A Day In Ananthalwan Thirumaligai

A day in AnanthAzvAn’s Thirumaligai at Thirumalai

Sri Thirumalai AnanthAzvAn Avathara Ustavam Celebrations At ThriumalA on 2nd March 2008 This is a small report on Sri Ananth Alwans Avathara Usthavam on celebrated on 2nd March 2008 at Ananth Alwans Thirumaligai at ThriumalA Hills. The Visual treat of this function and also report is already presented to you by Sri Vanamamalai Padmanabhan Swami. But I thought I will also contribute a little. The report is as under. Thirumalai Ananth Alwan was born in a place known as Sriruputtur (Present day it is known as Kirangur) near Melkote and Srirangapattinam on the Constellation of star Chithirai in the month of Chithirai. He is considered as an Amsam of Adisesha. It is said just as Lord Took the form of Nara and Narayana in Badrikashrama as Disciple and teacher respectively, similarly Adisesha also took the form of Ramanuja and Ananth Alwan .He became the disciple of Bhagavath Ramanuja and he was deeply attached to Bhagavath Ramanuja. One day When Acharya Bhagavath Ramanuja was doing the Kalakshepam on Thiruvai Mozi of Nam Alwar and he was referring to Enthai Thanthai verses ,about the flowers worship of Lord of Thiruvenkata Hills etc and He wanted one of his disciples to go to Thiruvenkata Hills and do Pushpa Kainkaryam to his Lord ,none of the disciples volunteered due to prevailing condition at Thirumalai in those days.( Climatically it was very cold , it was dense forest infested with wild animals etc. seeing nobody coming forward our Thirumalai AnanthAzvAn undertook to settle down at ThriumalA and perform Kainkaryam there to ThriuvEnkatamudaiyAn at the behest of Sri RamAnujA. Acharya was so pleased that he hugged him and told neer Alavo An Pillai (Anantha the Man) and he was known as Thirumalai AnanthAnpiLLai. As is known the relentless kainkaryam Sri Anantha piLLai rendered to ThriuvEnkatamudaiyAn made EmpeurmAn to appear him before a boy and play with him. It is said that the Lord used to have conversation with him. The crow bar which Sri AnanthAzvAn used is still placed near the temple entrance ( I have placed the Pic of it in the last page). ThriuvEnkatamudaiyAn visits Sri AnanthAzvAn thOttam two days in a year. One on the ThriuvAdip pUranm day and one at the fag end of the brahmOtsavam. On this day EmpeurmAn goes anticlockwise -bAk savAri ( APradakshina , this to commemorate the crow bar incidence) . This year the 954th Avathara Usthavam (That is the day when Ananth Alwar landed in Thirumalai) of Sri Thirumalai AnanthAzvAn was celebrated in a befitting manner at ThriumalA on 2nd March 2008 at Ananth Alwan garden and thirumaligai (The place where Ananth Alwan Lived ). The AnanthAzvAn clan are taking great efforts in organizing this celebration year after year. Sri TAP RangAchAri, Sri TAP kASthuri, Sri TAP Govinda SVAmi, TAP NArayan Presently Dy. E O in Alamelumangapuram (Thiruchanur). Sri TAP kASthuri Svami and all the people from the families deserve special mention. The TTD officials support this in a great manner Especially Present E O Sri Ramanchari Garu who has shown special interest unfortunately could not grace the occasion due to some personal work at Hyderabad.

To arrange anything in Thirumala is not an ordinary task. Things have to be moved from to ThriumalA right from groceries to all and sundries.

I was invited by Sri T A P Kasthuri Svami to attend the event , Kasthuri Swami asked me to come on 1st march Saturday itself , but due to Loukikam I could not go , but I reached Thirumalai on 2nd Morning and I was received by Sri Kasthuri Svami and he took care of me and made me feel at home. I took bath and as usual I was armed with my camera and Digital recorder to capture the event. Then function was going to start. First arrived The Chinna Jeer of Thirupathi Peda Jeer mutt, Kasthuri Svami introduced me to him and he blessed me, After some time arrived our Embar Jeeyar from SriPerumpudhur, i went and took his blessings, He blessed and me and told nam enam vandu vitatha ( Means he was a journalist before ascending the peetam of Embar Mutt and I had the privilege of capturing his picture and his interview when he had ascended the peetam and i was the first person to get an opportunity to click his photo and publish in the internet community). Then at 9.30 AM sharp the grand seer H H Peda Jeer of Thirupathi Peda Jeer Mutt came and he was received with Poorna Kumbha honors. Then he came to Brindavan of Ananth Alwan and the function started with Veda Goshams , Then J E O Sri Balaramaih Garu arrived and he was received with Poornakumbha Mariyada. Before that itself Prof.Sarvotham Rao, who is special Officer of Alwar Divya Prabhandam Project (Under TTD),& Dr.Chillaka Patti Vijayaraghava Charulu who is the secretary of Hindu Dharma Prachara Prarishad and Co-Coordinator of TTD Publication wing arrived along with their other staff members. Then Sri Sheshadri Svami, Manyakarar of famous ThriuvEnkatamudaiyAn temple came with temple honors for Ananth Alwan. Ananth Alwans Brindavan where he is still living with us in the form of Magizam tree was accorded the temple honours. Dr. M A Venkatakrishnan Svami and Prof Sarvotham Rao took over the mike and function started. Then by the time the HH Sri VaradHa YethirAja Jeeyar SVAmi of SriPerumpudhur ( A former Wing Commander from Indian Air Force in Poorva ashram) arrived in spite of his ill health. The stage was glittering with the luminous presence of all four Jeers and i am given to understand previously Eight Jeers used to grace the occasion. Then a request made by Anantha Alwans admirers to TTD board during last year celebration a request to bring a book on Life History of Anantha Alwan , which was fulfilled this year. Prof.Sarvotham Rao made this possible even though the time was very short and he brought Ananth Alwans life history in English, Tamil, Telgu, Kannada and Hindi. Then JEO Sri Balaramaih and all the four yathis relased the 5 books on Ananth Alwan in five different languages. Then The Veda Parayana under the patronage of H H China Jeer ( As Peda Jeer had to go back due to other commitments) continued and in the Anantha Alwan Thirumaligai in the first floor there is Auditorium. The Upanyasam started there ,First HH Sri VaradHa YethirAja Jeeyar SVAmi of SriPerumpudhur gave discourse about Ananth Alwar,Then H H Embar Jeeyar from SriPerumpudhur gave discourse Then H H UpanyAsakAs from various places graced the occasion including Sri K B Devarajan svami,Sri AkkArak kani Sri Nidhi sVAmi,Sri E S Sriram Svami , Sri T C S Ramanujam

