Untitled Document

Meaning - Gist
O Lord rAma! O Lord praised by Lord Siva! O (Dark) blue hued! O Abode of virtues! O Lion to those king elephants called kings – who in this World, endowed with passion, worship Lord Siva! O Lord praised by this tyAgarAja!

Why did they not understand You and Your greatness? How did they perform earlier actions (that they could not understand You)?
In Your youth itself, as the kings watched, You broke the huge bow of Lord Siva sportingly, by Your hands, and happily became the consort of sItA.
You sportingly dispatched fourteen thousand (warriors in) bronze chariots and the core strengths of rAvaNa, to the abode of the Lord of Death by shooting just a single arrow.

Word Division - Word-by-word meaning

pallavi
P Ela teliya lErO pUrva karmamu-
ElAguna jEsirO rAmayya

O Lord (ayya) rAma! Why (Ela) did they not (lErO) understand (teliya) You? How (ElAguna) did they perform (jEsirO) earlier (pUrva) (or in their earlier births) actions (karmamu) (karmamElAguna) (that they could not understand You)?

anupallavi
A bAla SaSa-anka kalA-alankRta nuta
nIla varNa suguNa-Alaya nI mahimalu-(Ela)

O Lord praised (nuta) by Lord Siva – one who is adorned (alankRta) with the digit (kalA) (kalAlankRta) of the young (bAla) moon – the hare (SaSa) marked (anka) (SaSAnka)!
O (Dark) blue (nIla) hued (varNa)! O Abode (Alaya) of virtues (suguNa) (suguNAlaya)!
O Lord rAma! Why did they not understand Your (nI) greatness (mahimalu) (mahimalEla)? How did they perform earlier (or in their earlier births) actions (that they could not understand You)?

caraNam
caraNam 1
bAla tanamuna SUla dharuni
viSAla dhanuvunu lIlagA bhU-
pAlakulu kana kEla viraci
kuSAlugA SrIni-Elina ninnu-(Ela)

O Lord rAma! Why did they not understand You (ninnu) (ninnEla) who, in His youth (bAla tanamuna) itself (literally young age),
as the kings – Lords (pAlakulu) of the Earth (bhU) – watched (kana),
by breaking (viraci) sportingly (lIlagA) by His hands (kEla) the huge (viSAla) (literally large) bow (dhanuvunu) of Lord Siva – one who wields (dharuni) of trident (SUla),
happily (kuSAlugA) became the consort (Elina) (literally govern) of sItA (SrI) (SrIni) (literally lakshmi) (SrInElina)?
How did they perform earlier (or in their earlier births) actions (that they could not understand You)?

caraNam 2
nAlugu-oka padi vEla kancu
rathAla sura ripu mUla balamula
lIlagAnu-oka kOlanu-Esi
kAla yama puri pAlu jEsina ninnu-(Ela)

O Lord rAma! Why did they not understand You (ninnu) (ninnEla), who sportingly (lIlagAnu) dispatched (pAlu jEsina) to the abode (puri) of the Lord of Death – the controller (yama) of time (kAla) –
the fourteen – four (nAlugu) and a(oka) ten (padi) - thousand (vEla) (warriors in) bronze (kancu) chariots (rathAla) and the core (mUla) strengths (balamula) of rAvaNa – the enemy (ripu) of celestials (sura),
by shooting (Esi) just a single (oka) (lIlagAnoka) arrow (kOlanu) (kOlanEsi)?
How did they perform earlier (or in their earlier births) actions (that they could not understand You)?

caraNam 3
rAja SEkharuni-I jagatilO
rAjasambuna pUja sEyu
rAjulu-anu gaja rAjulaku mRga
rAja tyAgarAja nuta ninn(Ela)

O Lion – king (rAja) of animals (mRga) – to those king (rAjulaku) elephants (gaja) called (anu) kings (rAjulu) (rAjulanu) – who in this (I) World (jagatilO),
endowed with passion (rAjasambuna), worship (pUja sEyu) Lord Siva – one who wears the (digit) of the moon (rAja) on the head (SEkhara) (SEkharuniyI)! O Lord praised (nuta) by this tyAgarAja!
O Lord rAma! why did they not understand You (ninnu) (ninnEla)? what kind of actions did they perform earlier (or in their earlier births) (that they could not understand You)?
(To those kings, who become arrogant by obtaining boons worshipping Lord Siva, you are like a lion to the elephants.)

