பக்கம்:சிவன் அருள் திரட்டு (தேவாரம் திருவாசகம் திருப்புகழ் திருஅருட்பா).pdf/19

விக்கிமூலம் இலிருந்து
இப்பக்கம் மெய்ப்பு பார்க்கப்படவில்லை

viii APPRECIATION During the first half of the 7th C.A.D. there lived in Tamil Nadu, Thirugnaanasambandar and Thirunaavukarasar and Sundarar followed them in the fag end of that century. They visited several shrines in Tamil Nadu followed by a crowd of sincere devotees, sang or improvised padigams or decads in praise of the presiding deity of those temples, worshipped the deities, relieved the distress of the people whenever needed, engaged themselves in social service, performed miracles and propagated Saivaism, almost leading selfless, simple and unostentatious life. The songs of those three Saints are called Thevaaram or garland of poetry to adorn the Lord with, (Thev means Lord and aaram means garland). Their songs were collected and arranged into seven Thirumurais (Books). The first three Books comprising of 388 pathigams form the songs of Sambandar, the next three comprising of 310 padigams are the songs of Thirunaavukarasar and the 7th having 100 decads are the songs of Sundarar. The eighth Thirumurai is Thiruvaasagam or the Divine utterances of Manickavaasagar. It has the unique greatness of having been written by the holy hand of Sivaa. Majority of scholars think that Manickavaasagar graced the world in the 8th C.A.D., while a few still hold the view that he preceded the Thevaaram Trio. Thiruvaasagam has attracted the attention of native and foreign scholars to a great extent and Dr. C. U. Pope was the pioneer European scholar to translate it into chaste and idiomatic English verse. Many Scholars of Tamil Nadu have also attempted to translate Thiruvaasagam and the best one is said to be that of Thiruvaasagamani Sri K. M. Balasubramanyam of Madras. The Kasi Mutt, Tirupanandaal has recently published an English rendering of Thiruvaasagam by Sri G. Van mikanaathan Pillai.