DUAL PERSONALITY

It is replied that Suprabhata is sung to a person lying asleep in a couch and never to the couch itself. That is to say, Lakshmana, who was an incarnation of Adisesha being considered the conch of Sri Rama, the singing of Suprabhata to him was both superfluous and inappropriate.

Further, coming with a dual personality means exhibiting two aspects of his personality, and that is explained in many ways. For instance, it may be said that he came showing both his godly and human natures, appearing both as master and servant etc. The commentary here observes: "He arrived as the Lord to place his feet on my head, but ended up by placing my feet on his head out of love. When a person marries, it is as the Lord of his wife, but when he lies with her in bed, the position changes with love taking the upper hand, and the roles of master and servant are reversed."

Sri Parasara Bhatta has bequeathed to us an extensive and illuminating commentary on this verse alone in this work of Tirumangai Alvar. It deserves deep study and shows how justified he was in his pride at having mastered this piece. From that we extract below a few important meanings concerning dual personality.

He came with two aspects, that of handsomeness of figure as indicated by "with his black and lustrous hair flowing at the back of his head", and that of beautiful decoration as can be inferred from the phrase "with his crocodile like ear-rings shining in movement".