01The garland she wore first
Periyalvar, a temple gardener and himself an Alvar, found a baby girl under a tulsi plant in his garden and named her Kodhai. Each day he wove a garland for Vatapatrashayi, and each day she secretly wore it first, to see if she was fit to be the Bhagwan’s bride. When he caught her and made a fresh garland, the Bhagwan told him in a dream that he wanted only the one she had worn. She became Andal, ‘she who rules’, and her Tiruppavai, thirty verses sung in Margazhi, is recited in Vaishnava homes and temples every December.
02The gopuram and the parrot
Andal is shown with a parrot on her hand, and fresh parrots made of leaves are tied for her daily. The garland worn by Andal is sent each year to Tirumala for the Garuda Seva of the Brahmotsavam. The temple’s rajagopuram, about 59 m high, rises over the town and was taken as the design on the Tamil Nadu state emblem. Aadi Pooram in July–August, Andal’s birth star, is the great festival, with a huge temple car.
The life of this place
- 8th–9th centuryPeriod of Periyalvar and Andal, by the commonly used dating.
About 75 km south-west of Madurai. Come in Margazhi (December–January) for the Tiruppavai at dawn.
