Thiruvilaiyadal Puranam is a magnificent work in Thamizh language written by poet Paranjothi Munivar. It describes the sixty four episodes in which Lord Sivaperuman had exhibited His profound love and affection towards His devotees by donning different roles in order to alleviate their despair and grief. This He did through His limitless powers.
The Original work is a treat for those who can read and enjoy the Thamizh language. Here an attempt has been made to present those sixty four stories in simple English for the benefit of the younger generation of our family. Many of this generation do not have the proficiency in Thamizh either due to non-exposure to the beauty of the language or due to a default English-medium education.
The narration has been limited to only the story part of the original, leaving aside the enormous details of the literary nuances. Every effort has been made to keep the language simple. Paranjothi Munivar, the author is considered to have lived in the later part of 16th century or early 17th century. Being a devotee of Lord Sivaperuman he had been travelling to various shrines of Lord Sivan to worship Him and during the journey he reached the city of Madurai.
There he was instructed by Goddess Meenakshi to write this work for the benefit of the Thamizh literary world. He, with the unfailing support of Lord, did an excellent job of it and his work is graded as one among the three great Puranams in Thamizh. The work is entirely of verses and of three major parts called Kaandams. They are Madurai Kaandam, Koodal Kaandam and Thiruaalavai Kaandam.
These stories were said to have been narrated by Sage Agasthiar to a group of sages. Now you are invited to read on please Acknowledgments I thank the members of my family for their unflinching support in this effort. I particularly thank my daughters-in-law who assisted me in loading the manuscript into the system.
Madurai Kaandam
Episode 1: The story of how Indiran got rid of his sin One day, Indiran the head of Devas was in his Royal court at Indiralokam. All Devas had assembled there including many sages. Beautiful girls like Ramba, Urvasi and Menaka were presenting a grand performance of songs and dance.
The ambience was lovely and enchanting. Every one was thoroughly enjoying it including Indiran. At that time, Brahaspathi the guru of Devas came to Indiran’s court. Indiran who was totally lost in the mesmerizing performance of the beauties, failed to take notice of his guru’s visit. Resenting his indifferent behavior, Brahaspathi left the place at once. From then on, the beauty and prosperity of the Indiralokam started to decline. It was due to the disrespect shown to one’s guru.
Realizing his blunder, Indiran went about searching his guru to tender his apology. But he could not locate his guru. Crestfallen, he approached Brahma the Creator. Knowing what was going to unfold, Brahma advised Indiran to go to a demon called Vichuva uruvan (Viswarupan in Sanskrit). Vichuvauruvan was the son of Dhuvatta, a demon priest. Vichuvauruvan always despised Devas. When Indiran approached him, he said that a particular Yaaham had to be performed to restore the past glory of the Indiralokam.
Indiran readily agreed and made all arrangements. During the course of the Yaaham, Vichuvauruvan covertly sought the welfare of the demons in his mind but pretended to seek the welfare of the Indiralokam. Realizing this foul- play, Indiran became very angry. In a fit of rage, he killed Vichuvauruvan. From that very moment, Indiran was caught by brahmahathi dhosham (the sin of killing unarmed person).
