These last verses of the Tiruppvai constantly reiterate the simplicity of the cowherding community. Nandagopa guards him fiercely, yet the girls sing a song of protection for him (Tiruppvai 25). Though he is the primordial one, he is born in the dead of night and is raised in secret (Tiruppvai 24). His accessibility and their naïveté have bred an easy familiarity that lulls them into forgetting his omnipotence. Suddenly, like Arjuna in the Gt, the gops are awakened to the realization of Ka’s vastness and his transcendence. They appeal to him to forgive their chiding, their intimacy and informality, understanding that they achieve greatness (like the moon shining with reflected light) because he chose to be raised among them.

In Tiruppvai 28, the gops’ simplicity is expressed through their apparent desire for material comforts. They only seek to eat, to sleep, to survive and therefore need—no, require—god’s intervention to orient them to a higher goal, which is Ka. This is of course ironic for the girls have expressed both overtly and subtly that their ultimate goal is union with Ka. For instance, in Tiruppvai 20 the metaphor of bathing is used to evoke their desire for sexual union with Ka, where sexual union is itself a metaphor for a metaphysical joining. Nonetheless, nowhere prior to verse 29 do the gops explicitly reject the desire for the paai-drum or material comforts, eschewing these in favor of an eternal bond with Ka.

Tiruppvai 28 is understood as equivalent to Bhagavad Gt 18.66, which is known as the carama loka. In that verse, Ka tells his friend, the warrior Arjuna:

Relinquishing all sacred duties to me,
make me your only refuge;
do not grieve,
for I shall free you from all evils.³

’s version is interpreted as expressing this central tenet of rvaiavism, with a particular emphasis on the fundamental character of aragati (surrender), which is likened in rvaiava theology to a rope that binds the devotee to god. The reality of the nature of aragati is encapsulated in the phrase aivu oum illta yakkula (lit.we are cowherds with no wisdom). They are incapable of doing much more than follow their cows around. They are only fortunate that Ka was born among them.

The commentators further unpack the gops’ assertion that they are without knowledge, by saying that the usual paths to moka—the paths of desireless action (karma mrga), discerning wisdom (jñna mrga), and exclusive devotion (bhakti mrga) are beyond their abilities. If they could adhere to these paths, they would never be separated from Ka. However, being as they are simple folk, Ka’s advice that they should reach him by their own effort is useless. Ka therefore has no choice but to accede to their requests.

The commentators make the above argument through a striking poetic contrast in the verse. The gops characterize themselves as aivu oum illta yakkula (lit.cowherds with no wisdom). In contrast, Ka is praised as kuaivoum illta Govind (lit.O faultless Govinda). It is of some significance that Ka is addressed in the vocative, almost exclusively as Govinda, not just in this verse, but also in Tiruppvai 27 and 29. In order to fully apprehend the significance that this epithet has in the commentaries for the Tiruppvai, one must examine two rhetorical moments in the verse. The first is the phrase that qualifies the epithet Govinda—he who is without fault. The second is the phrase that occurs later in the poem, when the gops implore Ka to forgive them for calling him ciu pr (lit.small names).

As pointed out above, the epithet Govinda is preceded by the phrase kuaivoum illta, which generates the meaning that he (Govinda) is without fault. However, the phrase may be split in two ways: kuaivoum illta govind (Govinda who has no lack) or kuai oum illta govind (faultless Govinda). These two derivations are interpreted to produce a plethora of meanings. Because Ka fulfills all their wishes, the gops feel no lack (kuaivu) with respect to their merit (puya). As he gets rids of all of their transgressions (ppa) they have no lack (kuaivu) in this respect either. He is without lack (kuaivu) as he always aids all struggling sentient beings (cetana). When Viu felt that there was something lacking in Vaikuha, he took birth among the cowherds to fulfill this lack (kuaivu). He is without fault (kuai) and is therefore the upya (way) and one can abandon all other useless sdhana (practices). However, as there is such a vast difference between the humble and ignorant cowherds and the immaculate god, Ka wonders if anything actually binds him to complete the task the girls have placed before him. For the commentators, this question is answered partially in Tiruppvai 28, but merits a full exposition in the Tiruppvai’s penultimate verse.

