Andal’s Prabhandhams: NaacchiyAr Thirumozhi

 AndAL, the foundling daughter of Vishnuchitthar, PeriyAzhwAr, grew up in a parama Bhagavatha family and began to identify early on Lord Krishna as Her beloved. She adorned the garlands woven for the Lord by Her dear father to see if She would be an appropriate bride for Her Lord. Her father was upset over the apachAram committed by his daughter through this act and discarded that garland worn by Her as unfit for the Lord. He created another garland that day and presented it to the Lord of Srivilliputthur, Sri Vatapathra Saayee. The Lord appeared in Vishnuchitthar's dream next morning and told him that He preferred the garland worn by Andal because it carried Her body fragrance. From then on Vishnuchitthar presented to the Lord only those garlands worn first by his daughter, the Soodik Koduttha NaacchiyAr.

As Andal reached marriageable age, She refused to be considered for marriage to any one except the Lord Himself. She dreamed about Her marriage to the Lord in Her other Prabhandham, NaachiyAr Thirumozhi. This Prabhandham is filled with the intensity of feelings of Andal seeking the Lord as Her bridegroom, Her Lord's indifference, Her suffering as a result of that and finally Her aanandham over His sevai at BrundhAvanam as Raajagopalan. Some thing wonderful happened thereafter.

NAcciyAr tirumozhi consists of 143 pASuram-s. That is why we praise ANDAL as “oru nURRu nARpattu mUnRuraittAL vAzhiyE”. The 143 pASuram-s are organized in 14 segments, each one called a tirumozhi. Thus, the first set of 10 pASurams – the first tirumozhi, is called “tai oru ti’ngaLum”, based on the first phrase of the first pASuram. Similarly, all the other tirumozhi-s are named based on the first few words of the first pASuram of that tirumozhi. Each tirumozhi deals with one specific topic. For example, the first tirumozhi starts with a plea by ANDAL to kAmadevan for his help in uniting her with her nAthan, emperumAn while the 8th tirumozhi called “viNNIla melAppu” deals with kOdai telling her plight to the clouds and sending them as her messenger to gOvindan, who is stationed in tirumalai. The remaining tirumozhi-s are dedicated to different efforts by ANDAL to somehow speed up her union with perumAL. In the process, she goes  through lots of impatient waiting, and finally in paTTi mEindOr kArERu tirumozhi, she is reunited with perumAL. One can view nAcciyAr tirumozhi as godA devi’s advice to us on how a jIva in this life should dedicate itself single-mindedly to attaining the paramAtman. What we see at display is the intensity with which this effort should be undertaken, and the impatience that the jIva should feel in achieving this objective at all costs, until the objective is realized. In samskRt, this is called tvarA - it means unbearable haste or speed. An example given to illustrate tvarA is a fish-out-of-water that tries to get back into the water one way or the other to save its life.

Smt Padma has sung the nAcchiyAr thirumozhi with bhakthi and bhava. Click here to listen to her rendering.

Click here for the complete annotated commentary on Nachiyar Thirumozhi  by Smt. Kalyani Krishnamachari and Oppiliappan Kovil Sri U.Ve Varadachari Sadagopan  

Andal Thirukalyanam

The Lord of Srirangam appeared in the dream of Vishnuchitthar after Andal completed the NaacchiyAr Thirumozhi and commanded him to bring his daughter to Srirangam for Her marriage with Him. Vishnuchitthar obeyed he Lord's command and travelled with his daughter to Srirangam. When Andal reached the sanctum sanctorium of Her Lord, RanganAthan at Srirangam, She climbed over the bed of Adhiseshan and merged with Her Lord.