Sri Sankara Charitham by Maha Periyava – Patanjali Charitam

Patanjali Charitam

During the end of seventeenth century, Shaahaji, the king of Tanjavur, desired that there should be a separate village in his kingdom for learned people and therefore made arrangements for many scholars and poets to settle down in Tiruvisanallur and bestowed liberal grants to them.  The village was given as a complete grant to a total of 46 persons and remained as the knowledge capital.  Of them, was one Ramabhadra Deekshitar, a Poet.  A person of great merit.  Connoisseur. It is generally said that academic knowledge and literary abilities, do not go together.  However, this man excelled in both.  Owing to the expertise he had in grammar (Vyaakarana [व्याकरण]), he had earned the name, “Pratyagra Patanjali” [प्रत्यग्र पतञ्जलि].

Patanjali was the author of the Vyaakarana Maha Bhashyam [व्याकरण महाभाष्यम्].  His life story and the story of Gowdapada are intertwined.  “Patanjali Charitam” is written by Ramabhadra Deekshitar. The man who had written the “Patanjali Charitam” himself had the title, “Pratyagra Patanjali”, meaning ‘Present day Patananjali’.

While he had written beautiful plays as a poet, he was also a man with a heart of great piety. Particularly, he was extremely devoted to Sri Ramachandramurthy.  The play “Janaki Parinayam” [जानकी परिणयम्] that he has written, is very famous.  He has written several hymns, like, “Rama Sthava Karna Rasaayanam” [राम स्तव कर्ण रसायनम्], “Rama Chitra Sthavam” [राम चित्र स्तवम्], etc., with a novel imagination that is not found in any other Ramayana.  It is said that he had written the “Janaki Parinayam”, specifically to erase the misfortune of being branded by the northern Pundits that there are no people in the south who can write good theatrical treatises and thus established the greatness of the southern nation.

Our topic is his “Patanjali Charitam”.  It is a book containing eight chapters.

Just as we think of the inseparable and ardent devotee, Anjaneya Swamy, the moment “Rama” is mentioned, two names come to the mind when we say “Nataraja”.  Be it Nataraja’s deity or picture, these two people will be there on his either side. Terrifying to hear, they are only referred to as the “Snake and Tiger on either side” in the songs! One can observe in the pictures that one of them will be having half the body below the waist as that of a snake and the other, that of a tiger.  However, both of them are present there, not doing any harm to anyone, forever watching Swamy’s dance, with dedication in their eyes and heart. The man with the legs of the tiger is ‘Vyaaghrapaada’ [व्याघ्रपाद].  The name itself means that.  The person with the legs of the snake, Patanjali, is the hero of this side story.

One more of the Pundit-poets of Tiruvisanallur, Venkatakrishna Deekshitar, has written an epic, “Natesa Vijayam” [नटेश विजयम्], which explains the wonders of Chidambaram and Sriman Natarajamurthy.  There is a mention about Patanjali in that also, to some extent.  The “Patanjali Charitam”, written by Ramabhadra Deekshitar, with Patanjali as the protagonist and “Natesa Vijayam”, align with each other in many details.

It is mentioned in those books that Patanjali is an incarnation of Aadisesha.

Aadisesha belongs to Mahavishnu.  He serves as the cot for Bhagawan in the divine Milky Ocean (Thiruppaarkadal).  How did that staunch Vaishnava become a staunch Saivite and an inseparable devotee to Lord Nataraja?  Why did he, who was in the Milky ocean, come to Chidambaram?

The reason for that is found in brief in Natesa Vijayam and elaborately in Patanjali Charitam.

It is mentioned that Mahavishnu himself had sent Aadisesha like that.

In that case, what is the link between Mahavishnu and Nataraja?