The story

The second of Sri: Yamunacharya's three unfulfilled vows was the preservation and exposition of the Dravida-a:mna:ya — Nammalvar's Thiruvaymozhi, the Tamil Veda. Sri: Ramanujacharya discharged this charge twice over: he learned the Thiruvaymozhi directly from Ma:la:dhara (Thirumalai A:nda:n) and from Para:nkusa-da:sa (Thirumalai Nambi) — the naama ma:la:dha:ryasujna:thadra:vida:mna:yathaththvadhiye: (#40) commemorates this reception — and then ensured that it would be set in writing for every generation that came after.

The disciple he chose for that labor was Thirukkurukaippira:n Pililia:n. The Guruparampara Prabhavam and Govindacharya's biography agree on the closeness: Pillan was born in Alvar Thirunagari, the very village of Nammalvar, and was regarded by Sri: Ramanuja with such affection that tradition names him the acharya's ma:nasa-putra — mind-born son. He grew up steeped in the Tamil verses and in the acharya's oral expositions of them.

Under Sri: Ramanuja's direction, Pillan composed the A:ra:yirappadi — the "six-thousand pada" commentary on the Thiruvaymozhi. The scale of the work is what the name records: its prose extent, measured in the traditional pada unit, is six thousand. It was the first systematic Tamil vya:khya:na on Nammalvar, and it opened the door through which every subsequent commentary — Nanjeeyar's Onbadhinaayirappadi, Periyavachan Pillai's Irupattunaalaayirappadi, Vadakku Thiruvidhi Pillai's Muppatthaarayirappadi — passed.

Without Pillan's labor, the a:mna:ya-va:k of the Alvars would have remained an oral inheritance alone, fragile in the face of centuries. With it, the Tamil Veda was given a written tradition of commentary equal in standing to the Sanskrit Vedanta-vyakhyanas. The naama ma:la:dha:ryasujna:thadra:vida:mna:yathaththvavid — "he whose intellect grasped the truth of the Tamil scripture well, learned from Ma:la:dhara" — though spoken of Sri: Ramanuja himself, flows outward through Pillan to the entire vya:khya:na tradition that followed.

Sri: Ramanujacharya's related naama, vararanga:nukampa:ththadra:vida:mna:yapa:raga:ya (#39) — "one who became a master of the Tamil scripture through the compassion of Sri: Ranganatha" — names the grace that made the whole lineage possible.

Contemplation

A tradition's survival depends on the written word almost as much as on the breath of the acharya. Sri: Ramanujacharya did not keep the Thiruvaymozhi as a private treasure; he arranged, through Pillan, that it would be fully expounded and preserved so that the devotee in any century — including our own — could enter its meaning. The contemplation for us is that the Lord's name in our mother tongue is not a lower form of scripture, but veda in its proper sense, worthy of the same exegetical labor. Offer the 108-chant of this naama for those who labor to translate, teach, and preserve the dravida-prabandham for the next generation.