A partial answer to this question comes with the exegesis of the phrase ciu pr, which literally means “small names,” implying an easy familiarity between the gops and Ka, which allowed them to assume all kinds of liberties with him. In the commentaries this idea achieves a full-fledged explication, where ciu pr is understood as actually implying its opposite. That is, the girls ask Ka’s forgiveness for addressing him as Nryaa, Padmanbha, and so on. These names are apt only for the lord who resides in Vaikuha. It is a name that distances him from his devotees and is indicative of his paratva (transcendence). For this reason, it is the ciu pr or the lesser name. Govinda is the more suitable address, because it gestures to his accessibility (saulabhya). But how does one reconcile this reasoning to girls’ exclamation iaiv (lord) at the end of the verse? Commentators suggest that iaiv denotes Ka’s lordship over the gops as the king of cowherds and does not indicate his over-lordship over the gods.

The phrase ciu pr is interpreted in still one more way. Since it is not qualified with a pronoun (uai, you) it is also interpreted to refer to the gops. In waking each other (Tiruppvai 6–15), they chastised, mocked, and teased one another. In doing so, they called out to one girl as py pe (ghost girl), mai (mute), ceviu (deaf), and so on, which are characterized, in this context as diminutive speech (ciu pr). They beg forgiveness for their harsh speech, but defend it by protesting that they were overtaken by the zeal of their quest.

Tiruppvai 29 is arguably the most significant verse of the text because it distills later rvaiava notions of interdependence between god and his devotees as well as the manner in which aragati (surrender) must be undertaken. Therefore lay rvaiava devotees are often exhorted to recite just this one verse in order to accrue the benefit of reciting the poem in its entirety.

It is in this verse that the longed for paai-drum is explicitly rejected—a gift requested or alluded to a total of eight times over the course of the poem (Tiruppvai 1, 8, 10, 16, 24, 25, 26, 28). In the commentaries, the paai, just like the Mrkai npu itself, is but a pretext (vyjya) that allows the gops access to Ka. Their true goal is to be of eternal loving service (nitya kaikarya) to Ka, a goal already obliquely established as their true goal in Tiruppvai 6–15, where various girls were urged to join the quest. Having faithfully observed all the ritual injunctions necessary for the completion of their vow—bathing before the break of dawn, abstaining from particular foods, participating in a community of like-minded devotees—the gops argue that Ka is their just reward.

In the commentaries, anticipating an unfair argument that ritual alone may be an insufficient cause for Ka’s grace, the girls revert to evoking their naïveté and simple-minded nature. While someone may mistake them as karma yogis, because they attempt to do their duty (Tiruppvai 28), they do so only because they are motivated by the desire to eat, thereby nullifying the very concept of desireless action. If one were to say that they undertake a kind of pilgrimage every time they enter the forest while following their cows, they respond by saying that these are but ordinary forests, not one like Daaka, made sacred by Rma’s presence. Ultimately, the girls’ approach is to impress upon Ka that they are incapable of deep philosophical thinking and are only capable of acts of loving worship. Ka is clearly one of them, having been raised as a cowherd (Tiruppvai 1 and 25), and therefore is beholden to them and cannot deny them their request. Not only must he allow the gops to perform their acts of loving service, but he must accept them as well. If he refuses them, then his birth among them as a cowherd would be for naught.

In the commentaries, the final lines are interpreted as representing one side of a dialogue, namely that of the gops. The commentators supply Ka’s questions and responses to the questing girls. Thus, Ka is imagined to have replied to the gops’ arguments highlighted above that he would indeed gift them the paai. It is in response to Ka’s deliberate misapprehension of their request that the girls explicitly reject the symbol of their vow—the paai. To them the paai is simply pururtha kaikarya (the goal of life as loving service to god). They claim that even if Ka resides in Vaikuha, they would follow him there intending to fulfill their desire. However they express this desire by saying iai-p-paai kov govind—“Govinda/We have not come here/for the paai-drum” “.” Hearing this Ka teasingly responds that the gops desire to serve him today, for they appear to reject the paai explicitly only for today. It is in response to this perceived criticism that the commentators suggest that gops immediately demand to be attached to Ka for eternity (lit. seven times seven births), implying that they wish to be inseparable from him—like Lakm, St, Rukmi, and Nappiai.

It is important to note that a virtually identical phrase (seven times seven births) makes it appearance in the sixth section of the Ncciyr Tirumoi, where dreams of her wedding to Ka. The verse is as follows:

Nryaa is my lord for this birth
and every birth that follows.
He clasped my foot in his perfect lustrous hand
and placed it upon the ammi.

Such a vision I dreamed, my friend.

