3

3 3 3 2 3 1 3 3

3 3 ( 4 3 3 3

2 3

3 )

3 3 3

3- 1 3 3 3 3 2 ( 2 3 3 4 3 33 2 3 4 1 3 3 3 3 3 1 3

1 3 3 3 3 3: 2 ) 2 3 1 2 2 2 3

2 3 I seek Saundararaja who protected (Gajendra) the elephant in the forest which has a herd of elephants.*1 The royal one who was born as the son of Nanda. The royal one who has Nagapattina as His abode. The one who is the Lord of the beautiful Lakshmi The one who is worshipped by the Devas. The one who is the Lord of the earth. The one who has a smiling countenance on his lotus-face The one who bears the mandara mountain on the palm of his lotus-like hands. The one whose lotus-eyes brings joy The one who has the most beautiful lotus-feet The father of the enemy of Shambhara*2 The one praised by sages Shuka and Saunaka ; The one who was known by AmbarIsha ; The one who pleases the origin-less guruguha Who was praised by the one seated on a lotus (Brahma) The one who was well-worshipped by Indra, the lord of the devas The one who quelled the pride of sagara *3 The one who removes the sorrow caused by ignorance. One whose neck surpasses the beauty of the conch One who slayed the ten-headed Ravana One who was shrIkantha worshipped by Tumburu*4 One who is in Vaikuntha which is capable of removing the sorrow kshEtra - nAga paTTinam Notes: 1.Gaja - elephant bRnda - hordes / herds Avana - protect sAranga - This in general means a deer. But it can also be inferred to mean an elephant or a lion. Here Gaja BrndAvana sArangEndra can be intepreted as: gaja bRnda sAranga Avana varadarAjam - He who protected Gajendra who was the lion among elephants 2.Manmatha was born as Pradhyumna the son of Krishna and slayed the demon shambhara. Hence shambhara vairi is manmatha and Vishnu being the progenitor

of manmatha is shambhara vairi 3.Though contemporary references provide modern interpretations to this line implying it to be a geological phenomenon of the coastal region. This is most likely to be an allusion to Rama's quelling the pride of the samudra rAja preceding the building of the Sethu This argument is bolstered by the succeeding lines referring to dashakantha or Ravana. 4.ShrIkantha is generally an epithet referring to Shiva on account of his nilakantha. Here it can be interpreted to mean that Siva and Vishnu are the same or it can be interpreted to mean "beautiful-throated one worshipped by Tumburu".