A Conservative Rebel

wo days before the Conference on Religions in T the Indic Civilisation started, Poetry, Passion and Power on December 16, 2003, I was in Bangalore, reviewing this paper at 4 The Lyrics of Andal-Goda and the Music of a.m. Within an hour, my mother woke up, early even for her, to take a bath Goda Mandali and cook pongal and then offer it to Andal and Vishnu in the family puja room. This was the first day of the Vasudha Narayanan month of Margali, sacred to Andal, sacred to Vishnu in the Bhagavad Gita. As she lit the diyas, she recited commentary connected with this 8th- Krishna. In fact, Andal’s real name is the first verse and then the last two century poem. Jaya TV started with a Kodai, which means vrinda or wreath verses of Andal’s Tiruppavai. By 5.30 male voice reciting a traditional of flowers, and she herself is known a.m., Jaya TV was turned on at home, invocatory verse glorifying Andal. in Tamil as choodi kodutta nacchiyar and as far as I could tell, in several This was followed by young women or “the Lady who gave the garland neighbourhood houses. Ordinarily, students from the well-known Padma after wearing it”. The temple, as the on this station, the 5.30 a.m. Seshadri High school in Chennai, all South Indian Sri Vaishnava ones for broadcast begins with darshan of the between 12 and 15 years, singing the this entire month do, gave pongal as famous Pillaiyar (Ganesha) temple in first verse of the Tiruppavai; there prasad that morning. In many homes Pillaiyarpatti, Tamilnadu and were commentaries, not just by male and temples, this is the dish of the continues immediately with twenty Brahmins but by assorted men and month, for Margali culminates with minutes of the Tamil version of the women, in Telugu and in Tamil, on the big festival of Pongal which is not matin song, the suprabhatam, at the the other stations. just Vaishnava or even just Hindu, famous Balaji temple at Tirumala Later that morning at a but as celebrated today, is a Tamil and Tirupati. The 20th century Tamil neighbourhood Hanuman temple, all Telugu festival. The receipt of even a version of the 15th century Sanskrit the attention was on Andal’s shrine. spoonful of pongal cooked at dawn suprabhatam, recited by a woman Women came by to leave strings of and offered to Andal along with the singer, is as melodious as the original. flowers for her; this was the saint who recitation of Tiruppavai is considered However, on this, the first day of had made garlands of flowers for holy prasad; the two are closely Margali, the suprabhatam is intertwined not just in people’s not recited in the South Indian minds, but in Andal’s poetry Sri Vaishnava temples– itself. including Tirupati–or, for that Who is Andal and what matter, on Jaya TV. Instead of does her poetry deal with? We the routine followed through see her enshrined in all Sri the rest of the year, there were Vaishnava temples in India and other songs. According to Sri abroad–we see her in the Sri Vaishnava practice, during Vaishnava heartland in this month the traditional Srirangam, Kanchipuram, suprabhatam prayer is not Sriperambudur and other places, recited; instead, the deity is as well as Pittsburgh, Atlanta, woken up with the Tiruppavai, Toronto, Orlando, Chicago, the prayer that the 8th-century Malibu and Rochester. And in poet Andal composed to wake all these places, during this up Krishna. month, her songs are recited. In By 6 a.m., on this, the first many of the American temples, day of Margali, many radio she is simply identified as and TV stations were focusing Bhudevi or the Earth-Goddess, on the Tiruppavai. There were so people from other parts of at least four TV stations where A calendar picture of Andal India may have some under- there was some music or standing of who she is. But 32 MANUSHI Andal did not think of herself as a Vaishnava community crystallized who recite the poem, and if they were goddess and she may have been around the 10th century CE. This not, the commentators articulate this identified as one perhaps several cen- community worshiped Vishnu and the concept quite well. In her second turies after her time. Most South In- Goddess Sri, accepted the Vedanta poem the Nacciyar Tirumoli (“The dian men and women know her as a philosophy of Ramanuja (11th Sacred Words of the Lady”), Andal woman poet who was passionately century) as the correct interpretation dreams that Vishnu came to her and in love with God. For many South of the Vedas and considered the four marries her; she recounts the rituals Indian women now, she is also a thousand Tamil hymns composed in of a wedding in eleven verses to her woman who, like them, lived in a so- praise of Vishnu as equivalent to the