kOil kandhAdai appan

sri:
srimathE rAmAnujAya nama:
srimadh varavaramunayE nama:
sri vAnAchala mahAmunayE nama:

kOil kandhAdai appan – kAnchIpuram appan swamy thirumALigai

thirunakshathram: purattAsi (kanni) magam

thIrtham: kArthikai shukla panchami

avathAra sthalam:  srIrangam

AchAryan: maNavALa mAmunigaL

Works: varavaramuni vaibhava vijayam

Born in the illustrious family lineage of mudhaliyANdAn (who is called yathirAja pAdhukA – the sandals of the lotus feet of emperumAnAr), as the son of dhEvarAja thOzhappar and the younger brother of kOil kandhAdai aNNan, he was named srInivAsan by his parents. He goes on to become one of the dear disciples of maNavALa mAmunigaL.

When maNavALa mAmunigaL arrives to srIrangam from AzhwAr thirunagari, srI ranganAthan orders him to reside in srIrangam and nurture/nourish the sath sampradhAyam from the head quarters of our sath sampradhAyam. mAmunigaL then starts gathering all the pUrvAchArya granthams, documents them fully and performs grantha kAlakshEpam regularly. Being attracted towards mAmunigaL‘s divine glories, many persons (including AchArya purushas) come and take shelter of his lotus feet

Through the divine will of bhagavAn, kOil kandhAdai aNNan (a prominent AchArya coming in the lineage of mudhaliyANdAn) becomes the sishya of mAmunigaL and goes on to become one of the ashta dik gajas (eight prominent leaders appointed by mAmunigaL for sath sampradhAya pravarththanam) of mAmunigaL. When he comes to take shelter of mAmunigaL’s lotus feet, he brings along many of his relatives and all of them become sishyas of mAmunigaL. One such brother of him is kOil kandhAdai appan who is blessed by mAmunigaL at that time. From his thanian we can understand that he was fully situated in charama parva nishtai (serving bhAgavathas and AchAryas).

eRumbi appA (another sishya of mAmunigaL) highlights a beautiful incident in his pUrva dhinacharyA (a divine grantham narrating the daily activities of mAmunigaL) slOkam 4.

pArsvatha: pANipadhmAbhyAm parigruhya bhavathpriyau
vinyasyantham sanair angrI mrudhulau mEdhinIthalE

பார்ச்வத: பாணிபத்மாப்யாம் பரிக்ருஹ்ய பவத்ப்ரியௌ
விந்யஸ்யந்தம் சநைர் அங்க்ரீ ம்ருதுலௌ மேதிநீதலே

Simple translation: eRumbi appA to mAmunigaL – “Your highness is having your two dear sishyas (kOil aNNan and kOil appan) on either side and holding on to them tightly with your lotus like tender hands and walking with your tender (lotus) feet on mEdhinI (earth)”.

mAmunigaL with aNNan and appan on either side (portrait from appan swamy thirumALigai, kAnchIpuram)

thirumazhisai aNNAvappangAr, in his vyAkyAnam for dhinacharyA, highlights that here the two dear sishyas mean “kOil aNNan and kOil appan”. A question arises here – should mAmunigaL not be holding on to his thridhaNdam as it is said in pAncharAthra thathvasAra samhithai that ‘a sannyAsi should always be holding on to thridhaNdam’? aNNAvappangAr nicely explains this in a few ways:

• For a sannyAsi who is fully realised – if he does not carry his thridhaNdam for some reason – there is no defect.
• A sannyAsi who is in constant meditation of bhagavAn, who is well-behaved and who has properly heard the meanings of sAsthram from his AchAryas, one who is knowledgable in bhagavAth vishayam and one who has control over his own senses and the whole world – for such sannyAsis their thridhaNdam, etc., are not required.
• When prostrating before emperumAn fully, since the thridhaNdam may be a hinderance to perform such full prostration, he may not carry the thridhaNdam at that time.

Thus, we have seen some glimpses of the glorious life of kOil kandhAdai appan. He was very dear to mAmunigaL. Let us pray at his lotus feet that we too get a little bit of such abhimAnam of AchAryan.

kOil kandhAdai appan’s thaniyan:

varadhaguru charaNam varavaramunivarya ganakrupA pAthram
pravaraguNa rathna jaladhim  praNamAmi srInivAsa guruvaryam

வரதகுரு சரணம் வரவரமுநிவர்ய கநக்ருபா பாத்ரம்
ப்ரவரகுண ரத்ந ஜலதிம்  ப்ரணமாமி ஸ்ரீநிவாஸ குருவர்யம்

adiyen sarathy ramanuja dasan

Source: varavaramuni dhinacharyai, kOil kandhAdai appan thirumALigai thanians publication

archived in https://acharyas.koyil.org/index.php/, also visit http://ponnadi.blogspot.com/, http://sriperumbuthur.blogspot.com