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Triplicane Vijayaraghavan • May 31, 1995 


Hello,
	This has reference to badri's posting reg nNappiNnNnai2
badri wrote:
nappinnai is not aaNdaaL. aaNdaaL herself refers
to nappinnai in thiruppaavai on many occasions.
That nappinnai is an adjective + the proper name
pinnai is quite obvious from the mentioning of
pinnai elsewhere in the prabandham (eg. pinnai
maNaalan in periyaazhvaar, don't remember offhand
the exact place).
-------

Just because aaNdaaL refers to nappinnai, i dont think that way. we
cannot conclude that she she wouldn't have referred herself. It should
be viewed this way: the "bhavam" in which the author conveys something
should be given utmost importance.  The entire thiruppavai is set in the
aayarpaadi backdrop. the author assumes herself as one of the aayar
chiRumi. the self identity of the author- a pious brahmin girl, is not
at all brought to light throughout the literary work.  the author
herself is one of the characters of the drama which is a separate
identity not to be confused with the author who just gave the work to
the world.  the drama consisting of 30 paasurams, talk about calling the
aayar girls early in the morning for praying krishna,...etc. one of the
aayar girl is the author herself, the nNappiNnNnai who is aaNdaaL. when
u look at the 18th paasuram, "unNdhu madha kaLiRRaNn Odaatha ..nNanNdha
gOpaNn marumagaLE nNappiNnNnaay.." nNanNdhagOpaNn is krishNnaNn's
father. the author who was madly in love with krishNa, and always dreams
of marrying krishNa and becoming nNanNdhagOpaNn's marumagaL, just
introduces herself as one of the aayar girl character and satisfies her.
 i think no other character fits in this particular context of
nNanndhagOpaNn's marumagaL. 

Other than this, it has been in our family's practice to name the girls
who were born in "pooram" nakshatram as nNappiNnNnai. ( thiruvaadip
pooraththil chegaththuthuththaaL vaazhiyE) 

another anecdote comes to my mind regarding this. raamaanNujar who was
an ardent devotee or even more than that of aaNdaaL, once was going
along the streets of sriraNGgam on an early morning maargazhi day
singing thiruppaavai. he was crossing periya nambi's house and was
singing unNdhu mathagaLiRRaNn. when he was singing this particular line,
" nNanNdhagOpaNn marumagaLE nNappiNnNnaai.." ,periya mnambi's daughter,
"aththuzhaay" (tamil name for thuLasi) came out to draw kOlam in front
of her house. raamaaNnujar who was all the while thinking of aaNdaaL
immediately, overcome by the devotion to aaNdaaL, went near aththuzhaay
and fell on her feet. then periya nambi came out and realised this and
explained. ( i am 90% sure, it is periya nambi, if wrong pls let me
know)

viji


-- 
Vijayaraghavan T. R.
viji@coe.wvu.edu