ANDAL continues with the next part of her dream to her friend.
" indra and the other devAs gather together and make the proposal to
offer me in marriage to Lord ra~nganAtha. Then the sambandhi-s
converse with each other to agree on all arrangements. Then durgA,
kr*shNa's sister, helps me wear the kURaip puDavai (the sari
worn at wedding time) and I am also decorated with exquisitely
smelling flower garland".
SrI Sadagopan has elaborately explained the details of the vedic mantra-s that are chanted during the niScitArtha ceremony. The details can be found in the bhakti list archives. Please refer to the following locations:
http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/apr98/0098.htmlindiran uLLITTA: SrI PVP comments that indra and all the other deva-s came to this earth to arrange ANDAL's marriage to kr*shNa, because SrI kr*shNAvatAra has aspects of both ISvaratvam and mAnushatvam. In fact, nammAzhvAr describes indra's appearance even at the time of kr*shNa's birth - indiran tAnum ezhiluDaik kiNkiNi tanduvanAi ninRAn tAlElO (reference from SrI T.S. rAjagopAlan). Unlike this, in rAmA incarnation, rAma had decided to present Himself as a "mere human") - rAma tells the dEvas that He considers Himself a human and as daSaratha's son - "AtmAnam mAnusham manyE" - rAmAyaNam yuddha kANDaM 120-11. So indra avoided appearing before SrI rAma in Sarabhanga ASramam because it was not appropriate for him to present himself as a deva when bhagavAn is appearing in the form of a human being. brahma etc. came to the earth only after rAvaNa vadham to express their gratitude to Lord rAma.
dEvar kuzhAm ellAm vandu irundu: In spite of their natural way of not touching the ground with their feet, they came and stood determined that they will not leave till the marriage is conducted.
mandirittu: The reference here is to the secret discussions that go on behind the scenes in a marriage arrangement. Note that ANDAL's dream is very detailed in all finer aspects of a marriage.
mandirak kODi uDutti: pArvati, nArAyaNa's sister, decorated ANDAL with the wedding sari right away because she wanted to ward off any delay as implied by the famous saying that good deeds are wrought with many obstacles - SreyAmsi bahu-vighnAni bhavanti - SrI kr*shNasvAmi aiye~ngAr.
mandirak-kODi refers to the wedding sari sanctified by the chanting of the vedic mantra-s.
antari - The reference here is to durgA "who disappeared in the sky" - who became "antardhAna" in antara or antariksha - and declared to kamsa that he will be slain by dEvaki's eight son. Because she was born to yasOdA, she is the sister of kr*shNa and thus the sister-in-law (nAttanAr) for ANDAL.
antari SUTTa: To gOdA, kr*shNa's sister's sparSam (touch) itself is sweet, next to His own sparSam. She proudly declares to her tOzhi: "I got to wear the garland that His sister helped me wear by touching me."
In koushIdakI 1-34, there is a description of how a mukta jIvan is decorated by five hundred beautiful damsels in preparation for this mukta jIva's journey to SrIvaikunTham -
tam pa~ncaSatAnyapsarasAm pratidhAvanti ... tam brahmAlankAreNa ala~nkurvanti - "when the mukta purushan goes to heaven, five hundred beautiful women rush to him; hundred of them take garlands in their hands, hundred of them carry eyetex with them; hundred of them carry good-smelling powder, hundred of them take clothes with them and dress the mukta jIvan with divine alankAram.
In the same way, ANDAL gets decorated by durgai.mandirutu: mantram is "AlOcanai" or thinking and deciding on something. Here, the AlOcanai is about bhUshaNams and pItAmbarams for the bride and bridegroom.
uDutti: Some read this as "uDuttu" which does not give the right meaning (uDuttu means one wearing something). Here, uDuTTi makes more sense because it would mean "make someone else wear".
C. Additional thoughts from SrI UV:In the last pAsuram, gOdai said "He and His whole troupe (kuzhAm) came". Who are all His bandhus? vasudEvar, nandan etc were not present in gOdai's days. So it is not the people who are dead and gone that came in gOdai's dream. It is the whole gang of deva-s including indra (indiran uL paTTa dEvar kuzhAm ellAm), whose feet normally do not touch the ground, that came for the niScitArtham, descending on this earth.
In this whole tirumozhi, ANDAL very beautifully talks about the sequence of events that take place in a typical wedding.
The dream that antari is helping gOdai wear the Sari should not be taken as the event where the nAttanAr (bridegroom's sister) helps the bride wear the kUraippuDavai during the actual wedding itself. Here, it should be taken to mean that the bridegroom's sister is helping her wear the niScitArtta puDavai (Sari). The nAttanAr would have come for the niScitArttam and would have decorated the bride with the Sari. It used to be the habit of elders to ask the nAttanAr to go and help the "to-be-bride" to wear the sari in order to find out the bride's lakshaNams.
mandirakkODi: as a token of the successful conclusion of mandiram or AlOcanai, the Sari (kODi) is given. The priests chant the "uduttaramArOhanti" mandiram that blesses the "to-be-bride" to become a pleasing person so that all her in-laws are attracted to her and her "to-be-husband" will treat her with great affection.
maNamAlai: mAlai with maNam or sugandham; it could also mean bhushaNams - other necklaces - because it is not uncommon to present the "bride-to-be" with jewelry during niScitArtham.
Unlike rAma avatAram, in krshNa avatAram, kRshNa always showed His divinity from the beginning; so the dEvas were openly behaving themselves as His bandhus. Why did she choose indiran as His bandhu when brahma and rudran had higher posts of sRshTi - creation - and samhAram - destruction? It is because indiran is responsible for protecting the three worlds and he is the principal one among the dikpAlaka-s. Not only that, when bhagavAn incarnated as upEndran (vAmanan born to aditi), indiran was His elder brother.
ANDAL is a paramaikAntai; one can ask - how can she approve of indra, durgA and other anya-dEvatas? The answer is that she did not do upAsanam for these gods. They came by themselves and there is nothing wrong in welcoming them in a pleasant manner. It is the sAstram to pay respects to all the bandhus of the husband; otherwise it is like insulting the husband himself.
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