Ncciyr Tirumoi 6.8

Like so many of the verses between Tiruppvai 6–15, Tiruppvai 29 also begins by invoking the very early morning, a time that precedes actual daybreak. In those earlier verses, the sleeping girls are admonished for sleeping too long and are impelled to join the ritual journey because the rest of their group is already awake and alert. Here, the gops suggest that for a similar reason Ka should grant them their desires. After all, they are young girls unused to waking up so early and observing so difficult a vow. Moreover, it is really Ka who should have come to them, but their love for him is so great, their need to serve him so profound, they have abandoned their modesty to attend him in this way.

If in the opening verse of the Tiruppvai, Ka’s face is characterized as that which dispels suffering, in this penultimate verse, the focus is entirely on his feet. His feet (pomarai ai: lit. golden lotus feet) are as special as gold, and as beautiful and fragrant as the lotus. The commentators point out that the girls emphatically state that even if they were asked to sing the praise of his crown or the head upon which it rests, they would not do so, for as they declare in Tiruppvai 25, there is glory only in his feet. Not only are his feet the place of refuge, i they also describe the community of devotees who serve at his feet (aiyr). Viucitta makes precisely this point in his Tiruppallu 2, saying that he praises Viu along with his fellow devotees (aiymum). Alluding to the second verse of the Tiruppallu is particularly apt, because Periyvr contends that there is an unbreakable and inseparable bond between god and his many devotees (aiymum nitum pirivii yiram pallu: lit. we [aiym] and [um] you [ni] are inseparable [pirivii] for many thousand years [yiram pallu]).

In Tiruppvai 5 the girls suggest the following:

. . . let all our past misdeeds
and even those still to come
burn
and turn to ash.

At the conclusion of Tiruppvai 29, the gops’ request is altered. They do not ask Ka (Govinda) to destroy their other desires (maai nam kmam), but rather that these very desires are sublimated (mu: lit. transform/change) into the transcendent desire of serving him.

Tiruppvai 30 (Vakakkaal)

The final verse of the Tiruppvai is the phala ruti and summarizes the benefits that one achieves from reciting these thirty verses. A phala ruti ends a poem or occurs at the end of a section (usually a decad) of a longer bhakti poem. So, for instance, a phala ruti concludes almost each of the fourteen sections of the Ncciyr Tirumoi.

The phala ruti is a kind of meta-poem and is often composed in the third person. This shift in poetic voice is of particular interest for the tension it creates between a first-person voice within the poem and the third-person point of view in the phala ruti. While this does not become an issue in the Tiruppvai, for it concerns a community of devotees rather an individual voice, the conflict becomes marked in the verses that conclude the Ncciyr Tirumoi decads. This tension is further heightened in the Ncciyr Tirumoi where the decads concern loss, separation, and unrequited love, while the phala ruti’s optimistic tone assures the fulfillment of desires of the poem’s readers and listeners.

The phala ruti is significant also for the limited biographical information it provides about the author, and the poem In addition to recounting the merits of reciting or listening to the poems, these verses also divulge precious tidbits, revealing the name of the author, a place of birth or patronage, the name of an important fellow devotee and often lavish descriptions of their favored cities.

As discussed in the introduction, from the phala rutis of the Tiruppvai and Ncciyr Tirumoi we can glean minimal information on ’s life. We can infer that she was closely associated with another important Vaiava who lived in the city of Villiputuvai (Viucitta Ktai: lit. Ktai of Viucitta). Hagiographic tradition has interpreted the several references to Viucitta in her poetry to establish that was his daughter. However there is nothing in these concluding meta-poems to indicate that this is in fact the case. In the phala ruti verses, (who refers to herself in the third person as Ktai) compresses the relationship with Viucitta to an ambivalent possessive case. She simply says, without qualification that—as in the phala ruti of the Tiruppvai—she is paar pir ktai (the chief-priest’s Ktai) or elsewhere that she is viucittai viya ktai: “Viucitta’s beautiful Ktai.” Contrary to his hagiography that paints him as a humble garland maker, in ’s phala rutis, Viucitta is the head of the Brahmins, the chief priest of Putuvai, a great devotee with a special bond with Viu that even the great god dare not break. But nowhere does she establish, in any clear way, a kinship relationship with him. Please refer to the introduction for further discussion of the relationship between and Viucitta.

From the sparse information contained in these verses, we can speculate that most likely lived in the city of Villiputuvai (modern-day rvilliputtr) because she describes it in loving and extravagant terms. From her account, the city emerges as a cultural and devotional center, filled with virtuous priests, glorious mansions, and good people. In her imagination, Putuvai was yarpi. In the phala ruti verses, she describes herself as beautiful and more specifically refers to herself variously as Ktai of curly tresses, Ktai whose brow surpasses Viu’s bow, Ktai of slender waist, much in the vein of a young girl admiring her own youth. In the Ncciyr Tirumoi, these extravagant verbal self-portraits become all the more heartbreaking for they simultaneously lament its loss, because of her unending separation from her chosen beloved.

