Home : Alvars : Tirumangai Alvar : Madal : Introduction

TIRUMANGAI ALVAR'S
TWO MADALS

An Introduction to the Genre

by Badrinarayanan Seshadri
March 27, 1996

In 1996, P. Dileepan posted a short note on the Bhakti List about two unique poems of Tirumangai Alvar, the "siRiya thirumadal" and "periya thirumadal".

Sri Dileepan wrote, "[Tirumangai] Alvar went against the Tamil tradition and portrayed a female performing 'madal oordhal' as an expression of intense and insatiable love [for the Lord]. Madal oordhal is extremely painful and thus the target of this action, a damsel, and her family, acquiesces for the fulfillment of the man's love. [Alvar as] Parakaala Nayaki risks public ridicule by venturing upon this 'madal oordhal', for it is forbidden for women."

This prompted Sri V. Sundar to ask for an explanation of the concept of "madal oordhal", and the context in which the Alvar composed these moving love poems. Sri Badri Seshadri, a connoisseur of Tamil literature, replied with this informative article. -- Mani

Sundar asked:

Could someone please explain the practice of "madal oordal"? I take it the explanation for it being forbidden is contained in the practice.

According to "sangam" Tamil tradition, "madal oordhal" or "madal ERudhal" is performed by males afflicted by love by a female. Roughly translated, this would mean "riding a palmyra stem".

Love, in ancient Tamil tradition, falls into two large divisions, kaLavu and kaRpu. In kaLavu, the love is instantaneous. In case of kaLavu, usually, a man and a woman fall in love at the very first sight. But, on occasions this love will be one-sided, called kaikkiLai. In such cases, the affected person will try to convey the love through his/her friends. If the love is still not accepted, the males usually take recourse to the following action:

Using a palmyra stem, the man makes a horse shaped object and sits on it. He makes a flag and paints it with his lover's figure. He will usually wear tattered clothes and spread ash(?) all over his body. His friends will then carry him around, and along the way the lovesick man will shout insulting things at the woman and her family, in the hope that the woman, unable to take the shame caused by all this, agrees to marry him.

This was a last ditch attempt the males took recourse to. tholkaappiyam poruLadhikaaram prohibits this for women, suggesting that this is not becoming of a women. While there is a mention of "madal ERudhal" in sangam works, there doesn't appear to be any effort on the part of the poets to elevate its status. However, by the time of thiru vaLLuvar's kuRaL, madal ERudhal for men has already achieved an exalted status. In addition, vaLLuvar also says that "there is no women better than the one who didn't perform madal ERudhal even when she was afflicted by love as large as an ocean."

There is a suggestion by a few that the scales of the sharp palmyra stem could cause physical pain to the person riding this. And this is why the women were forbidden to do this. I don't agree with this theory. This was prohibited for women more in accordance with the Tamil custom that a woman is supposed to have achcham, naaNam, madam and payirppu, and to come out on the street and perform madal ERudhal would imply she had given up all those! In addition the woman in her tattered clothes will be seen by everyone on the streets! So, these were the considerations that prevented the womenfolks from following this custom.

Taking this too far, various commentators of tholkaappiyam have argued about whether a woman is allowed to even think about performing this action (as opposed to really doing it!). In any case, let us not dwell deep on this topic for now.

"madal" became a type of "small literature" (siRRilakkiyam) along with other genre like "uLaa", "kalambakam", "thaaNdakam", "piLLaith thamizh", "thoodhu" etc. but was quite strict in the sense that it was always a man performing madal ERudhal, pining for a woman. Tirumangai Alvar was the first one who wrote a madal with a female performing madal ERudhal (or at least expressing her intention to do so). [There does exist a solitary stanza in veNpaa, dates not known, where a woman expresses similar intentions for a King.]

Grammar works (like panniru paattiyal, ilakkaNa viLakkam) written well after Tirumangai Alvar's time, made amends indicating that one can also write about a woman performing madal ERudhal provided the object of such an act is God Himself.

It is interesting to note that siRiya thirumadal also has a small but very engaging portion on "thoodhu" (messenger poems), where Parakaala Naayaki sends her heart as the messenger to the Lord, which alas! doesn't return back after seeing the Lord! The last few lines of siRiya thirumadal where Parakaala Naayaki details the insults she is about to hurl at her 'uLLam kavar kaLvan', are really humorous!

--badri

Sri S. Rengarajan adds:

"madal oorvan" -- an explanation. 

         kadalanna kaamam uzhanRum madalERaap
         peNNiR perunthakka thil

                  --  thiru vaLLuvar in thiruk kuRaL 
                      on "madal oorthal"
and 
         eththani marunginum magadu U madan mER
         poRpudai neRiyinmai yaana ...

i.e., the practice of madal mEl selluthal (riding the palymra stem) is not common for women, as per Tamil poetic aesthetics.

