Contemporary take on Andal, Arunagirinathar

Living in Tamil Nadu, one cannot miss the influence of Andal, the only female poet among the 12 Alvar’s of South India, prevalent in our daily practices. Young women are dressed up as Andal during their coming-ofage ceremonies. During the month of Margazhi , Andal’s Tiruppavai , a collection of verses written in praise of Lord Vishnu are faithfully sung all over the state. However, her second book, ‘ Sacred Sayings of the Goddess ,’ evoking questions of desire, body and gender, within a spiritual context, is almost unknown. 

The complex and generous system of Sangam poetry, which forms a constant structure in Andal’s Tamil verses, drew poet and novelist Priya Sarukkai Chabria to her ‘divine’ poetry. “Andal is an exciting figure – she’s a girl, goddess and mystic. When I read her work, it opened a new world of Sangam poetry. While not strictly following the codes, Andal stays true to the larger structure of Sangam poetry. The deeper you go into her beautiful poetry, the more you saw the many ideas of those times. She raises, from a contemporary point of view, questions of desire, gender and how deeply we can love,” she said.  

The eight-century poet-saint inspired Priya to team up with poet Ravi Shankar, to bring alive her work to a larger audience by translating the elegant couplets in Andal: The Autobiography of a Goddess . Finding a language to meet Andal was a great challenge, she confessed. “Giving voice to Andal was a great pleasure and privilege. She is extraordinary. She raises questions on women’s rage, which coming from a saint, is special. In Tamil Nadu, Andal is the air you breathe. Despite this great knowledge, there is a need to know this poet absolutely,” said Priya, who will conduct a series of readings in the city, as a part of the annual ‘Poetry with Prakriti’ festival.  

V Pradeep Kumar and Srinivasa Goutham of Poorva Productions have attempted to recreate the journey of Arunagirinathar, a saint-poet from the 15th century, renowned for Tiruppugazh, poems in Tamil praising Murugan, in their musical-documentary Arunagiri Perumale . While many are acquainted with Tiruppugazh, few are aware of the man behind the verses. 

“To capture Arunagirinathar’s life, we visited around eight different temples across Tamil Nadu, where the saint-poet sang his iconic verses. Each of these temples form an important theme in Arunagirinathar’s journey. Through contemporary music by Pradeep, the saint-poet’s verses spring to life in this documentary. This is a narrative of Arunagirinathar’s experiences through Pradeep’s lens,” said Goutham, who believes that the film format and contemporary tunes will connect with a global audience. The film will be screened at Goethe Institut on December 12 at 7 pm.