Vageesh Express

Deity of the Month

Thiruvilayadal of Sundareswarar

The next three articles in the ‘Deity of the Month’ segment will be devoted to Siva. In Madurai, he is called Sundareswarar, or, ‘Handsome Lord’. He married Princess Meenakshi of Madurai, the daughter of Pandian King, who is also an avatar of Parvathi. Sundareswarar liked Madurai very much. Hence he played with his devotees to show to the world their selfless devotion. In addition, he wanted his devotees to get a personal touch of their Lord. Such playful incidents are called ‘Thiruvilayadal’, or ‘Holy plays’. One such important Thiruvilayadal is described this month.

Pot of gold for Darumi:

Once a Pandian King was with his queen in the garden. He smelt a fragrance emanating from the queen’s hair and asked his queen what she had done to it. She told him that she had done nothing special. This made the King think. Normally there is no scent to hair. If so, how could the fragrance emanate from his queen’s hair? He wanted to find the answer. He declared in his Durbar without explaining the question in his mind that if anybody answered his question in poetic verse, he would give the peson a pot of gold.

There was poor Siva devotee in Madurai named Darumi. He neither any special skills, nor any good job. However he found pleasure in calling himself a poet. His wife could not stand his self-praise. She asked him to write a poem that clarified the king’s question, get the pot of gold and get rid of the poverty. Until then, she told him, he would not get any food.

Darumi was saddened and went to the Meenakshi temple and prayed with true devotion to Sundareswarar to solve his problems. Sundareswarar appeared as a wise man, listened to Darumi’s problems, and recited a poem. He told him that since he did not like riches, it was alright for Darumi to read his poem as his own and get the pot of gold if he wins.

Darumi was very happy and went to the king’s court. When he read the poem, the king was very pleased and told him that the question in mind was answered and Darumi may have the pot of gold. However, chief poet in Pandian’s court, Nakkeerar, diagreed with king’s decision saying that the king should not present a pot of gold to a poem which is incorrect.

Darumi was heart broken and went to the temple and cried in front of Sundareswarar. The Lord appeared again as the wise man and Darumi described what had happened in the King’s court. Sundareswarar became angry and went to the court with Darumi and he questioned the validity of the objection to the poem. Chief poet Nakkeerar told that Darumi had described that a women’s hair had natural fragrance, which was not correct and therefore did not deserve a reward.

Sundareswarar countered saying that the hair of a chaste woman had fragrance. Since the queen was chaste, the description fit her. At that point Nakeerar told that even the mother of the world, Parvathi Devi, does not have natural fragrance in hair hair.

Hearing such an arrogant reply, Sundareswarar become very angry and opened his third eye. Nakkeerar responded with conviction that even if the wise man were Lord Sundareswarar himsel, the mistake in the peom was a mistake and that he would not recant. Unable to bear the heat of Lord Sundarewarar’s third eye, Nakkeerar fell into ‘Potraamarai’ tank of Meenakshi temple crying, ‘Mother Meenakshi, please save me!’.

At that time, Meenakshi appeared and protected Nakkeerar from Sundareswarar’s wrath. Nakkeerar apologized to Meenakshi for his arrogance. At that time, Sundereswarar said that he had wanted to play with his favorite poet Nakkeerar in the worthy Tamil language and that he had used Darumi as a tool. He also indicated to him that he appreciated his conviction for what he believed.

Let us pray to Sundaresar and Meenakshi to give us knowledge, humbleness and steadfastness amidst difficulties.

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