कविः -1

(मूककविः)

मूककविः मूकपञ्चशती इति ग्रन्थस्य रचयिता। अस्य कवेः जन्मादि विषये युक्तिपूर्वकाः विषयाः न लब्धाः। कश्चित् मूकः काञ्चीपुरे कामाक्षीं ववन्दे। एकदा देव्याः कामाक्ष्याः अनुग्रहेण सः वक्तुम् आरभत। ततः, देव्याः नमस्काररूपेण मूकपञ्चशती इति पञ्चशतं श्लोकयुक्तम् इदं ग्रन्थम् अरचयत् सः कविः। सः प्रथमं मूकः आसीत् तस्मात् तेन नाम्ना एव प्रसिद्धिम् अलभत।

अयमेव मूककविः काञ्चीकामकोटिपीठाचार्येषु एकः आसीत्। सः मूकशङ्करः इति नाम्ना अपि प्रकीर्तितः। तस्य आचार्यपीठारोहणं 398 A.D. मध्ये आसीत्। ततः 437 A.D. मध्ये सः शिवलोकपदवीम् अलभत इति तस्य जीवनविषये अभिप्रायो वर्तते।
तेन कृत मूकपञ्चशती ग्रन्थे पञ्च भागाः सन्ति, तथा च प्रति भागे शतश्लोकाः वर्तन्ते। ते भागाः आर्याशतकम्, पादारविन्दशतकम्, मन्दस्मितशतकम्, कटाक्षशतकम्, स्तुतिशतकम् च। प्रतिभागस्य वर्तमानानां श्लोकानां वृत्तानि भिन्नानि भवन्ति। अस्मिन् ग्रन्थे, कामाक्षीम्, एकाम्रनाथं, कामकोटिपीठं, काञ्चीपुरं तथा कम्पानदीं च अवर्णयत् कविः।

Poet -1
Mooka Kavi

Our ancients gave less prominence in mentioning about their biographical background. Reason could be the humility that those great men had of themselves. But still, we are eager to know the origin and lineage of those great men. ‘Mooka kavi’ is one among them who has not mentioned anything about his own self in his work. He is second only to Adi Sankara in composing slokas on the goddess kAmAkshI.
There are no authentic proof available on the date and life of ‘Mooka kavi’. There lived a man in kAnchIpuram, who was speech impaired from birth. He was regularly visiting ‘kAmAkshi’ temple and was prostrating before the goddess. One day He saw the lips of the goddess and after that he started to speak and wrote a work called ‘mooka pancha sati’ or five hundred slokas in praise of the goddess. The word ‘mooka’ means ‘a person who cannot speak’ in Sanskrit, hence his name remained as ‘mooka kavi’.

This ‘mooka kavi’ was one of the AchAryAs of the kAnchI kAmakotI peetam and was called as mooka sankara. The date of his becoming the AchArya is approximately stated as 398 A.D. and he attained siddhi at 437 A.D.

His work ‘mooka panca sati’ has five sections; they are, AryA satakam, pAdAravinda satakam, manda smita satakam, katAksha satakam and stuti satakam. Each section consists of hundred slokas. The metre or the vrittam in which these slokas were written is different in each section. In this text, the poet describes goddess kAmAkshi, kAmakoti peetam, EkamranAtha, kAnchIpuram and the river kampA. Some Slokas have similarity with the text ‘soundarya laharI’ of Adi Sankara.

3 comments:

Visalakshi said...

There is another story/rumour about mUka kavi that after reciting the 500 slokas on kAmAkShI, he did not want to speak about anything else. So he asked the goddess to take away his speech and became a mUka again. I don't know how far this is authentic.

austere said...

Forgive my ignorance, but maybe you could consider usage of "mute" or "quiet" instead- such a learned man.


Thank you for sharing your wealth-knowledge. Obliged.

sreemathi said...

Gayathri - Bhavathyaha "Likhitha varnanam" athi shobhanam asthi. bhagavath prasadaath bhavathyaaha sarva kshema abhivrudhirasthu.