33. iLaippu vidAy thIrththEnO nampAduvAn pOlE

In Sri Varaha Purana, Sri Varaha tells Bhudevi the greatness of singing His praise and the benefits that it gets to the devotee. This is knowns as Kaisika Mahatmyam and in it is the story of the devotee Nampaduvan who sang the Lord's praise all the time.

In south India near the Ksheera river was Siddhashrama. Here a low caste person would come every day early in the morning from a long distance and sing the Lord's praises. He did this for several years. Sri Varaha called him 'mama gAyaka' and therefore his name became Nampaduvan.

One time, in the month of Karththikai on sukla paksha Dvadasi, he stayed awake in the night and left very early to go sing about the Lord. On the way, a brahmarakshas caught him and wanted to eat him. Nampaduvan requested the brahmarakshas to let him go so he can go and sing; he promised that he would return and allow himself to be eaten. The brahmarakshas did not trust him and he started swearing that he would attain a certain sin if he did not return; only when he swore that he would get the sin of equating Sriman Narayana with other devatas if he did not return, did the brahmarakshas let him go.

Namapduvan went to Thirukkurunkudi divyadesam, sang about the Lord and returned as promised. The brahmarakshas was a brahmin called Somasharma in his previous birth. Because he committed a sin during a yaga, he was born as a brahmarakshas. Determining that he would be liberated only by Nampaduvan, he asked for the fruit of Nampaduvan's singing that night so that he may let him go alive. Nampaduvan did not agree. After some more requests, finally Nampaduvan agreed to give him the fruit of his singing one song sung in the Kaisika meter. Receiving that, the brahmarakshas was liberated, was reborn in a good family and finally attained moksha.

Thirukkolur Ammal is asking "Did I sing and liberate someone from their birth as a rakshasa like Nampaduvan did?"