Andal

[mankuthimma]

From www.vasumathi.net

[arasi]

Thimma,
Very nice write up! Hope Krishna reads this too. He will come up with inspired explanations.
ANDAL will forever be bArati kaNDa 'pudumaip peNN'. She was bold, not bawdy, she loved with all her heart and spoke her mind. She proved that her intense bhakti for the almighty was something to sing out aloud.
Other poets like the AzhvArs, Meera and bhArati have also chosen to sing of their endless love for god in the manner a woman would of her beloved.

[ksrimech]

Arasi - Whenever somebody talks about ANDAL, I'm reminded of three profound pAsurams on Her.

anjukuDikku oru santatiyAy AzhvArgaL
tam seyalai vinjinirkum tanmayaLAy
pinjAy pazhuttALai ANDALai battiyuDan nALum
vazhuttAy manamE magizhdu.

kOdai pirandavUr gOvindan vAzhumUr
sOdimaNimADam tOnRumUr nIdiyAl
nalla battar vAzhumUr nAn maRaigaL OdumUr
villiputtUr vEdakOnUr

pAdagangaL tIrkkum paramanaDi kATTum
vEdamanaittukkum vittAgum kOdai tamizh
ai aindum aindum aRiyAda mAniDarai
vayyam sumappadum vambu!

I wish I could get hold of a recording my guru singing the nammAzhvAr pAsuram, oodumattInkurkE in Ahiri. I'm sure it would be a treat. Dr SR's PhD focused on the music in silapadikAram and nAlAyiram. He even published a book on the music in nAlAyiram, which unfortunately is out of print now.

I don't know if you know Smt. Padma Veeraraghavan and her brother, Dr. V Sadagopan. Both have done yoeman service to koDAi nAcchiyAr. My grandmom and mom were a student of hers for over 25 years and 15 years, respectively.

BTW, I recently heard SrI u. vE Velukkudi Krishnan svAmi says kOdai means mAlai in tamizh. Since periyAzhvAr did puSpa kainkaryam (making garlands) for vaTapatraSAyI at villiputtUr, he named her so. ANDAL also affectionately calls svAmi rAmAnujar as kOyilaNNar (Brother from SrIrangam) after he offered 108 vessels of akkAra aDisal (kheer) to tirumALirumsOlai kaLLazhagar since ANDAL wanted to offer it in her nAcchiyAr tirumozhi pAsurams.

[rshankar]

Krsihna - I thought the sanskrit name for ANDAL was gOdhA, and in the usual 'k', 'g' confusion between tamizh and sanskrit, it morphed into kOda/kOdai in tamizh...

[Pratyaksham Bala]

akkAra-aDisil :-
akkAra is derived from Sanskrit 'akshAra' (without salt, meaning sweet); aDisil (Tamil) means cooked rice.

[ksrimech]

rShankar-I was quoting from a VKS upanyasam I heard recently.

http://music.ibiblio.org/pub/multimedia ... lyanam.mp3

[arasi]

Krishna,
I am familiar with the two verses that you quote (most are who know the tiruppAvai). But the first verse is new to me What a gem!

[ksrimech]

Arasi - The pAsura ratnam is by our nAyaka ratnam, svAmi maNavALamAmuni (ramyajAmAtrumuni). In context to ANDAL's birth, svAmi says

inRO tiruvADippUram yamakkAga
anRO ingu ANDAL avatarittAL kunRAda
vAzhvAna vaikunda vAn bOgam tannai igazhndu
AzhvAr tirumagaLArAy!

Both these gems come from svAmi's upadEsarattinamAlai.

http://www.prapatti.com/slokas/tamil/up ... maalai.pdf
http://www.mamunigal.freeservers.com/urmintr.html

[venkatakailasam]

Andal suprabadam rendered by Selvi Umachandra Maheswari in three parts are at the following links:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ay2Xn9WGAE

'E'-SWARA-01-uma Chandra maheswari-Andal SupraBadam-Part I of 3.flv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdpnj6Np ... re=related

'E'-SWARA-02-uma Chandra maheswari-Andal SupraBadam-Part II of 3.flv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq8CYQDU ... re=related

'E'-SWARA-03-uma Chandra maheswari-Andal SupraBadam-Part III of 3.flv

venkatakailasam