Divine Love: The Bridal Mysticism of Andal

Abstract

Abstract

Introduction: Mankind’s history has witnessed many forms of expression of devotion (bhakti) including its expression as love.

Methodology: In this article, we explore the love of Andal, belonging to the Vaishnavite tradition of South India, towards her chosen God.

Results: As we journey along her story and her works, we can see faith, fiction, and history merging into a seamless whole.

Introduction

The bhakti movement emanating from the Tamil land of the sixth to the ninth centuries ce described the various forms of devotion to the Lord. Some of the forms could be detailed here. The most famous and the common form is the nayaki-nayaka bhavam, where the devotee considers oneself as the spouse of the Lord. Examples are replete in the devotional literature of the country. Some of the other forms of devotion are where the devotee considers oneself as an equal friend of the Lord (a famous example is that of saint Sundarar, one of the four great saivite nayanmars); the other form is where the devotee becomes an abject servant of the Lord (for example, saints Appar and Manickavachagar of the saivite canon belong to this cadre); another common form of devotion is where the devotee considers oneself as the mother and the Lord as one’s child (Periyalvar considering himself as Yashoda and Kulasekhara Alvar seeing himself as Kausalya are famous examples).

Andal’s divine love for the Lord of Srirangam is a touching and unusual hagiography of the world. Some of the biographical details are to be found in one of our earlier articles. ¹ The only woman among the 12 Alvars, Andal, lived in the ninth century ce. Her name literally translates as “the one who rules the Lord.” She is believed to have been found as a baby, underneath a holy basil plant, in the temple garden of Srivilliputhur, by the temple’s garland maker, Vishnuchittan (also known as Periyalvar, another of the 12 Alvars). He named her Kodhai (meaning “garland”). Her father caught her once wearing a garland meant only for the Lord and he chastised her for doing so. That night Lord Vishnu appeared in his dream and told him that He preferred the garlands Andal had worn as she was His bride. As a young woman she fell in love with the Lord Himself and eventually married Him. Legend goes that when she was around 16, she merged with her Lord at the Srirangam Temple. Since then, she has existed as myth and deity. Her two poetic works are Thiruppavai (the path to Krishna) and Nachiyar Thirumozhi (the sacred songs of the lady), which are part of the Naalayira Divya Prabandham. The Thiruppaavai comprises a collection of vows taken by young women to obtain a good husband; in Andal’s case, the Lord Himself! In the Nachiyar Thirumozhi, Andal sings of her individual need for sexual congress with her chosen god.^{2- 4}

Andal’s love for the immortal lord of Srirangam, not excluding the erotic form (sringaram), the physical and the emotional excitement, separation pangs, pining away, and other details of a mortal’s union with the immortal, transcendent one, is vividly described in her Nachiyar Thirumozhi, her grand work which is part of the Naalayira Divya Prabandham (considered equivalent to the sacred Vedas by the Vaishnavites). ⁵ She describes her marriage, performed with the usual Vedic rites, to the immortal Lord, in very minute detail. Initially, she makes a request to Kaman (the god of love) and his brother to make the Lord love her. She sends her message of love to the Lord through the clouds (compare Kalidasa’s Meghaduta) and the bird cuckoo. She complains of her sleeplessness and the wasting of her body resulting in the slipping away of her bangles from her wrists.

The unusual love of a mortal devotee for the unattainable had drawn the attention of the great Vijayanagar King Krishnadevaraya in the sixteenth century ce, who wrote her biography called Amuktamalyada (meaning “the giver of the worn garland”). The great warrior king was an erudite scholar in Telugu. He took the assistance of other great scholars of Sanskrit and Tamil of his court. The love of Andal for the great Lord is described in minute detail, including erotic ones. He is rather open on these matters, compared to various oblique references by the poetess-saint Andal.^{3,6, 7}

We reproduce below a few verses from the English translation8 (by Archana Venkatesan) of the Nachiyar Thirumozhi.

In these verses, Andal requests Kaman (the god of love) and his brother to make the Lord love her:

In the month of Tai

I swept the ground and drew sacred manḍalas.

In the beginning of Māci

I decorated the street with fine sand.

After all this adornment for beauty’s sake, O Anaṅga

I asked you and your brother:

“Is it still possible to live?”

Unite me

with the lord of Vēṅkaṭam

the one who holds in his hand

the discus tipped with fire.

O Manmatha!

I cooked fresh newly harvested grain.

I offered you sugarcane, sweet rice, and flattened paddy.

And learned men praise you with great words!

Coax Tiruvikrama

who long ago measured the worlds,

to caress this delicate waist and these broad breasts

and great will be your glory in this world.

In this verse, she beseeches the Lord not to playfully destroy the sandcastles built by her and her friends, at the same time subtly conveying her distress caused by her longing for him:

We gathered sand in a broad pot,

scattered it in a winnowing fan and built our sandcastles.

What is your pleasure in ruining our play?

You touch them, you kick them,

O how you torment us!

You hold the flaming discus in your hand

Lord, dark as the ocean

do you not know that even sweetness is bitter

to a sorrowful heart?

Here, we can see Andal asking the cuckoo to call the Lord to her:

My bones melt and my eyes

long as spears

resist even blinking.

For days now, I am plunged into a sea of distress

and I ache to attain

that great boat, Vaikuṇṭha

but I cannot see it.

O kuyil, you too know

the anguish of separation

from a beloved.

Summon the immaculate lord

whose body is like gold

whose banner bears Garuḍa

to me.

Then we can see Andal describing her dream, in which she marries Lord Vishnu, to her friend:

Surrounded by a thousand elephants, Nāraṇa

my great lord strode through the festive streets.

Every threshold was decked

with bright banners and auspicious golden pots.

Such a vision I dreamed, my friend.

We were smeared with vermilion and cool sandalwood

then he and I together rode on the elephants

and circled the festive streets

They drenched us in fragrant waters.

Such a vision I dreamed, my friend.

Andal has a question for Panchjanya (Lord Vishnu’s white conch):

Are they fragrant as camphor? Are they fragrant as the lotus?

Or do those coral red lips taste sweet?

I ache to know the taste, the fragrance of the lips

of Mādhava, who broke the tusk of the elephant.

Tell me, O white conch from the deep sea.

At times, dark clouds are her messengers:

Dark clouds ready for the season of rains

chant the name of the lord of Vēṅkaṭam

that one who is valiant in battle.

Tell him, like the lovely leaves that fall in the season of rains

I waste away through the long endless years

waiting for the day when he finally sends word.

Andal longs to be united with her Lord:

The world exalts the one

who hoists the banner of victory imprinted with Garuḍa.

His mother raised him to bow to no one

and he is as bitter to me as the margosa tree.

Press my flawless breasts

to the youthful one’s beautiful shoulders

broad as palm trees

bind them tightly to him

and end the sorrow of my separation.

The story goes on to say that Vishnuchittan (Periyalvar) despaired as to how he could fulfill his daughter’s improbable desire. At that time, Ranganatha, the lord of Srirangam, appeared in Vishnuchittan’s dream and directed him to bring Andal, dressed in full bridal regalia, to his temple. He promptly did as directed and arrived with his daughter in Srirangam. And there, witnessed by devotees, kings, Lord Vishnu’s attendants, and her father, Andal boldly strode into the sanctum sanctorum, climbed atop the beautiful image of the reclining Vishnu and simply disappeared.

Thus is Andal’s story, in which history, fiction, and faith could merge so seamlessly! ⁴

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.