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Re: Andal's greatness - Smt Vathsala Srinivasan's Question

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TCA Venkatesan • November 28, 2002 


Dear Sri Nanmaaran,

These are not my views but that of our acharyas. Before
I note what our acharyas have said, I want to point out
again something I mentioned in the first post. Whenever
we praise one acharya or azhvar or a specific bhAvam of
theirs etc, we need to remember that we are using nahi
nindA nyAyam. That is, just because we say that it is
a great bhAvam or the acharya is unmatched and so on,
we are in no way putting down the other bhAvams or other
acharya/azhvars. This is the way of our acharyas. 

For example, in the case of Andal they would say she is 
great because nAyika bhAvam came naturally to her, but 
then they would turn around and state the Nammazhvar is 
great because he could assume the nAyika role. This is 
just a way of celebrating each acharya/azhvar/avatar and 
simply shows that they enjoyed every one of them to the 
greatest extent possible.

Coming to your questions, I will state directly from our
acharyas.

Sri Periyavcaan Pillai starts 3000padi vyakhyanam for
Thiruppavai as follows: the difference between ordinary
men and Rishis is that of an atom and a mountain; the
difference between Rishis and Azhvars is the same; the
difference between Azhvars and Periyazhvar is the same;
the difference between Periyazhvar and Andal is the 
same.

(Does this mean that Periyazhvar is lower than Andal? I
don't think any acharya will say that. Just that this
is the way Andal is praised. Periyazhvar gets similar
praise in other vyakhyanams.)

He then states: "purushan purushanaik kaNdu 
snEhippathilunkAttil Sthree purushanaik kaNdu snEhikkai 
paLLamadaiyAkaiyAlE".

4000padi says: "thAngkaLAna thanmai azhinthirukkas
seythE nAcciyArdasaiyAga anyApadEsaththALE pEsi
anubaviththArkaL. ivaL piRanthittAL ennumApOlE
anyApadEsaththALE anubhavikka vENdAthE... sthreethvaththai
udaiyavaLAyirukkum."

So, as you can see it is our acharyas that have praised 
that her nayika bhAvam came naturally to her.

4000padi also says: "ivaLukku Or anyApadEsamuNdu.
athAkiRathu bhrAhmaNi idaicciyAgai. kulam tharum enRu
avanukku aNNiya kulamiRE kulamAvathu."

Again our acharyas praise the yadava kulam as the true
srivaishnava kulam.

Our acharyas state that Andal is great because she 
received the knowledge from 11 azhvars being the
only child for all of them. They also state that she
received her beauty and qualities from the Lord 
Himself while the pirAttis gave her their svarUpam
and svabhAvam (thus her bhAvam is natural to her
-  "thamappanmAraip pOlE AkkanAna peNmaiyanRu 
ivaLathu" - 4000padi).

Hope this clarifies.

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan
TCA Venkatesan

--- Nanmaaran  wrote:
> 
> Dear Shri Venkatesan,
> I beg to differ from your view..
> 1. While they had to take on nAyika bhAvam, Andal did not
> have to
> do any such thing. Nayika bhAvam came naturally to her...
> How can a Female having nayika (Female)baava superior to
> born Male adopting nayika baava? Infact we appreciate
> male actor performing female character than female actor
> doing the same in generic terms.. With your point " stree
> praayam itharam jagat" will become untrue..
> 2. But her greatness lies in the fact that she took on an
> even greater bhAvam 
>     that of the gOpikas.
> 
> Nammaalwar has sung "ennai thaanaaki ennaal thannai" in
> thiruvaaymozhi 7th pathu- 9th thiruvaaymozhi..
> 
> And Periaalwar has sung in baavaa of  Mother and Father. 
> 
> Are these baavaas inferior to GOPIKAS? Cannot be.
> 
> So "aazhwar than cheyalai vinji niRkum thanmai" can't be
> these. 
> 
> Kindly comment and clarify.
> Regards,
> Nanmaaran

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