ತಿರುವಾಡಿಪ್ಪೂರಂ, ಆಂಡಾಳ್ ಜಯಂತಿ | Thiruvadipooram, Andal Jayanti

Thiruvadipooram, Aadi Pooram in everyday Tamil, is the birthday of Andal, the one woman among the twelve Alvars, the poet-saints of the Sri Vaishnava tradition. It falls on the day of the nakshatra Pooram, which is Purva Phalguni, in the Tamil solar month of Aadi, when the Sun is in Karka, in July or August. Sri Vaishnavas keep it, and its centre is the Andal temple at Srivilliputhur in Tamil Nadu, where she is held to have been born.

Andal

The Sri Vaishnava account says that Vishnuchitta, the Alvar known as Periyalvar, found an infant girl under a tulasi plant in the temple garden at Srivilliputhur and brought her up as his daughter. He named her Kodai. She grew up resolved to marry no one but Vishnu. The garland her father made each day for the deity she would first wear herself; and when this came to light, Vishnu is said to have made it known to Periyalvar in a dream that he wanted the garland she had worn. From this she is called Chudikodutha Sudarkodi, the radiant one who gave the garland she had worn. The account ends at Srirangam, where she was united with Ranganatha as his bride.

Her two works are in Tamil and belong to the Nalayira Divya Prabandham. The Tiruppavai, thirty verses, is recited through the month of Margazhi; the Nachiyar Tirumozhi is the longer of the two.

How it is kept

At Srivilliputhur the Aadi Pooram festival draws thousands from across Tamil Nadu. It marks Periyalvar’s finding of the child, and its high point is the drawing of the temple car, to which the deities are brought in decorated palanquins. The car is a very heavy one; it was not drawn for some years before 2000, and has since been fitted with hydraulic wheels so that it can be moved.

The same star in Aadi is also kept in the Tamil country as a day of the Goddess. In Shaiva temples it is the festival of Valaikappu, at which glass bangles are offered and then given out.

Which day Anudina gives

Anudina gives the day on which Purva Phalguni is running at sunrise while the Sun is in Karka, the Tamil month of Aadi. A solar month sometimes holds the same star twice, once near its beginning and once near its end, as Aadi did in 2026; the Sri Vaishnava utsava lists then keep the later, and so does Anudina. A star that touches no sunrise is kept on the day it runs.

The row is shown when the Tradition setting is Sri Vaishnava. Because it is a Tamil observance, it also needs the South Indian custom, or “Show festivals of other regions too” turned on; under Smarta or Madhva it does not appear.

The month of Aadi also holds Aadi Perukku and Aadi Amavasai. Margazhi, the month of the Tiruppavai, is the solar month Karnataka calls Dhanurmasa. For the Sri Vaishnava acharyas, see Ramanuja Jayanti and Vedanta Desika Jayanti.