ANDAL's Aadi Pooram Festival at Thiruvaheendhrapuram : Mutthangi SamarpaNam on the ThEr (Aug 8 ,2005)

[Guest guest]

SrI:

 

Dear BhakthAs of GodhA Devi :

 

I am so happy to brief you that the ANDAL Muthtangi SamarpaNa

Kaimkaryam was successfully completed Yesterday (Aug 8)

at SrivilliputthUr thanks to the participation by few of you .

 

As you can imagine , this is the PradhAna festival at

SrivilliputthUr and this small village had thousands of

devotees waiting to have a glimpse of ThAyAr and PerumAl

climbing the six story ThEr to the accompaniment of

Nathasvaram , Thavil , Dheepam , Veda GhOsham and

Dhivya Prabhandham . ThEr was drawn around the Maada

Veedhis duirng the final day of Uthsavam .

 

My sister , VidvAmsini Padma VeerarAghavan made her

second trip from Chennai to Srivilliputthur to present

the new Mutthangi to ANDAL on behalf of all of us.

Earlier on Aug 3 , my sister and her crew had the bhAgyam of

arangERRam of the two hour long new dance drama based on

NaacchiyAr Thirumozhi before ANDAL and recieved Her blessings .

 

During this trip , the Bhattars adorned ANDAL with the Noothana

Mutthu KoNDai and the Mutthangi , while She was seated on the ThEr

with Her lord , RangamannAr . My sister said that the Sevai of ANDAL

was indescribably beautiful . You might recall that we had time to

complete ANDAL's Mutthangi only due to time pressures . The angis

for RangamannAr and PeriyAzhwAr will be ready only in 2 months

time and will be presented then ( ~ October 10 ).

 

The most interesting thing happened now according to my sister .

To give you the significance of the incredible sankalpam of

RangamannAr on this day of the avathAram of ANDAL, one

has to describe the structure of the constructed Mutthangi :

 

The Mutthangi is in two parts . One Part is an Upper garment like

a body shirt built on form-fitting copper plates and with velvet

over it with pearls stitched together in novel patterns . The second

part is like a form-fitting pant serving as an angi for the body from waist

down to

the ankles . The Mutthangi looks therefore like a Pant Suit in the western

parlance .

 

When the Mutthangi was presented , the intent was for ANDAL

to adorn it ( the Upper as well as the lower garments as a unit).

Something inspirational and spontaneous happened right there.

ArchakAs adorned ANDAL first with the Mutthangi Pants over

the Red Saree She was wearing and then said that the Lord can not

be left out of this special occasion and decided to adorn His broad chest

of the Lord with the upper garment of Soodikkoduttha NaacchiyAr .

The dhivya dampathis shared the Mutthangi during this occasion .

This made me think of the famous slOkam of GodhA Sthuthi ,

where Swamy Desikan visiualizes the travel of PeriyAzhwAr

from His nandha vanam carrying on His head the flower garlands

worn by ANDAL for the benefit of Her Lord (Vadapathra Saayee

That time) . Those garlands resting on a bamboo container were covered by

the upper garment of ANDAL during their travel to the Lord's sannidhi.

Sri Vadapathra Saayee , a great rasikan had the great joy of not only wearing

the garlands worn earlier by ANDAL as per His request but also enjoyed

the divine fragrance (Dhivya ParimaLam ) of ANDAL's upper garments .

 

On this August day , it was His sankalpam that must have goaded the archakAs

to adorn Him with the Upper Part of His divine consort's Mutthangi . He could

not

wait until His angi would be ready in the near future . ANDAL must have been

chuckling over Her Lord's limitless love for Her .

 

Here is the relevant GodhA Sthuthi SlOkams of Swamy Desikan :

 

ChooDApadhEna parigruhya TavOtthareeyam

maalaAmapi ThvadhaLakair-adhivAsya dhatthAm

prAyENa RangapathirEsha Bhibarthi GodhE

SoubhAgya sampadhabhishEka mahAdhikAram ---18th SlOkam

 

(Meaning) : Oh GodhE ! How can we describe the glories of Your

Upper garment ! How can be venture to describe the glorious garland

that You adorned and sent to Your Lord for Him to enjoy by adorning it ?

Your Lord takes with great affection Your upper garments that covered

the flower garlands and adorns it on His crown as a Parivattam . He accepts

with joy the garlands used earlier by You and brought to His side by Your

dear Father and He wears that also on His head .Through these acts , He

becomes filled with auspiciousness and blesses His devotees in turn with

that auspiciousness. This pride of sambhandham with your flower garlands

and Your upper garments that covered them becomes His great Iswaryam .

 

This is what seemed to have happened yesterday at SrivilliputthUr .

What Swamy Desikan visualized and recorded in the form of the above

slOkam some 700 years ago was reenacted it seems!

 

Thank you all , who particpated in the Muhtthangi SamarpaNam for ANDAL .

adiyEn expects some photos of the Mutthangi , KoNDai and the Uthsavam

soon . adiyEn will be pleased to share them with you all .

 

Sri ANDAL SamEtha Sri RangamannAr ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam ,

Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri Sadagopan