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  ‘The Gallery of Upside Women’ - the title taken on from the legend of Karaikkal Ammaiyar's walk towards the Kailasapathi which we who grew up near Thiruvalangadu believe ended there. Nataraja performed Urdhva Thandava at the Ratna Sabha, and told Ammaiyar to go to Thiruvalangadu if she wanted to witness the rare dance. A modern, cosmopolitan poet, a spiritual practitioner and a researcher on lady bhakti poets was speaking about them at the book reading of the latest and the last of her trilogy.  A couple of things, very commonly found statements either touching on feminism, marginalization, emancipation etc., came up, naturally. The title of sainthood that adorned the bhaktas doesn't seem to go well either with the academicians or the city readers. Nor does the idea of saranagati (surrender or servility is the word used in general as the translation by those who think saranagati as regressive) seem to be acceptable.  Then came a question from my friend - “were the...

Vatapatrasayi January 10, 2021 – it is the 26 th day of the Tamil month of Margazhi. For all those who follow Margazhi and Andal’s Thiruppavai, today is the day of the pasuram “Maale Manivanna”. While reciting the pasuram this morning, I realized that there has been a long pending book post from my side. What is in it that, today’s pasuram reminded me of the pending book post. It is how Krishna is addressed in this particular pasuram. Andal throughout the 30-verses addresses Vishnu/Krishna by various names, Narayana, Kanna, Govinda, Thirumal and all … in this verse she begins by calling him Manivanna, gem hued lord, and finally ends with a prayer, asking for a grant from “aalinilayai arulelo”, the one who slept on the banyan leaf. Soon after I opened facebook and I found my friend Meenakshi had drawn a beautiful kolam for today’s pasuram, representing the baby on the banyan leaf, and she had also begun her explanation of the pasuram with Andal asking the one who floats on the banyan l...