हिंदीOn this day
Photo: Ssriram mt · CC BY-SA 4.0
Saint

Andal

The one woman among the twelve Alvars

Sri Vaishnava tradition: early Kali Yuga · historians: 8th century CE

Andal, found as an infant in a tulsi garden at Srivilliputhur by the Alvar Periyalvar, sang the Tiruppavai and the Nachiyar Tirumoli for Bhagwan Ranganatha and, by the tradition, merged into him at Srirangam. The Tiruppavai is recited across the Tamil country every morning of Margazhi.

“In the month of Margazhi, on this good day of the full moon…”Tiruppavai, verse 1

01The garland already worn

Periyalvar, a temple gardener at Srivilliputhur, named the child Kodai and raised her on the songs of Krishna. Each day he strung a garland for the Lord, and each day, unseen, she put it on first and looked at herself in a well to see if she was fit to be the Lord’s bride. One day he found a hair in the garland and would not offer it. That night the Lord told him in a dream that he wanted only the garland she had worn. She is called Sudikkodutta Sudarkkodi, the bright one who gave the garland she had worn.

02Tiruppavai and Srirangam

Her thirty verses of the Tiruppavai imagine the girls of Gokul waking one another before dawn in the month of Margazhi to go and wake Krishna and ask for his grace. The 143 verses of the Nachiyar Tirumoli tell her longing for him. The Sri Vaishnava account says the Lord of Srirangam sent for her as his bride, and she walked into the sanctum and was not seen again. The tower of the Srivilliputhur temple is the emblem of the Tamil Nadu government, and her Tiruppavai is sung before dawn in Vaishnava homes and temples through all of Margazhi.

Andal Temple, Srivilliputhur
Place · Pandya-era temple; enlarged under the NayaksAndal Temple, SrivilliputhurThe birthplace of Andal, the only woman among the twelve Alvars, who wore the garland meant for the Bhagwan and married Ranganatha. Its tall gopuram appears on the emblem of Tamil Nadu.Read →

“In the month of Margazhi, on this good day of the full moon…”

Tiruppavai, verse 1

Places

Andal Temple, SrivilliputhurStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Andal Temple, Srivilliputhur

The birthplace of Andal, the only woman among the twelve Alvars, who wore the garland meant for the Bhagwan and married Ranganatha. Its tall gopuram appears on the emblem of Tamil Nadu.

Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, SrirangamStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

The first of the 108 Divya Desams, on an island between the Kaveri and Kollidam, with seven concentric walls and 21 gopurams. Ramanujacharya lived and taught here.