Abstract

This research paper analyses the songs of Andal and Soyarabai who were women saints from the Bhakti period which lasted from 8th to the 17th century. Andal was a saint from Tamil Nadu who belonged to the Sri Vaishnava sect. She lived in the ninth century. She wrote two collections called Tiruppavai and Naciyar Tirumozhi. These compositions are a part of the Nalayira Divyaprabandam, a compilation of pasurams of all the twelve Azhwars. Azhwars were poet-saints from South India who were devotees of Vishnu and their songs called pasurams were drenched in their devotion and longing for their God.

Soyarabai was a Mahar or Dalit by birth who lived in the early fourteenth century Maharashtra, near Pandharpur. She expressed her love for Vitthala, her chosen God through her compositions which belonged to the genre called abhanga. She is known to have written many abhangas but only sixty-two of them are known today.

The paper studies a selected number of pasurams and abhangas with a view to understanding the devotion of Andal and Soyara, comparing and contrasting their songs.

Key words: Andal, Soyarabai, Pasurams, abhangas, Azhwars, Warkari, Bhakti movement

Research questions:

Andal and Soyara belonged to the bhakti era. They wrote songs of love and devotion towards their chosen Gods. While they were cohorts, how similar or different were their songs in terms of bhava, bhakti, poetics and philosophy? What is the relevance of their songs for practicing musicians today?

Introduction:

The Vedic period enforced upon people a God who was addressed in reverence and singularly by men. Women were relegated to the secondary position of someone who assisted men in their religious pursuits. Rituals and religious activities were conducted in the language of the elite- Sanskrit. And then came the Bhakti era. For the first time in history, women saints came to the forefront with their poetry. And they chose to write in their mother tongue, wearing their heart on their sleeves. “Now the moment God begins to be addressed in the mother tongue, the language of children and the family, all sorts of human emotional experiences become relevant to religion. All the family relationships become part of the bhakti repertoire. God becomes a mother, a father, a child, a lover — not just a lord and master”. (Ramanujam, 1992)

The period from the tenth century onwards has seen the rise of many women saints such as Akka Mahadevi of Karnataka, the inimitable Meera bai of Rajasthan, Rupa Bhavani, Habba khatun, Arnimal of Kashmir and a host of other women saints from other parts of India.

Singing in their own tongue granted these songs a greater credibility and the singer a sense of ownership while making it accessible to the community at large. “Sanskrit is the stagnant water of the Lord’s private well,” said sant Kabir Das in one of his Dohas, whereas “the spoken language is the rippling water of the running stream.” The rationale behind choosing the works of Andal of Tamil Nadu and Soyara bai of Maharashtra is to undertake a thematic study of the compositions of these saints from two different geographical places and absorb the differences in their approach while at the same time explore the possibility of unity of thought or expression amongst these two poet-saints. Bhakti may be of many kinds though we speak of it singularly, says A.K Ramanujan. The paper seeks to study the differences in Andal’s and Soyara’s bhakti. Keeping in view the interests of a musician, the paper will also study the musical elements of the pasurams and abhangas: a study of bhava, meter and the musicality of the compositions.

The research methodology will involve secondary research in studying the songs of Andal and Soyarabai. A few of their compositions will be chosen for an in depth analysis, comparing and contrasting the style of their poetry, meanings, social message and philosophy. The research objective is to explore the possibility of an unity of thought in their poetic expressions and the philosophy that they professed. The study will not delve too deeply in the aspects of bhakti and bhakti movement as these have been amply covered in the past by historians, scholars and researchers who have studied Andal extensively.  While there has been comparative analysis of the works of these saints, compositions compared and contrasted at a philosophical level, the musicality of these songs is relatively less explored.

The paper will benefit practicing musicians who are interested in not just performing these songs but to understand the context and import of the pasurams and abhangas. Youtube links of two songs from the two saint’s repertoire have also been shared here to illustrate my conclusions.

The compositions are in two regional languages-Tamil and Marathi for which the translated songs have been used for the analysis. To deepen the study, experts and scholars in this area were also sought for their inputs on the compositions. 

Scope of the study:

Much of what we know about these poet saints is through their songs. So, the scope of the study will be the songs of these two women saints. Written in Tamil, Andal’s compositions comprise of thirty Tiruppavais and one hundred and forty three verses of Nachiyar Tirumozhi. For this paper, thirty of Andal’s pasurams from Tiruppavai and thirteen abhangas of Soyarabai will be studied. The qualitative research will involve a detailed study of these compositions and translations of each of them. Based on a study of these compositions, their translations and an in-depth literature review, a few of their compositions will be identified for an in-depth study. These compositions will be studied to compare, contrast and explore the possibility of unity in thought and expression. The research will be done from the point of view of a musician with the intent of making the compositions available for singing on concert platforms.

