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Dear Friends,

 

Today is Tiruvadipooram, the Tirunakshatram of Sri Andal. Andal was believed

to have been born in the flower garden of Vishnuchittan (Periya Azhwar), who

was childless. Amazed by this good fortune, Vishnuchittan adopted her and

raised her as his own daughter. A lot has been written very eloquently

about Sri Andal on this forum by scholars like Srimans Sadagopan, Sundararajan,

Anbil Ramaswamy, Sampath Rengarajan, and KalaLe (recently sharing the beautiful

write up by Sri Bhuvarahachariar Swamigal). Therefore, I shall not dwell too

much on the Vaibhavam of the Azhwar (which is delightful) in this post.

Instead, I shall try to present very brief highlights from her life and works.

 

Interestingly, Andal is the only female Azhwar among the twelve Azhwars.

She was the one of the two Azhwars, who attained unison with the Lord while

standing in front of him (the other being Tiruppan Azhwar).

One aspect which sets Andal apart from the other Azhwars is that

as the consort of the Lord, she awoke him and reminded him of his duty towards

the universe. The other important feature of the Andal's works was that her

pining for the Lord, on account of separation from him, came

to her naturally because of her feminine form, whereas

other Azhwars like Nammazhwar and Tirumangai Azhwar had to assume Nayaki

Bhavam as Parankusa Nayaki and Parakala Nayaki, respectively to bring out

the pain of a woman separated from her beloved (Lord Narayana). Another

pleasing feature of her Pasurams in the Tiruppavai lies in establishing the

concept of Trikala SmaraNam, i.e., taking the Lord's name at three important

times:

(1) As soon as one wakes up [cf: Pasuram: Marghazhi TingaL].

(2) While taking bath (Snanam) [cf: Pasuram: Ongi UlahalaNda Uttaman Perpadi].

(3) Before partaking of food [cf: Pasuram: Koodarai Vellumsheer Govinda!]

Indeed, Trikala SmaraNam is an extremely simple concept to practice.

 

Finally, the most significant contribution of Sri Andal is the beautiful

portrayal of the all pervasiveness of Lord Narayana through the salutations

"UnnakkE NamAzhchaivOm" and "NarayaNanE NammakE ParatharuvAn". The inner

meanings of the Vedas become apparent when one contemplates on the

masterpiece of Andal's Tiruppavai consisting of thirty gems strung together

in the form of a beautiful necklace. A testimony to her work is that even

today it is her Pasurams that are recited during SaRRmurai Seva at Sri

Vaishnava Temples (SiRRum Sirugale ... and Vangakadalhalainda Madhavanai

Keshavanai...). Sri Vaishnava Acharyas have established in their Upanyasams

that these two Pasurams pave the way for Moksham.

 

Andal TiruvadigaLe SharaNam,

 

Muralidhar Rangaswamy