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thiruppavai day twenty song twenty

From the Bhakti List Archives

Ramani Naidu • January 3, 2003 


DAY TWENTY-SONG TWENTY -TIRUPPAVAI

Transliteration

muppaththu mUvar amararkku mun cenRu
kappam thavirkkum kaliyE thuyiLezAy
ceppamutaiyAy thiralutaiyAy ceRRArkku
veppam kotukkum vimalA thuyiLezAy
ceppanna menmulaic cevvAy ciRu marunkul
nappinnai nankAy thiruvE thuyiLezAy
ukkamum thattoLiyum thanthu un manALanai
ippothE emmai nIrAttElOr empAvAy.

Translation

Wake up, Dispeller of the devasÂ’ distress,
Devas three and thirty held safe.
Fastidious in grace, the Valorous and the Pure, wake up!
Fevered do become foes in fear of you.
Lady Nappinnai of narrow waist, ruddy lips,
Soft breasts like golden cisterns.
Goddess of Wealth, wake up!
Bestow on us the fan and mirror.
Enable us to bathe with Krishna.

The maids continue with their invocation of God and Nappinnai in the
twentieth song too.
God is the dispeller of the distress of the devas. Even the devas are not
beyond distress is often reiterated in Hindu mythology. They are also not
aboveboard. There are stories of transgressions on the part of the devas and
their subsequent prayers to forgive them and save them from curses. There
are also stories about devas being subjected to oppression by asuras like
Ravana and Kamsa. In all such instances, God is said to have hurried to
their succour. ‘mun cenru’ is interpreted in two different ways. “To dispel
distress even before they occur” is one interpretation. “To earnestly go
forward to dispel distress” is another interpretation. By far, the latter
interpretation appears to be more appropriate. God, of his own volition,
goes forth to dispel the distress of the devas. ‘kappam’ can be either
distress or subjugation. Both ways, they are to be dispelled. The next
address therefore falls naturally in place – fastidious in grace. It is not
only the readiness to dispel the distress but also the valour to do so that
is being ascribed to God. The mere thought of God is enough to fill the foes
with the fever of fear.
The three and thirty devas referred here are the ashtavasus, ekatasarutrar,
tvatacatityar, two acvinidevadas.
The implication for the maids is far more important. If God has condescended
to be so zealous about the distress of the devas, will it not be more
commensurate with His divinity to be much more concerned with the well-being
of the maids?
The longing which implores God can better be understood in a Christian
context also. Hopkins was a Jesuit priest and poet. In one of his sonnets,
he regrets the plight of the devoted. The title of the poem is ‘Thou art
indeed Just, Lord’. The poem reads as follows: “God is indeed just if one is
content with Him. But how can one be content with Him when all oneÂ’s
endeavours end in disappointment even as all the sinners prosper? The
vegetation is lush green. The birds build their nests. But the devotee
builds nothing. He has become the timeÂ’s eunuch. All these despite the fact
that God is the devotee’s friend, not an enemy.” This sense of frustration
makes the poet sad and feel terrible. But he concludes the poem with an
earnest prayer: “Send my roots rain.”
The prayer at the end of the poem at once atones for the note of complaint
in all the previous lines. The devotee, despite his complaints and puzzle
about human predicament, is desperately in need of rain – ‘send my roots
rainÂ’. The prayer also becomes urgent.
It is a similar despodency that the maids seem to imply here though in
different terms. The impossibility of living without communion with God is
explicitly declared in the twenty eighth song also. ‘untannotu uravel
namakku inku olikka oliyatu’ – the relationship between the Divine and the
devotee can never be negated.

In continuation of the sensuous element in the previous song, there is a
reference to the physical beauty of Nappinnai – soft breasts shaped like the
golden cisterns and narrow waist. ‘cevvay’ can be literally translated as
ruddy lips. It can also be translated as comely, graceful, elegant. Insofar
as Nappinnai in the South like Radha in the North is a personification of
passion for God, the term can be translated into passionate lips. Nappinnai
is also called the Goddess of Wealth. Just as Narayana has descended into
the manifest form in Krishna, Sri, the Goddess of Wealth, has also descended
in the form of Nappinnai. Therefore is she addressed the Goddess of Wealth.
The fan and mirror spoken about in this song are the instruments of the
pavai observance. On the day of her marriage to God at Srirankam, Andal took
her bath in the well there called Tiruvazhi, which is still there.
Thereafter, she was dressed for the occasion and the last item to be added
to her adornments was the garland. In the absence of a mirror readily on
hand, she is supposed to have checked her adornments looking at herself in
the reflection in the well water. This reference to mirror and a broad fan
with which kings were made to feel comfortable has perhaps a reference back
to AndalÂ’s habit of looking at herself in the mirror with the garland meant
for the deity, and later, her looking at her reflection in the well water.
Mirror and garland have become inseparable from the legend of Andal.
‘neerattel’ in the last line of the poem means ‘bathe’. “Take Kannan to his
bath with the fan and mirror on hand.” – that is one way of reading the
line. ‘emmai’ meaning ‘us’ along with the verb should mean, ‘Let us also
bathe in the august and graceful presence of Krishna thereafter”.
There is a sense of urgency in ‘ippote nirattelor empavay’ ‘ippote’ means
forthwith. The implication is perhaps, “If not now, it can be never because
we cannot live without the grace of God showered on us”.
Thus the twentieth song that appears to be a song of invocation, goes much
farther and speaks about an ontological condition in which the very
existence of the maids becomes impossible without the prevening grace of God
around them – and in context, it is the physical presence of Krishna with
them.




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