Andal and her works:

Andal was a poet, saint and a goddess. She is the only woman saint and the youngest amongst the twelve Vaishnav saints called Azhwars. Her compositions were a part of the Nalayara Divya Prabandham (The Four Thousand Divine Hymns), a compilation of Azhwar’s hymns.  Azhwars were poet-saints from South India, so called because they were immersed in their devotion to the Hindu god, Vishnu. They believed in the direct access to their God without any intermediary. They composed Tamil songs of longing and ecstasy written directly addressing their God. Andal lived in the present day Srivilliputtur, a town in the Virudhunagar district of South India. Born to a priest father called Vishnucittar, who himself was a revered Azhwar, Andal was born into the tradition of Sri Vaishnava Sect- of eloquent literary expressions of devotion and longing through their songs.

Andal’s first text Tiruppavai is a collection of poems which is joyous and celebratory. Her second text Nachiyar Tirumozhi is a record of her thoughts of longing expressed poetically directly to Lord Ranganath. This paper has taken up Tiruppavai for its study and analysis.

In Tiruppavai, Andal garners the cowherd maidens of Ayarpadi who pray for an ideal spouse for themselves. Ayarpadi is a village near Srivilliputtur, the place of birth of Andal. The text is divided into three sections and each verse has eight lines. The set of thirty compositions were composed as community based prayer and are meant to be recited or sung in the spiritually uplifting Tamil month of  Margazhi which corresponds to the month of December to January.

The life of Soyarabai and her work:

Very little of Soyara’s life is known outside of her own compositions. Her songs allude to the fact that she was a Mahar or Dalit by birth. Soyarabai and her husband Chokhmela belonged to the tradition of warkari (travellers who undertake pilgrimage periodically) and as followers of this tradition they were both highly spiritual. Maharashtra saw the beginnings of the Bhakti movement from the thirteenth century onwards. And so, with illustrious predecessors like Sant Dnyaneshwar and Sant Namdev, Chokhmela and Soyarabai followed the same path of devotion and made their own valuable contributions.  With her husband Chokhmela as her spiritual guru, Soyarabai expressed her love for Vitthala through her own songs. While most of them were devotional in nature, some of them also brought out the day-to-day atrocities that she and her husband bore being a Dalit. Many of her abhanga actually give us a glimpse of the imbalances and injustices of the society she lived in. “Soyara has an acute awareness of the injustice she faces but she also has a philosophical ability to confront the contradictions of the caste system. She expresses this in her abhang where she comes across as an independent woman with the keen sense of the ridiculous.” (Bhagat and Pinto 2020, 26). Soyara has questioned the caste system, the role of the Brahmins, the patriarchy and just the normal daily absurdities of life. She has spoken equally about her love for her God Vitthala as pure- she saw herself to be no different from Him.

Analysis:

A brief analysis of compositions of Andal and Soyara:

Andal wrote the Tiruppavai when she was barely a teenager.  She belonged to a lineage and a sect with, what Kamala Ganesh calls, fully worked out theology and temple centred liturgy, rituals and practices. (Ganesh, 2021)

This made Andal an integral part of temple centred ritualistic practices. It’s important to keep this in mind while analysing her compositions.The idea of satsang or pursuance of spiritual goals in the company of like-minded people is at the heart of Andal’s Tiruppavai. She activates all the maidens of Ayarpadi right from the first Pasuram meant for the first day of Marghazhi and one each for everyday through the month. In the first Tiruppavai, Andal makes a reference of abundance in Ayarpadi (cīr malgum āyppāḍi) and what comes through her Pasuram is the easy accessibility of the Lord especially when juxtaposed with Soyara’s difficult life, seen through her eyes as a woman from a marginalised community.

The idea of a community-based prayer and a common local God held true at the times of Soyara.

Soyara belonged to the warkari tradition, wherein the devotee undertakes two pilgrimages a year to Pandharpur, the Vitthala temple, singing abhangas in praise of the Lord. Soyarabai’s abhangas were composed by her while she remained in her grihasth stage, one of the four stages in the Hindu asrama system. Her songs were descriptive and not dogmatic.

In direct contrast to Andal’s times of stability and abundance, Soyara lived in tumultuous times. Politically, Maharashtra was fast coming under the control of Delhi and the Bahmani Sultanate. Socially, Soyara and her husband were marginalised and often faced deprivation and discrimination. While they lived very near the temple, Soyara and her husband were not allowed into the premise.  “Pandhariche brahmane Chokhyahisi chhaleele, Tyaalagi kele navale deva”, she says on caste and the tyranny of the upper-class Brahmins. Her compositions vacillate between disappointment in her Lord and complete faith in Him. While she maintained that God was generous, “Tumhee Keshav udaar” she also admonished Him for not being of help, “Kiti kiti bolo deva, kiti Karoo ataa heya”. Andal on the other hand was privileged. That she belonged to a Brahmin family and had close links to the local temple made the Lord very accessible. Each one of the other eleven Azhwars is believed to represent a part of the Lord Ranganath such as His mace (Kaumodaki gada) or conch (panchajanya) or sword (Nandakam). Andal stood apart in that she was believed to be a reincarnation of Bhu Devi. After her life, Andal attained the status of consort of the Lord.

