Śrīmad Appayya Dīkṣita-2

Śrīmad Appayya Dīkṣita's interesting remarks on Yajurveda, Āndhra-deśa, etc.

A rare verse written by Śrī Rāju Śāstrigaḷ in his Dīkṣitendra-Vaṁśābharaṇa runs as follows:

आन्ध्रत्वमान्ध्रभाषा च प्राभाकरपरिश्रमः ।
तत्रापि याजुषीशाखा नाल्पस्य तपसः फलम् ॥

This must have been written by Śrī Appayya Dīkṣita during some interesting experience of his. He says in this verse, that as a consequence of doing penance and meritorious acts, one will be born as an Āndhra, will have Āndhra-bhāṣā as one's mother-tougue, will study the Mīmāṁsā-śāstra of Prabhākara, and will have Yajurveda as one's Veda. While writing the commentary on this, the author says that because the Āndhra territory is situated in the middle of Triliṅga (bounded by three famous Śivaliṅga temples) the area was called as Triliṅgadeśa and its people were called as Trailiṅgas. The persons who live there generally wore the tripuṇdra and worshipped Lord Śiva as Tryambaka. The land has the pratiṣtha of Parameśvara within its boundaries. The people bear the marks of Śaivism and the generally Śivopāsakas. Hence the land is full of merit. Their language is also a very sweet one. The Prabhākara-mīmāṁsā is replete with very interesting dialectical poems and is able to give full work to one's powers of thought and intelligence. Similarly the Yajurveda is very essential for performance of the yajñas, etc. Even a Sāmavedī, if he wants to perform yajñas, has to learn the Yajurveda in order to know the liturgical processes. Hence the importance of Yajurveda for the vaidika-ācāra. Moreover, Śrī-Rudra contains the most potent pañcākṣara mantra. 

The above shows the great attachment of Śrī Appayya Dīkṣita to Lord Śiva which resulted in his partiality to the Āndhra country as in that country Pañcākṣarī was taught to the young children from very tender age.

-- Courtesy : Śrī Appayya Dīkṣita, Dr N. Ramesan, MA, Ph.D, IAS, Hyderabad, 1972, p. 82-83