Palum theli thenum Pagum Paruppum Ganesha Lyrics Meaning

Ganapathy Stotram "Palum Theli Thenum Pagum Paruppum ivai Nalum Kalaundunakku Naan tharuven - kolanchei Thungak karimugathu thoomaniye neeyenakku Sanga thamizh moondrum tha" Avvaiyar lived during the "sanga thamizh" days - during the time when great tamil poets lived and tamil language saw some of its best poetry. Avvaiyar prays to lord Ganapathy. She says - almost playfully - like how we pray these days. How do we pray? "God, I will come to your temple; I will perform this particular penance and in return, please give me this success"...right? Similarly, Avvaiyar also prays! She says, "My dear Lord Ganapahy, I will give you four things. You give me just three things. OK?" What are the four things that she says she will give? 1) Milk 2) Pure Honey 3)Jaggery 4) Dhal (the different types of green grams / black grams etc) She says she will mix all this and give it to the lord. In return what does she want? She does not ask for money. She does not even ask for 'moksha' (salvation) which normally all devotees / saints ask for. Being a poet belonging to the 'sanga' times, she asks for the tamil language!! She tells Ganapathy : oh my lord! give me the three tamils which enrich the sangam. Give me 'iyar tamil' (prose); 'isai tamil' (poetry) and the 'nadaka tamil' (drama). That is what I want from you. Actually, the stotra or the sloka ends there. This has always puzzled me. Why would anyone want the language? For what reason? OK - given that Avvaiyar was a great tamil scholor and who loved the language, she might ask for better language - which she actually did here. But true devotees don't ask anything which does not lead them further towards God. So, why is Avvaiyar asking for tamil here? So that she can sing even more songs in praise of the God. So that she can pen even more slokas and stotras about Ganapathy. That is the true meaning of this sloka. If she has even better language, she can pen even better stotras - right? She can sing the praise of the God in an even better fashion - right? That is what she wanted. So, when we say this stotra, let us ask the God for better language - so that we can also praise Him even more, even better.

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