SUNDARAMURTI SWAMI

(Abbreviated as SUNDARAR)

THE third of these hymn-writers, named in full Sundaramurti Swami, was, like Sambandar, a Brahman. He was born in the South Arcot District, and is generally believed to have flourished in the first quarter of the ninth century A.D. He evidently sat loose to caste scruples, for neither of his two wives was a Brahman. One was a dancing-girl in the Saivite temple at Tiruvarur, the modern Tiruvalur in the Tanjore District, while the other was a Velala woman of Tiruvottiyur, now a suburb of Madras. His life seems to have been no happier than life in polygamy usually is, and to add to his difficulties he sometimes found himself without food for his ladies to eat. He frankly praised God for what he could get, and on the whole his hymns are on a lower spiritual plane than those of the first two writers, though there are some which bear the marks of real spiritual experience. Of the sixty-three saints whom Saivites hold in special honour, Sundarar seems to have been the last, for he sang the praises of the other sixty-two.

Sundarar, as our first sample of him shews, was not only later than the two authors whom we have been studying; he was the last of the sixty-three canonized saints of Saivism. A serious weakness of the religion here shews its head. Siva has his favourites, who can do no wrong. The stanza is given in prose, for these names cannot fit into any English metrical line. The first two will be recognised as names of the poets whose work we have been considering. Nalaippovan is Nandan, the pariah saint. Silandi (= spider) is Kochchengat Chola, who figures largely in early Tamil history.

65. Nanasambandar and Tirunavukkarasar, skilled in the Tamil tongue, Nalaippovan, learned Sudan, Sakkiyan, Silandi, Kannappan, Kanampullan, these may do wrong, but yet Thou count'st it right. Hence have I come to the sounding anklets of Thy feet, O lord of Tiruppungur with its pools where blossoms many a golden lotus gem.

To English ears the metre of the next two verses, which are common favourites, has a curious sound. It is a close reproduction of the Tamil, so close that the tune of the Tamil hymn could be sung to the English words.

66. Golden art Thou in Thy form, girt around with the fierce tiger's skin,
Fair shines Thy tangle of hair, crowned with blooms from the kondai's bright tree,
Sov'reign, great jewel art Thou, the red ruby of Malapadi,
Mother, on Thee, none but Thee, can my heart evermore fixed be.

67. Clad in the little loin-cloth, my body with holy ash white,
Lo I have come to Thy foot; O my head, I beseech Thee, take me.
Portion of sword-eyed Uma, Thou red ruby of Malapadi,
Friend, 'tis on Thee, none but Thee, can my heart evermore fixed be.