Nathamuni

  • srIman nAthamuni was born at Veera Narayana Puram near Kaatumannar Koil
  • One day He heard some devotees visiting his home town singing a few (11) Tamil songs starting with "aaraa amudhE adiyEn udalam" and ending with "... kuruhoor sadagOpan kuzhalil maliyach sonna Or AyiratthuL ippatthum, mazhalai theera vallaar kaamar maanEy nOkkiyarkE."
  • In the last line of that 11 pasurams it says "AyiratthuL ippatthum" meaning 10 among the 1000 pasurams
  • Sriman Nathamuni was greatly excited and enchanted with the exquisite beauty of the poems. He approached the devotees and asked them about the remaining 990 pasurams
  • Unfortunately, the devotees were unaware of any other poems besides the eleven they had just finished reciting. However, they suggested to Him that he may try enquiring in the town of thiruk kuruhoor, present day AzhwAr thiru nagari
  • srIman nAthamuni went to thiruk kuruhoor where he met srI parankusa dasa
  • From him, Sriman Nathamuni learnt 11 more paasurams called kaNNinuN sirutthaambu. These were composed by Madhurakavi AzhwAr and all 11 paasurams are in praise of kurugoor SatakOpan (NammAzhwAr).
  • sri Paraangusa daasar suggested that he repeatedly recite this great kaNNinuN sirutthaambu (sung in praise of Sri Sadagopan- NammAzhwAr) in the hope of pleasing the nammAzhvar. srIman nAthamuni took his advice sincerely and recited it about 12,000 times! It is said that nammAzhwAr was impressed with Sriman nAthamuni's persistence and appeared before him
  • nammAzhwAr was so impressed that he revealed to srIman nAthamuni not just the 1102 paasurams of his own "thiruvaay mozhi", but also all the rest of the paasurams composed by the other eleven AzhwArs collectively nearly 4000 pasurams.
  • One day srIman nAthamini was sitting in a temple and a lady came there are was singing deva ganam, srIman nAthamuni was very pleased with her talent and praised her and gave tIrtha prasAdam.
  • The lady said "Swamy atleast you were able to understand the deva gana the king of gangai konda chola puram did not understand and he did not apriciate it"
  • Hearing this srIman nAthamuni was so surprised and he went to the kings court with her and asked the king why he did not appreciate the lady.
  • The king said "Swamy I do not know deva ganam and no one knows deva ganam here it looks like you know it but how will we know that you really know it "
  • Then srIman nAthamuni asked the king to bring 4000 thAlams and asked the crowd in the court to play it and just listening to it srIman nAthamuni was able to tell the weight of each thAlam and king was surprised and surendered to srIman nAthamuni and the king also appreciated the lady and gave lot of gifts to her.
  • The king also gave lot of gifts to srIman nAthamuni but srIman nAthamuni refused to take them and returned back to vEra nArAyana puram.
  • While srIman nAthamuni was in vEra nArAyana puram 8 diciples (shishyAs) came and surrendered to srIman nAthamuni and requested him to take them as his students and srIman nAthamuni also accepted them as his shisyas. They are
    • uyyakkondar,
    • kurukai kavalappan,
    • nambi karunakara dasar,
    • yEru tiru udayAr,
    • thiru kanna mangai AndAn,
    • vanamAmalai dEvi AndAn,
    • uruppattUr Achan pillai
    • and sOgathUr AzhvAn
  • srIman nAthamuni thought all the rahasyas and divya prabhandam to his shishyAs and went into yoga. Learning that srIman nAthamuni is in yoga the king came and saw and felt blessed to be in that place.
  • srIman nAthamuni came out of yoga and told his shishyAs that he is not going to be in this world for long time and he asked kurukai kavalappan to spread the ashtAnga yoga that he thought him and asked uyyakkondar to spread the divya prabhandam, he called his son Eshvara muni and said "you will be blessed with a son and name him yamunai thuraivan" and also he instructed kurukai kavalappan and uyyakkondar to teach ashtAnga yoga and divya prabhandam to yamunai thuraivan (yAmunAchArya)