Śrī U. Ve. Nāvalpākkam Somayājī Narayana Tātayārya Mahādeśikan

Śrī Yajvā Nārāyaṇa Tātayārya

A brief life-sketch by
P. S. Ramanathan

There is an amazing agrahāram known as Śrotriyam Nāvalpākkam located in the Vandavāsi Taluk in Tiruvannamalai Sambhuvarayar District in the State of Tamil Nadu. The village is very famous for Sanskrit studies. Sastra lives here with all effulgence since the time of Śrī Ayyā Kumāra Tāta Deśikan of the 16th century who under the patronage of the Nayak rulers of the principality of Thanjavur got exempted of all the land taxes as the residents were predominantly Vedic scholars, deeply dedicated to the cause of the Śāstras. Such tax exempted agrahārams were known as “Śrotriyam” and hence this agrahāra got an initial “S” to denote “Śrotriyam”.

When statistically compared with their Smārta counterpart, the number of Śrīvaiṣṇava Brāhmaṇas who performed Somayāgas in the last five centuries is negligible. This lacuna had long ago been filled up by Śrī Ayyā Kumāra Tāta Deśikan who had performed a series of hundred Somayāgas at Veṇṇātrankarai, in the outskirts of Thanjavur. Whether he did it at a stretch himself or organised it for others is not known but it was indeed a mighty great feat which earned him the title -- Tirumalai Caturveda Śatakratu -- which means, he who originated from Tirumalai, mastered the four Vedas and performed a hundred yāgas.

Śrī U. Ve. Nāvalpākkam Somayājī Narayana Tātayārya Mahādeśikan belonged to Śaṭhamarṣaṇa gotra of the Śatakratu-vaṁśa. He was born to Śrī U. Ve. Tātu (Nīlamegha Tātācārya) Svāmī in the year 1889. Consequent to Brahmopadeśa, adhyayana of the Taittirīya-śākhā commenced under the tutelage of Śrī (Maṇiyam) Chellam Srinivasacharya Svāmī. Later he underwent studies in Vyākaraṇa under Śrī Sethumadhavachar (Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati), Pūrva-mīmāṁsā under Navalpakkam Śrī U. Ve. Narasimhacharya Svāmī and Vedānta under his father, Śrī U. Ve. Nilamegha Tātācārya Svāmī. He was trained in Śrauta-prakriyā by Tirukkuṭantai Agnihotram Svāmī. In the mean time Narayana entered the next stage in life, into that of the Gṛhasthāśrama.

This family of Navalpakkam had a śrauta pāramparya and in order to maintain the tradition and recognition, Śrī Narayana Tātayārya made a saṅkalpa and conducted an Ādhāna in the year Vyaya (1946) and in Sarvajit (1947) performed an Agniṣṭoma at Navalpakkam agrahāram adhering to the injunctions of the Śrauta-sūtras in letter and spirit. It is said that to become fit for performing the Śrauta ritual he imposed on himself several austerities extending even to stoppage of travel by all means. Sahasra-brāhmaṇa-bhojana was held. Believe it or not, the enormous expenditure incurred for the conduct of the yāga was met by selling part of his landed property! He came to be known as Somayājī or Yajvā thereafter. His nityāgnihotra continued for a long period with the unstinted support of his Patnī, Śmt. Alamelu Somapīthinī, until her demise.

It is really praiseworthy that Śrī Yajvā had kept a record of the names of the 16 ṛtviks who had participated in the Somayāga.

Hoṭr-gaṇa	Adhvaryu-gaṇa
Hotā – Nā. Te. Aravamudacharyar	Adhvaryu –  Tirukkuṭantai Tatacharyar
Maitrāvaruṇa – Iḷaṅgāḍu Swami Svāmī	Pratiprasthātā – Varadacharyar (Son)
Acchāvaka – Vādhyār Krishnamacharyar	Neṣtā – Azhisūr Kalyanavaradacharyar
Grāvastut – Vaṭavānūr Srinivasaraghavacharyar	Unnetā – Villiambākkam Devanathacharyar
Udgātṛ-gaṇa	Brahma-gaṇa
Udgātā – Pacchakkal Seema Raghavacharyar	Brahman – Seema Tatacharyar
Prastotā – Vājapeyam Ranga Pattaracharyar	Brāhmaṇāchaṁsī – Aṃṃaṇi Devanathacharyar
Pratihartā – Kottaiyur Sarangapani Iyengār	Āgnīdhra – Thocchu Yajnavarahacharyar
Subrahmaṇya – Seema Varadacharyar	Potā – Śailī Pattaracharyar

Śrī Yajvā Narayana Tātayārya like the Dīpa-pradīpa-nyāya has produced a number of scholarly disciples. His sons and grand-sons too have become distinguished scholars in their respective field of learning and are holding eminent positions. 

Yajvā had a retentive memory and had acquired wide knowledge in Sanskrit literature apart from the Śāstras. Being a storehouse of Stotras, he had a habit of murmuring thousands of them everyday. 

जल्पन्तः पुरुषाः पुनन्ति भुवनं पुण्यौघपण्यापणाः ।

jalpantaḥ puruṣāḥ punanti bhuvanaṁ puṇyaugha paṇyāpaṇāḥ

Such pure souls make this world pure by the store-house of the puṇya that they have amassed, as Svāmi Deśika puts it in his Daśāvatāra-Stotra (12). Let us draw the puṇya that we need from the store by remembering them at least.

Śrī Yajvā Narayana Tātayārya Mahādeśikan left his bhautika-śarīra at Srirangam and became Vaikunṭha-vāsī. The Āhitāgni-saṁskāra was performed under the directions of Svargīya Śrī Raghunatha Śāstrin, on the banks of Koḷḷiḍam Kaveri river.

नमो महद्भ्यः

(Thanks are due to Dr. V. Vasudevan and Dr. V. Kannan, grand-sons of Svargīya Śrī Narayana Yajvā, respectively for providing the photo and for according permission to use the biographical details published in Tamil in the Internet).