thiruppavai day twenty song twenty

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DAY TWENTY-SONG TWENTY -TIRUPPAVAI

 

Transliteration

 

muppaththu mUvar amararkku mun cenRu

kappam thavirkkum kaliyE thuyiLezAy

ceppamutaiyAy thiralutaiyAy ceRRArkku

veppam kotukkum vimalA thuyiLezAy

ceppanna menmulaic cevvAy ciRu marunkul

nappinnai nankAy thiruvE thuyiLezAy

ukkamum thattoLiyum thanthu un manALanai

ippothE emmai nIrAttElOr empAvAy.

 

Translation

 

Wake up, Dispeller of the devas’ distress,

Devas three and thirty held safe.

Fastidious in grace, the Valorous and the Pure, wake up!

Fevered do become foes in fear of you.

Lady Nappinnai of narrow waist, ruddy lips,

Soft breasts like golden cisterns.

Goddess of Wealth, wake up!

Bestow on us the fan and mirror.

Enable us to bathe with Krishna.

 

The maids continue with their invocation of God and Nappinnai in the

twentieth song too.

God is the dispeller of the distress of the devas. Even the devas are not

beyond distress is often reiterated in Hindu mythology. They are also not

aboveboard. There are stories of transgressions on the part of the devas and

their subsequent prayers to forgive them and save them from curses. There

are also stories about devas being subjected to oppression by asuras like

Ravana and Kamsa. In all such instances, God is said to have hurried to

their succour. ‘mun cenru’ is interpreted in two different ways. “To dispel

distress even before they occur” is one interpretation. “To earnestly go

forward to dispel distress” is another interpretation. By far, the latter

interpretation appears to be more appropriate. God, of his own volition,

goes forth to dispel the distress of the devas. ‘kappam’ can be either

distress or subjugation. Both ways, they are to be dispelled. The next

address therefore falls naturally in place – fastidious in grace. It is not

only the readiness to dispel the distress but also the valour to do so that

is being ascribed to God. The mere thought of God is enough to fill the foes

with the fever of fear.

The three and thirty devas referred here are the ashtavasus, ekatasarutrar,

tvatacatityar, two acvinidevadas.

The implication for the maids is far more important. If God has condescended

to be so zealous about the distress of the devas, will it not be more

commensurate with His divinity to be much more concerned with the well-being

of the maids?

The longing which implores God can better be understood in a Christian

context also. Hopkins was a Jesuit priest and poet. In one of his sonnets,

he regrets the plight of the devoted. The title of the poem is ‘Thou art

indeed Just, Lord’. The poem reads as follows: “God is indeed just if one is

content with Him. But how can one be content with Him when all one’s

endeavours end in disappointment even as all the sinners prosper? The

vegetation is lush green. The birds build their nests. But the devotee

builds nothing. He has become the time’s eunuch. All these despite the fact

that God is the devotee’s friend, not an enemy.” This sense of frustration

makes the poet sad and feel terrible. But he concludes the poem with an

earnest prayer: “Send my roots rain.”

The prayer at the end of the poem at once atones for the note of complaint

in all the previous lines. The devotee, despite his complaints and puzzle

about human predicament, is desperately in need of rain – ‘send my roots

rain’. The prayer also becomes urgent.

It is a similar despodency that the maids seem to imply here though in

different terms. The impossibility of living without communion with God is

explicitly declared in the twenty eighth song also. ‘untannotu uravel

namakku inku olikka oliyatu’ – the relationship between the Divine and the

devotee can never be negated.

 

In continuation of the sensuous element in the previous song, there is a

reference to the physical beauty of Nappinnai – soft breasts shaped like the

golden cisterns and narrow waist. ‘cevvay’ can be literally translated as

ruddy lips. It can also be translated as comely, graceful, elegant. Insofar

as Nappinnai in the South like Radha in the North is a personification of

passion for God, the term can be translated into passionate lips. Nappinnai

is also called the Goddess of Wealth. Just as Narayana has descended into

the manifest form in Krishna, Sri, the Goddess of Wealth, has also descended

in the form of Nappinnai. Therefore is she addressed the Goddess of Wealth.

The fan and mirror spoken about in this song are the instruments of the

pavai observance. On the day of her marriage to God at Srirankam, Andal took

her bath in the well there called Tiruvazhi, which is still there.

Thereafter, she was dressed for the occasion and the last item to be added

to her adornments was the garland. In the absence of a mirror readily on

hand, she is supposed to have checked her adornments looking at herself in

the reflection in the well water. This reference to mirror and a broad fan

with which kings were made to feel comfortable has perhaps a reference back

to Andal’s habit of looking at herself in the mirror with the garland meant

for the deity, and later, her looking at her reflection in the well water.

Mirror and garland have become inseparable from the legend of Andal.

‘neerattel’ in the last line of the poem means ‘bathe’. “Take Kannan to his

bath with the fan and mirror on hand.” – that is one way of reading the

line. ‘emmai’ meaning ‘us’ along with the verb should mean, ‘Let us also

bathe in the august and graceful presence of Krishna thereafter”.

There is a sense of urgency in ‘ippote nirattelor empavay’ ‘ippote’ means

forthwith. The implication is perhaps, “If not now, it can be never because

we cannot live without the grace of God showered on us”.

Thus the twentieth song that appears to be a song of invocation, goes much

farther and speaks about an ontological condition in which the very

existence of the maids becomes impossible without the prevening grace of God

around them – and in context, it is the physical presence of Krishna with

them.