Andal’s Pasurams are more often heard being recited in temples or at homes as part of puja. They were more likely to be chanted like the Vedic chants.Whereas verses from prabandhan point to the fact that these were sung by the composers themselves, “paavin innisai paadi thirvene” (I will sing your glory, Lord). 

Dr Sunil V.T argues in his paper “A journey through Prabandas” that Prabandhas may have disappeared today but the structures of Rāga, Tāla and all other elements prevalent within the music of today are all derived from Prabandha and its traditions. “Thus, Prabandha is, truly, the ancestor of the complete gamut of sorts of patterns of sacred- songs, art-songs, dance-songs and other musical forms created since 17th century till this day and age.”. (Sunil V.T, 2008)

In an interview with Revathi R of kucheribuzz , Madurai T.N Seshagopalan says, “Though the pattern of these verses is in Iyarpu or Viruttam, they have music in them”.

Sangita Kala Acharya B.V Raman and B.V Lakshmanan are known to have set a few verses to lighter Carnatic ragas but not too many recordings exist. Recently music director Ilaiyaraaja released an album called Divya Pasuram which showcases eight pasurams chosen from the said four thousand, which includes one of Andal’s pasurams. Seshagopalan expressed his interest in preserving about 800 verses in about 20 to 30 ragas. He hopes that these may well be sung by the future generations in concerts. As Harikatha and religious discourses have gained in popularity, so have pasurams. Pasurams however still remain very much restricted to the repertoire of a few Carnatic singers performing for audience that understands Tamil.

Abhangas on the other hand have been a part of concert performances both in Carnatic and Hindustani genre. The Marathi poet Samarth Ramdas travelled to Tanjore in the 17th century to introduce abhangas to Carnatic singers at the royal court of Maratha king. Which is why abhangas are sung equally by the Carnatic and the Hindustani singers. Aruna Sairam, Ranjani-Gayatri from the South and musicians from the Maharashtra and Darwad belt like Bhimsen Joshi, Kishori Amonkar are known to sing abhangas as part of the classical performance. In fact, there are also specially curated festivals such as Bolava Vitthala for abhangas. Presently the poetry of women bhakti saints have come under the lens as these are seen as early signs of feminism. The free and unfettered voices of Andal and Soyara definitely call for our keen attention and in-depth study.

Conclusion:

Andal’s poems belong to post- Sangam era, loosely falling into the mould of paripaatal, the earliest and the finest representations of devotional genre. Her songs followed the prosody, poetics and the linguistics of that of Prabandham that were composed by Azhwars before her time.

Soyara’s songs followed the poetic metre called Ovee which was the style initiated by sant Dnyaneshwar and Namdev. Abhanga was a form of Ovee. Both Andal and Soyara

were aware of and influenced by the prevailing literary work and followed the same syntax. Both were a part of cultural festivals. Their devotion was aligned with the local temple, the pasurams praised the 108 pilgrim temples while abhangas were an ode to the Pandharpur temple. Abhangas are sung largely in the Maharashtra belt whereas pasurams are chanted in the temples of the South and Badrinath in the north.

The two saints led very different personal lives. Andal had the luxury of making her choices and the support of her father and the society at large in doing so. Soyara was discriminated against. Her songs did not find popularity as many of them were a critique on the prevailing societal practices.

Soyara followed a rich tradition of women Bhakti saints of the Warkari tradition and many more followed in the times after her. On the other hand, there was only one-woman saint in the Vaishnava tradition of Azhwars and that was Andal. The question that arises is why were there no more women bhakti saints from Tamil Nadu after Andal’s time. Was it because she was seen as someone too divine to emulate? Andal is said to have merged with the Lord Ranganatha when she was brought to the temple by her father on the eve of her marriage to the Lord. Soyara never entered the temple premise but she nonetheless is believed to have merged with her Lord Vitthala in spirit. As she says in one of her abhangas “Avagha rang ek zala”:

In a similar vein, Andal in her 29th pasuram, cittran ciru kale, discloses that all she wants from Him is for Him to accept her antarang kainkaryam, personal service.

The two saints who lived very different lives shared but the same goal- aikyam (Unity with the Lord). The above mentioned abhanga and the 29th Pasuram illustrates this emphatically. Both achieved it but the difference lay in them after life. The name Andal means ‘one who rules’ and so she did while Soyara faded into obscurity.

Acknowledgement:

I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Ruchika Kedar Bartake, Assistant Professor, Department of Music at Vishwakarma University, Pune for her support and guidance. I wish to also thank Dr Meera Rajaram Pranesh (Managing Trustee at Vanamala Centre for Art and Culture) for her valuable guidance in writing this paper.

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