Svami, Dr.M A Venkatakrishnan svami and i would like to make special mention that Mrs. M A Venkatakrishnan gave a beautiful discourse and she was the only woman Upanyasaka, Sri ThirukOshtiYur MAdhavan SVami gave a very fine upanyasam and he gave lot of information about Udayavars stay in Thirumala and how the nomad from Andhra came to Thirukoshtiyur few days ago and were singing ballads in Telgu about the Bhagavath RamAnujA etc and he informed us many unknown fact told by those nomads from Andhra Pradesh. Dr.Chillaka Patti Vijayaraghava Charulu also Spoke and told that Today Tirupathi is Synonym with Ananth Alwan. It was because of Daring Ananth Alwan and his Kaniknaryam Tirupathi is famous. He told E O sir has helped a lot for this Usthavam to take place.And since he had some urgent Personal he had to rush to Hyderabad, otherwise he was to preside over the function. He told he will suggest to E O sir to celebrate the Ananth Alawans Usthavam on Monthly Basis also that is every Month on Chitrai Nakshatra. And if possible allow all the sri Vaishnavas assembled for the same to have special Darshan of Lord thirvenkataudayan Special efforts were made to invite various exponents of aruLicheyal chanting from variosu divya desam-s namely ThiruvallikkEANI, Sri perumbUdhur, kAnchipuram, Sri Rangam, Sri Villiputhur, Madurai, mEalkoTe whose presence made the grand celebrations possible. Special mention has to be made of Sri KaNNAmani svAmi, Sri TA Bakthi SAran, Dr.M A VenkatakrishNan svami whose efforts made this all possible. The contributions from the family, trusts and individuals and small small contribution from TTD made this all possible. The presence and support of Sri Peirya JEyar svAmi and Sri Chinna JEyar svami cannot be summarised in words. Arulich cheyal chanting commenced at 5 am on 2.3.08 select pasuram-s mostly relating to ThriuvEnaktamudaiyAn were chanted from iyaRpA, mudhal Ayiram and Periya Thirumozhi. Thiruvaimozhi, irAmanusa NUTRandhAdhi and upadEsa RethinamAlai was chanted completely. The rendition of ThiruvAimozhi in a clear and gradual manner was indeed very pleasing. Every thing has to end so the function with Prasadam distribution it ended. I have a special appreciation for H H Chinna Jeer Swami who came at 8.30 Am and without any food and water he sat through the whole function till 5 Pm when function ended. I should mention that Sri T A P Kasthuri took special care of me and asked me whether i wanted to have the darshan of ThriuvEnkatamudaiyAn , I told i am coming next week fro Kalyana Usthavam on 8th March so i will see the Lord at that time as i had to catch the bus in the night. Then He told wait till 6 PM as Uthsavar will come near Ananth Alwans Thirumaligai during Veedhi Purapadu after Shahasra Deepa Alkara Seva. Yes at sharp 6 pm svami arrived along with the Ubhayanachiyar 0ars and I clicked a few Photographs. (I now realised why Uthsava and Moola moorthy concept is there. ) For people like us he comes out and gives darshan. Before taking leave Sri Kasthuri gave me Holy Laddu, Vadai, Akshathai,The rare Sripadha Renu, and holy Thirumanjana Theertham ,and a Book on Ananth Alwan Written by his fore fathers ( Not the one brought out by TTD) . The Jeyar svami, upanyAsakas and the adhyApakars were honored with due respects. Let us hope this great Kainkaryam continues year on year basis.

Banner of Avatharausthavam

Ramanuja Pushkarni at Ananth Alwan Thirumaligai

Ananth Alwan Thirumaligai

Tirupathi Chinna Jeeyar with Kasthuri Swami with Specs and Decendant of Ananth Alwan) in Left and sri Bhakthisaran in right

Embar Mutt Jeeyar - Sriperumpudhur and Tirupathi Chinna Jeeyar

Ananth Alwan Brindavanam and Magizam Tree where Ananth Alwan Breathed his last and it is considered as he is still alive and living in the magizam tree

Manyakarar - Sri Sheshadri Swami and Pedha Jeeyar Swami of Tirupathi

JEO Sri Balaramaih Releaseing the Ananthalwan Book in English

Peda Jeer and Chinna Jeeyar releasing book in Tamil and Telugu respectively

Embar Jeeyar and Yathiraja mutt jeer of SriPerumpudhur releasing book in Hindi and Kannada Respectively

Sri Sarvotham Rao of TTD honouring Sri kasthuri Svami Decendant of Ananth Alwar family

Malayappa Svami after Sahasra deepa Alankaram

Ananth Alwans Crowbar.