The dawn ritual
PREMA NANDAKUMAR
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When Andal decided to consecrate herself to the Divine, she chose this rite as a means to attain her end.
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Andal.
Among the living traditions of India's ancient culture, the Pavai Nonbu has an endless fascination about it. It is astonishing that a rite which goes back by two millennia and more is still adhered to by eager practitioners with a rare sense of prayerful dedication. Early Tamil texts like Nattrinai, Ainkurunooru and Kalittokai refer to the Pavai Nonbu as Thai Neeraadal. In Paripadal, young girls bathe in the Vaigai river at dawn in the cold season, perform a few rites as conducted by elderly ladies and pray to the waters for good husbands:
"My loving consort shouldn't leave me
Like the bee that rejects the used-up flower.
That joy of union be mine."
When Andal, daughter of Periazhwar, decided to consecrate herself to the Divine, she chose this rite as a means to attain her end. She transformed it as an aspiration for a yogic union with the Supreme. The Bhagavata also refers to how the cowherdesses of Brindavan bathed in the Kalindi river, performed rituals and prayed to the Mother Goddess to unite them with Krishna. It all chimed in with Andal's devotional outlook.
The thirty verses of Tiruppavai have plentiful drama as the girls go from house to house and wake up their friends. It is beautiful Margasirsa month when Mother Nature is cool and sattwik and the everyday scenarios have an enchantment that seems to touch them with the gold dust of Krishna experience. And the camaraderie of it all!
While calling upon those who take up the rite to avoid wastefulness and evil thoughts, the girls say that a rare compassion should fill our hearts towards all creation. Once all the girls have woken up, they go to Krishna and ask for the materials (parai) for performing rituals which include lamps and conches. What is this parai? A drum? A winnow, in which auspicious things are kept? Like the Holy Grail of the Arthurian legends, the parai defies our analytical mind. The Manipravala commentators assure us that parai is Andal's symbol for servitude (kainkarya) which is the desire of every sincere Vaishnava. The 29th verse makes this clear:
"This is the significance of our waking early,
Coming to you and worshipping your lotus-feet;
Born in the cowherd clan,
You must accept our humble services.
Not for immediate boons have we come,
O Govinda! For seven generations seven,
We will be devoted to you and serve you alone.
Cancel all other desires in us."
As the month of Margasirsa (December-January) reverberates with early morning recitations and special offerings in temples, serial lectures by eminent scholars and soul-enthralling dance and music performances on the stage, Tiruppavai retains its mystery when one tries to explain the verses. For each verse is a solid mandala by itself while it remains an inalienable part of the whole. Like Indra's necklace of pearls, each pearl reflecting all the rest, in Tiruppavai each verse relates to all the other 29 paasurams. One or many, it is nothing but Ananda, the sheer Delight of Existence which is the ambience of the Pavai Nonbu.
(Translations from Tiruppavai are by R. Bangaruswami)
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