Dhandapani: Murugan Bhakti discussion group

Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 11:35:33
Subject: [dhandapani] Re: looking for mantras for Murugan bhakti

In dhandapani@yahoogroups.com, "oxaveret" oxaveret@yahoo.com wrote:

"Hello, I'm first time in this discussion group. I would like to hear more what kinds of mantras, bhajans, slokas, etc. are used for Lord Murugan bhakti. I know a few like "Om Sharavana Bhavaya Namaha"; maybe few more, but maybe someone knows a LOT more..."

Moderator: "Hello oxaveret - and WELCOME to this group!"

"There are literally 100's of 1000's of works dedicated to Lord Murugan in Devotion (or Murugan Bhakti)."

"There is the "Tirumurugatrupadai" of Nakeerar that dates back to the Sangam Age! And then there are the various Tevaarams (although mostly songs praising Siva, there are quite a bit that praise Lord Murugan, especially the ones by Tirujnanasambandar (Dravida Shishu)), and you have the massive and the MOST PROFUSE work of all - the Tiruppugazh by Saint Arunagirinathar, who is believed to have sung around 16,000 songs! in various temples of Lord Murugan - sadly just over 1000 remain today.

Then there is the Skanda Puranam of Bhagavan Sri Vedavyasa - which dates back the Vedic Ages - it is the BIGGEST purana of all - All the 18 main puranas comprise of 4,00,000 slokas in whole, of which Skanda Purana alone has 1,00,000!

Then there is the Kanda Puranam of Kanchi Kacchiyappa Shivachariyar, which is said to be one of the most vivid and accurate account of Lord Skanda. Kumaragurupara Swamigal, sung the Kandar Kali Venba - which is the small and simplified form of Skanda Puranam. And then Bala Devaraya, Prime Minister of Krishna Deva Raya of Vijaya Nagar Kingdom, sang the Kanda Shashti Kavacham Then as late as early 1900's to the mid 1900's Pamban Srimad Kumaragurupara Swamigal added his works to the enormus ocean of devotional songs / slokas dedicated to lord murugan with his "Shanmukha Kavacham" and "Kumarastavam"

Then coming to the musical side, one of greatest composers of all time "Sri Muthuswami Deekshitar" has composed many kirtanas in praise of Lord Murugan. In fact his first composition was composed at Tiruttani when Lord Murugan came in the form of an old man - "Thondu Kazham" and put some "kalkandu" (I dont know what that is called in English), in his mouth, and so flowed out the nectar of music from Muthuswami's tongue

Even Ilango Adigal has incorporated some murugan thuthi in his magnificient "Chilapathikaaram" - which goes

This was for the Tamil part. Coming to those in Sanskrit -

Jagadguru Sri Adi Shankaracharya composed the Subrahmanya Bujangam at thiruchendur - which is probably THE MOST famous sloka today.

Sri Agasthya Bhagavan has also composed many slokas in praise of Lord Murugan. Apart from this there are numerous slokas in the Shiva Puranam, Skanda Puranam and so on by Bhagvan Veda Vyasa.

Now coming to PRACTICALITY. If you visit Murugan.org - you'll find a 'links' page. There you'll find a link to Balu Aiyar's Thiruppugazh page which contains approximately over 100 Tiruppugazh songs in Romanised Tamil. So even if you don't know Tamil, no problem!

Apart from this, there is a collection of two books at http://in.geocities.com/arunagirinathar/ in the 'Texts' page. You can have a look at these resources.

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