Lyrics and Meanings of Devi Neeye Thunai

[laasya]

Can someone please give the meaning of Papanasam Sivan's composition devi Neeye Thunai?

[Lakshman]

dEvi nIyE. rAgA: kIravANi. Adi tALA.

P: dEvi nIyE tuNai ten madurai vAzh mIna lOcani
A: dEvAdi dEvan sundarEshan cittam kavar bhuvana sundari amba
C: malayadvajan mAdhavamE kAncana mAlai pudalvi mahaA rAgjnya
malai maghaL kalai maghaL paNi kIrvANi amudanaiya iniya muttamizh vaLartta

[rshankar]

Meaning:

pallavI
dEvI nIyE tuNai ten madurai vAzh mIna lOcanI

Oh dEvI with beautiful eyes (lOcanI) like a fish (mIna), who lives (vAzh) in southern (ten) mathurA (madurai), you (nIyE) are my only companion (tuNai) in this journey of life.

anupallavI
dEvAdi dEvan sundarESan cittam kavazh bhuvana sundarI

The most beautiful woman (sundarI) in the entire world (bhuvana)! You are the one that has captured/ensnared (kavazh) the heart (cittam) of that Lord (dEvan) of the Lords (dEvAdi), SrI sundarESvaran (sundarESan).

caraNam
malayadhvajan mAtavamE kAncanamAlai pudalvI mahArAgni
alaimagal kalaimagal pani kIrvANI amudanayE iniya muttamizhh vaLarta

Oh dEvI (mahArAgnI)! As the fruit of mighty (mA) penance (tavamE) [1] performed by the pANDya king, malayadhvajan [2], you appeared/became the daughter (pudalvi) of the king, and his queen (kAncanmAlai). Oh lady with the speech (vANI) of parrots (kIra) [3] to whom lakshmI (alaimagaL) [4] and sarasvatI (kalaimagaL) bow down to (paNi), you are the one who nourished (vaLarta) the three forms of tamizh (muttamizh) [5] that are sweet (iniya) like nectar (amudanaya).

FOOTNOTES
[1] The childless malayadhvajan and kAncanamAlai perform the putrakAMEshThi yAgam - and a beautiful girl emerges from the sacrificial fire with beautiful fish-shaped eyes. The royal couple adopt her and name her 'aMkayarkaNNI' = aM (beautiful) + kayal (fish) + kaNNi (eyed one) - which in sanskrit is mInAkshI or mInalOcanI. The parents' joy was marred by the fact that they noted an extra nipple on the girl's chest. Just as they begin to worry, they hear a voice from the heavens tell them that when she meets her future husband the nipple will disappear. mInAkshI who is brought up as a warrior princess is crowned 'king' after her father, and she begins to expand her kingdom by successfully fighting wars with other kings, and she finds her way to mount kailAs. After she blows away the Siva gaNas, Siva himself comes to fight the ferocious queen. mInAkshi, who has every intention of winning the encounter, feels her extra nipple disappear when she sets eyes on Siva. Overcome by bashfulness, the suddenly shy queen coyly backs away, overcome by strange and feminine feelings. Siva, recognizing her, informs her that he would come to the pANDya dESam to seek her hand in marriage, and get married to her in madurai. Since malayadhvajan was no more, mInAkshi was 'given away' by vishNu, her brother. A beautiful fresco of the divine wedding with vishNu giving the bride away (dArai vArttu koDukkiradu) adorns the temple in madurai
[2] malayadhvaja pANDyan was called so because he had a mountain (malai) on his flag/standard (dhvaja)
[3] kIravANI - is also the rAga mudra. The speech of the parrot is considered to be pure and true - same as tattai mozhiyAL.
[4] alaimagaL = daughter (magaL) of the waves (alai), aka, ocean
[5] muttamizh - iyal, iSai, nATakam - madurai is the seat of the sanga tamizh, and the poTRAmarai kuLam - the pond of the golden lotus (the temple tank) - served as the arbiter of the literary value of new compositions - compositions were thrown into the pond, and if found worthy, would float back up on the golden lotus. As the pANDya king and queen, sundarESvara and mInAkshI are credited with having nourished the muttamizh

[VK RAMAN]

Is there any audio available for this? I will love to hear.

[rshankar]

Here you go:

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/p/x/U4I ... As1NMvHdW/

There are many renderings of this, by many many artists.

[VK RAMAN]

thanks rshankarji.

[VK RAMAN]

Here is my rendition: http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=1180580&t=9324