Notes

Variations - (Pathanthara)

References
³ – kalA – a digit is equivalent to 1/16th portion of anything, especially, moon.

Comments
¹ - Ela teliya lErO – 'why did they not understand' – In the kRti 'ramA ramaNa bhAramA' – rAga vasanta bhairavi, SrI tyAgarAja states –

'marmamerigi nammukona lEraNTi dharmAdi mOksha varamulosangi bhakta varula kAcina kIrti viNTi'

"I heard about your fame, of protecting the great devotees, by conferring on them that kind of boons (which are otherwise attainable only as a result of the objects of human pursuit - purushArtha) of righteous conduct etc (dharma, artha, kAma) and also emancipation; people in the Earth would not believe such acts (excepting by) knowing the secrets (of Your true nature)".

Even SrI rAma denies existence of any such special powers with him – please refer to SrImad-vAlmIki rAmAyaNa, yuddha kANDa, Chapter 117 - 'sItA's fire ordeal' –

AtmAnaM mAnushaM manyE rAmaM daSarathAtmajam |
sO(a)haM yaSca yataScAhaM bhagavAMstad bravItu mE || 11 ||

"I account myself a human being, Rama (by name), sprung from the loins of (Emperor) Dasartha. And (yet) let the glorious lord (Brahma) tell me that which I as such (really) am and whence I have come."

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² – pUrva karmamElAguna jEsirO – 'how did they perform earlier actions' – rAvaNa and other demons could not recognise SrI rAma to be the Lord incarnate. In this connection, the statement of maNDOdari lamenting about the death of rAvaNa wherein she pities her husband for not recognising SrI rAma to be the Lord vishNu incarnate, is relevant. Please refer to SrImad vAlmIki rAmayaNa, yuddha kANDa, Chapter 111.

Read in conjunction with caraNa 3 'rAjasambuna pUjalu sEyu', it is clear that SrI tyAgarAja implies what is stated in SrImad-bhagavad-gIta, Chapter 3 (please also refer to note below) –

yajnArthAtkarmaNO(a)nyatra lOkO(a)yaM karma bandhanaH |
tadarthaM karma kauntEya mukta sangaH samAcara || 9 ||

“The world is bound by actions other than those performed for the sake of yajna; do thou, therefore, O son of kuntI, perform action for yajna alone, devoid of attachment.” (Translation by Swami Swarupananda)

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⁴ – oka kOlanEsi – The killing of fourteen thousand demons in a matter of hour and a half is praised by dEvas – SrImad vAlmIki rAmayaNa – AraNyakANDa – Chapter 30, verses 30, 31 refers.

Ibid yudddha kANDa – Chapter 93 (verses 27, 31-33) describes the exploits of SrI rAma – “The aforesaid ogres for their part beheld thousands of rAma on the battle field, while at other times they saw only one rAma – a scion of kAkutstha. (27) In the eighth part of a day (one hour and a half) an army of ogres capable of changing their form at will, consisting of a myriad chariots possessing the swiftness of the wind, also eighteen thousand fleet-footed elephants, fourteen thousand horses with their riders, and a full two lakhs of ogres fighting on foot, was exterminated by SrI rAma single-handed with his arrows resembling tongues of fires. (31-33)”

However, the statement of SrI tyAgarAja about ‘fourteen thousand bronze chariots’ is not readily traceable.

⁵ – rAjasambuna pUja sEyu rAjulu – This would, generally, refer to all those demons who sought boons from Lord Siva for their personal aggrandisement – hence rAjasa. However, here this would specifically refer to rAvaNa.

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Ela teliya lErO - rAga darbAru