Madal Eruthal was a practice of Tamils of the sangam time. During the sangam period, the thalaivan or male lover wants to publicize that he was betrayed by his love, namely the female lover. He makes a horse made of panai Olai (palm leaves), and draws or paints his lover's picture in a cloth and hangs it as a flag for the horse and wears erukkam poo maalai (garland made of a type of ununsual flower used mostly for piLLaiyaar [Ganapati], a bachelor lord) for himself and rides in alankOlam, crying out to the public about the merciless female who betrayed him.

When Tirumangai assumed the role of a female lover (naayaki bhaavam), he threatens the Lord that if He won't present His darshanam to him, he will do madal Eruthal. He openly (outwardly) confesses his love for the Lord in two madals, the periya and siriya thirumadal. In Tamil, kaathalai kaatta madal viduththaar mangai. Though he makes reference to many temples, the madal oorthal is meant for "thiru naRaiyoor" only as per our poorvaachaaryas. 

       ooRaa thozhiyEn ulakaRiya onnuthaleer
       seeraar mulaith thadangaLai sEraLavum paarellaam
       anRu Ongi ninRu aLanthaan ninRa thiru naraiyoor
       mannOnga oorvan madal

                                -- Kamban
Tirumangai built temple walls (madhil) for Srirangam. Thus pleased by such service, Arangan, the Lord of Srirangam, presented Alvar with the honors of tirtham, parivattam, and sri sadagopam, and asked him, "aazhveer, won't you present the thirumadal prabandam for me also [in Tamil, 'thirumadal prabandangalai namakku aruLich cheyyal aakaathO'] ?"

Thirumangai replied, "mathil ingE, madal angE" -- walls I have built for here, madals I have sung for there, i.e., thiru naRaiyoor.

piLLai thirunaRaiyoor araiyar, in his thaniyan (laudatory verse) for periya thirumadal says: 

      ponnulakil vaanavarum poomakaLum pORRich cheyyum
      nannuthaleer nambi naRaiyoorar - maNNUlakil
      ennilamai kaNdum irangaarE yaamaakil
      mannu "madaloorvan" vanthu.

There is a controversy over whether Tirumangai adopted this as a male or in his bhaavam as naayaki. The expert commentaries of the acharyas point that he delivered this in his naayaki bhaavam. The question this is whether Tirumangai can adopt such a posture, as a female and adhering to Tamil culture. But the content is such that "if you are not to offer me your darshanam, though I very strongly adhere to Tamil culture, please be aware that madal oordhal is also adopted by females as per vada nool i.e. sanskrit literature, and that I will do it if you do not offer your darshanam." 

       mannum vazhi muRaiyE niRkum naam - maanOkkin
       anna nadaiyaar larEsa aadavar mEl
       mannum madalooraar enbathOr vaasakamum
       thennuraiyil keTTarivathuNdu
and "athanaiyaam theLiyOm", i.e., "mannum vadaneRiYe vENdinOm".

It is clear here that he quoted this in his naayaki bhaavam. He is very bold in citing his transgression of the protocols of Tamil culture. It is believed that an aaychchi or gopikaa who loved Sri Krishnaa, attempted to do madal Eruthal as she realises that she cannot attain HIM now. Similarly, Vegavati and Ulaabikai also were in love with the Lord and that is what thirumangai is referring as his similarities of the love for the Lord as a naayaki and "threatens" a humiliation for the Lord id he has to do madal Eruthal.

Aaraavamudhan (the Lord at Saranga Pani Koyil, Kumbakonam) loved this Alvar and the Tamil language so much that He granted such a darshanam and the Alvar dropped his idea of madal eeruthal. Since thiru naRaiyoor is the kshEthram where Tirumangai got his pancha samaskaram done by the Lord Himself, it is considerd that doing pancha samaskaaram was the darshanam and thirumanthra upadEsam was considered as the discussion of the Lord for Alvar. Hence this kshetram is the only one considered as the madal winner among the 108 divya desams (i.e., as per Alvar and Arangan's conversation).

thirumangai thiruvadikaLe saraNam
Nambikkai naachchiyaar samEtha Thiru NaRaiyoor nambi thiruvadikaLe saraNam

Sampath Rengarajan

[ Index - Next Page ]

1 Palmyra is a tall fan-leaved palm (Borassus flabellifer) of India cultivated for its hard resistant wood, fiber, and sugar-rich sap -- called also palmyra palm. [Back]
Mani Varadarajan
Last modified: Wed Mar 31 13:29:05 PST