rounds of debate inside the Thayar Sannidhi with Araiyars (Krishnan
and Sampath Kumar) representing Lord Ranganatha trying their best to defend the
Lord and his actions against the Pandaris (Sudarshan) representing Ranganayaki
Thayar.
Round 1
The
Araiyars began round one by putting forth the Lord’s defence that he had been
out for well over three hours that morning in the hot Panguni sun, listening to
the Vedic and Divya Prabhandham recitals of the Brahmins and providing darshan
to the devotees across the four Chitra and Uthira streets. He pleaded that this
was the reason for the delay and that it was only fair that she accepted his
garland and allowed him to enter her Sannidhi.
Pandaris
(who were assigned the responsibility by Ramanuja of taking care of Thayar) retorted
that this was poor reasoning and put him on the defensive by questioning if
providing darshan to devotees was indeed the real reason or if there was some
hidden agenda (indirectly pointing to the fact that he was actually out there through
the morning collecting money from the devotees to try and buy a ring to replace
the one that he had presented to Kamalavalli Nachiyar at Woraiyur)
Thayar
was surprised to find his eyes red, the hair disturbed, Thiruman not in the way
it usually is and even nail marks on his body. Thayar was insistent on status
quo being maintained – No one inside the Sannidhi should go out and those that
are outside should not enter her Sannidhi, she ordered through the Pandaris.
Did you go to Woraiyur
As
part of the second round of the debate, Araiyars defended the Lord saying that
he had spent sleepless nights protecting his devotees and that was the reason
for the red eyes. He had to go to the forest to fight the wild animals to
protect his devotees and the nail marks was a result of that fight. He had lost
his ring when Thirumangai Azhvaar, posing as a thief, attacked him in the
middle of the night and that he was still searching for it and was confident of
finding it back.
An
unconvinced Ranganayaki Thayar fired a fiery question at him sending shock
waves to the other side – ‘Did you go to Woraiyur.’
Where is Woraiyur:)
The
next round began with Ranganatha in all his innocence saying that he had neither
heard of nor seen that place. He contested that she was purposely trying to
insult him in front of everyone by naming some place that he had never even
heard of. This angered Thayar even further and she retorted that the Lord was
trying to create an illusion by hiding everything and that she had gathered all
the truth about his trip from her sources.
Lofty Promises
Pushed
back further in every round and completely exasperated with the negative response, Lord Ranganatha decided that it was now time to resort to promises
in an effort to convince her. He asked his representatives to draw her to his
side by telling her that the Lord was ready to promise on the Ocean, the Fire
and that he was even ready to put his hand inside the snake pit to prove his
innocence.
Ranganayaki
Thayar scoffed at these seemingly lofty promises saying that she is not the one
to be outdone by these. Making promises
was a well accepted practice to a truce when there was a fight between two
parties but Thayar expressed surprise at the kind of promises he has made.
Does
he expect the Serpant King on whom he resides all the time to bite him, she
extolled!!! She refused to allow him entry at the end of the fourth round as
well saying that he was trying to lure her back with such simple promises.
Climax
Araiyars
came back a fifth time with an emotional appeal from the Lord who was standing
at the entrance of the Thayar Sannidhi. ‘With the whole world watching him
being thus insulted, it is a matter of time before they scoff at her and that
all the blame for this public embarrassment of the Lord will have to be taken
up by her. He has tried to convince her in every possible way but she has
remained adamant and has refused to accept the flowers that he has presented
her with love and affection.’
Thayar
stood firm – ‘The Lord had done everything wrong but it now looked like he was
passing on the blame game and trying to make me feel guilty’ she argued.
Nam
Azhvaar who was a witness to the five rounds of intense debate for over an hour now
intervened and advised Thayar to not insult the Lord anymore and to save him
from further embarrassment. And as a
mark of respect to the greatest of the Azhvaars, Ranganaayaki Thayar at the
stroke of noon relented, ‘Lord, I accept you and
allow you inside my Sannidhi as reasoned out and directed by Nam Azhvaar.’
This
historic debate showcases to the world the beautiful relationship between a
husband and a wife, the difference of opinion and the fights that are an
integral part of a long relationship and the adjustments one has to make in a
relationship for it to succeed.
( A version of this featured in The Hindu Friday Review on 10th April)
1 comment:
Really good and really sweet :-)
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