friend. These verses are still recited ciety where she probably faced simi- Sanskrit revelation. These songs were in Sri Vaishnava weddings. In the lar social pressures. Certainly, at composed between the 7th and 9th other verses in Nacciyar Tirumoli, least according to later (13th century) centuries CE by twelve poet-saints she talks of her intense love, sends biographies, her father wanted her to known as Alvars. messengers to communicate her love get married. Andal, however, did not Andal is the only Alvar who is a to the Lord and is desolate being want to get married and consider her woman. She is enshrined and separated from Vishnu. In the last husband as God; she wanted God as worshiped in all Sri Vaishnava temples set of verses, however, there is some her husband. She even warned: and her passionate poetry is recited peace. The verses are in the form of “Maanidavarkkenru pechuppadil and sung not just by members of the questions and anwers, and to her vaazhakillen kandaay community, but also broadcast query “Have you seen Krishna?” she manmathane” (I will not continue through many radio stations in the gets the answer, “we have seen him to live if it is planned to give me in states of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, here in Vrindavanam.” marriage to a human being). Nay and Karnataka in the month of more, she even speaks of pulling her Margali (December 15 or 16 to January Like a boar breasts out by the roots and throw- 13). Sri Vaishnava hagiographies are that escapes from a net ing them on the chest of Krishna if consistent in saying that she refused Madhavan, my precious gem, He continues to ignore her: “Kollum to get married, and instead longed for eludes me payanonrillaatha kongaithann- union with various forms of Vishnu— giving me aikkizhankodum allip pariththittu a wish which was apparently fulfilled, nothing avan marvil erindhittu.” according to these biographical to hold on to— Through her words and actions, accounts. have you seen him, Andal presents an alternative In her two poems, the Tiruppavai this lord? lifestyle to what many dharma and the Nacchiyar Tirumoli, Andal With a flowing robe of gold shastras perceive to be the role of expresses this passionate desire to He, like a calf women; she showed contempt at the marry Vishnu, whom she sees as dark as a thunderous cloud idea of marrying a man and instead, embodied in the forms of Krishna, comes gathered her friends and observed Rama, or as the resident deity in rites (vratas) to obtain Vishnu. For several temples. In the Tiruppavai, filling the streets— many South Indian women, therefore, she imagines herself as a young gopi We have seen him she is a model of and model for piety or cowherd girl in the village of Aypati here, in Vrindavanam and devotion. In this paper, I por- (the Tamil name for Gokula) where (Nacchiyar Tirumoli 14.5) tray Andal as an exemplar not be- Krishna grew up. She wakes up her A prankster cause she can or ought to be one, friends very early in the morning in who knows no dharma but in a more limited sense of how the month of Margali and they all go He whose eyebrows arch she actually functions as a model of to wake up Krishna and give Him their like the bow Saranga a woman filled with devotion to the petition: their longing to be with Him in his hand Lord to a group called Goda Mandali and to serve Him for all time. Andal handsome one or “the circle of Andal.” asks her friends to come with her to without equal “bathe”; the Tamil word niratal or Goda, more popularly known as have you seen him? Andal (“she who rules”), is an 8th- bathing was frequently used in Tamil century poet-saint whose presence literature to indicate a sexual, or a He whose form is dark is powerfully felt through her words spiritual, union. Since Vishnu is whose face glows bright and icons in the Sri Vaishnava frequently compared to a lotus pond, like the sun that fans community of South India. The Sri her intentions would be clear to those on the peaks No.152 33 of the rising hills to Srirangam. Ranganatha instructs person who according to Sri We have seen him Periyalvar thus: “Bring her to the Vaishnava stories, merges physically here, in Vrindavanam. sacred courtyard of the Sacred into the Lord at Srirangam; it is worth (Nacchiyar Tirumoli 14.6) Rangan; I shall clasp her hands [and noting that in both cases (Andal and Andal searches for her love; He marry her] there.” The Lord at Tiruppan) where there is a physical eludes her, He is a prankster; He Srirangam then sends His servants union, it takes place in the Srirangam “knows no dharma”! Andal, in her to Srivilliputtur to fetch Andal with temple.

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