‘Atrupadai’ is a genre of literature in Tamil, where a poet, who has received gifts from a generous patron, is magnanimous enough to guide others to the patron. Tirumurugatrupadai is a work by Nakkeerar. Here the poet guides everyone to Lord Shanmukha, elaborated Raghu Bai, in a discourse.
The story of how the poem came into existence shows how Lord Shanmukha always comes to the rescue of those who believe in Him. Nakkeerar was doing penance on the banks of a river. A leaf fell into the water, and the sound disturbed Nakkeerar. He opened his eyes, and found that the portion of the leaf that was in the water had turned into a fish and the portion that was on land had turned into a bird. Each was pulling the other. A demon then appeared before Nakkeerar and said he had to pay the penalty for having broken his penance and for having allowed his attention to drift. The penalty, said the demon, was that Nakkeerar would become the demon’s prisoner. The demon then took Nakkeerar to a cave and imprisoned him there. In the cave, Nakkeerar saw 999 other men, all of whom had been imprisoned by the demon. The demon had decided to kill and eat all of his prisoners, only when the number of prisoners touched thousand. Now with Nakkeerar’s entry into the list of prisoners, the count had gone up to thousand. So the other prisoners began to weep when Nakkeerar was brought to the cave. When Nakkeerar heard of the demon’s plan, he composed verses in praise of Lord Shanmukha. The cave in which they were imprisoned shattered; Lord Shanmukha killed the demon and the prisoners were saved.
Recitation of the Tirumurugatrupadai will yield manifold benefits.
