Koorathazhwan (also known as Kuresar or Srivatsankamisrar), a revered sishya (disciple) of Swami Ramanuja, has gifted us with five important stotras, popularly known as Panchastavam. These are Sri Vaikunta Stavam, Athimanusha Stavam, Sundarabahu Stavam, Sri Stavam and Varadaraja Stavam.
Koorathazhwan’s contribution to Srivaishnava sampradayam is immense. Koorathazhwan who hailed from a village called Kooram (near Kanchipuram) was a very wealthy person not only in terms of money but also in terms of Atma gunas (qualities), appearance and intelligence. His nobility and philanthropy had no bounds. He gave up all his wealth for the sake of sampradaya. He assisted Swami Ramanuja in writing the SriBhashyam. Koorathazhwan’s Panchastavam are an exemplary work of devotion and dedication.
The first of his works is Sri Vaikunta Stavam comprising 100 shlokas. As the name suggests, it is about Sri Vaikuntanathan/Paramapadanathan and contains the saaram/essence of SriBhashyam.
Next is Athimanushya Stavam consisting of 61 shlokas. In this stavam, Koorathazhwan extols the divine deeds of Perumal in the vibhava avatars of Rama and Krishna as well as Nrisimha avatara briefly.
Sundarabahu Stavam praises Thirumalirumcholai Kalazhagar (Sri Sundarabahu Perumal) in 132 shlokas.
Sri Stavam consists if 11 shlokas praising the divine qualities of Sri Ranganayaki Thayar of Srirangam.
Varadaraja Stavam comprises 102 shlokas for Kanchi Varadaraja Perumal and is the last of Koorathazhwan’s works. Koorathazhwan composed the stavam at Swami Ramanuja’s command to get back his lost eyesight. In this stotra, Koorathazhwan prayed for the liberation of his traitor shishya Naluran.
The twenty year old scholarly Comments of Mahaa VidvAn PayyampAdi SrivathsAnkAcchAr swamy on the PanchaSthavms of AchArya Srivatsachinha Misra (KurEsar) has been my inspiration to offer this SamarpaNam to SrimannaarayaNan to celebrate His athimAnusha ChEshtitams.Sri athimaanusha stavam has 61 slOkams. It has extensive references to Raama and KrishNa avathArams and the Supra-human (athimAnusha) leelAs of Sriman naarAyaNa during those two vibhava avathArams. Although our Lord declared Himself to be a mere human being in these two avathArams, He performed wondrous acts that are beyond the power or imagination of mere humans (MaanushALs). KurEsar selects some of these athimAnusha chEshtithams form ithihAsams and PurANams in his athimAnusha Sthavam for salutations. There are 16 slOkams in this Sthavam about Raam AvathAram and 25 slOkams about KrishN AvathAram.The central upadesam in this stavamis that Sriman naarayaNan alone is Sarveswaran, who can perform these atimaanusha leelais.
Courtesy: Sadagopan.org
Very interesting to read the article Panchastavam by Koorathazhwan . Thanks for sharing.