There has been considerable discussion on the authenticity of these verses—if in fact they were sung by the “original” authors, in this case, . As Norman Cutler observed in Songs of Experience, in some instances it is impossible to omit the phala ruti as in the case of Nammvr’s Tiruvymoi, which is written in the style of antti, where every last word of a verse becomes the first word of the following verse. Removing the phala ruti would disrupt the organic order of the text. Though the Ncciyr Tirumoi does not follow this particular prosody, there is an inherent structure to these verses that functions much like the garland she calls them. Most phala ruti are the tenth verse of the section and often refer back to the previous verses. Having adopted the rhetoric structure of a decad of verses for each section, the omission of the phala ruti would disrupt the structure of the poem. In three cases, the phala ruti is the eleventh verse (sections 4, 5, and 6) and in some cases, the phala ruti is not really a phala ruti, because it does not mention the merit of recitation, though it mentions Ktai and has all the other distinctive features of a phala ruti.

The argument that the phala rutis represent later anonymous additions to the text to praise the poet (in this case, ) is an important but problematic assertion. Medieval bhakti literature and the later rvaiava commentarial tradition have created a special genre called taiya or laudatory poem that serve precisely this need. These taiyas are often appended to the beginning of the poem for which they are composed and included in liturgical recitation. Not only do these poems highlight the significance of the text, but they also praise the poet, the great merit of the poem, and sometimes allude to the benefits of reciting the poem. For the rvaiava sampradya, the taiya has become inseparable from the poem to which it is appended. Uyyakor (10th century C.E.) composed a Tami taiya in two verses for the Tiruppvai, and Parara Bhaar (11th century C.E.) composed one in Sanskrit, also for the Tiruppvai. Two Tami taiyas of a later date (12th or 13th century C.E.) for the Ncciyr Tirumoi have also been composed. See appendix 1 for a translation of the taiya verses to the Tiruppvai and Ncciyr Tirumoi.

Aside from this debate of authenticity, there is a facet of particular interest in ’s phala ruti verses. The dynamic established between the preceding text of longing and anguish ends always on a note of fulfillment—even if that fulfillment is for the audience reciting/hearing the text. Somehow, the narrative of ’s longing will bring the devotee closer to Nryaa. This is not a suggestion or even a speculation on the part of . As far as the poet herself is considered, her verses (even if they are despairing as in the Ncciyr Tirumoi) have the power to pave the path for the eager and diligent devotee.

In the Tiruppvai, verses 28 and 29 explicitly state the reward for steadfast devotion. This is reiterated in the phala rutis, except the devotee now does not need to undertake a similar vow. Rather, she can vicariously practice it by reciting the Tiruppvai, which, according to the poet, is sufficient to win Viu’s grace. Unlike the beginning of the poem, where the rewards are listed in material terms, the poem ends by simply asserting its efficacy in achieving the grace of god, as if to emphasize the message of the final two verses (28 and 29).

As mentioned above, the phala ruti is written in the third person and is the only hint that the Tiruppvai is a frame narrative. That is, the poet Ktai imagined a poetic situation where young gop girls undertook such a vow and won the paai from Ka. It is of course unclear if she imagined herself to be one of these gop girls. Certainly, the commentarial tradition is ambiguous on this point, though the hagiographic tradition, at various points, collapses the plural gop voices with the singular voice of .

In the phala ruti, the poet Ktai characterizes her Tiruppvai in the following manner: ktai coa caka-t-tami mlai. Quite literally, this phrase would mean “the garland (mlai) of Caka Tami that Ktai spoke.” The commentarial gloss on the word Cakam indicates that it refers to the legendary Tami literary academies (Cakam), and her use of the word in the poem indicates that she believes in its devotional and literary merit. In fact, its literary excellence is of utmost importance to its success as an efficacious religious tool. It is clear from allusions in several verses in the Ncciyr Tirumoi that was aware of her Tami literary past, and that as an accomplished poet took pride in extolling the poem’s high literary quality. In what are certainly poetic conventions, in Ncciyr Tirumoi 9.10 she refers to her poem as cen tami (pure Tami), in 12.3 as ceñcol mlai (garland of pure words), and in several instances to it as tya tami (pure Tami).

Though the most obvious meaning of the phrase Cakam Tami is “Tami of literary merit or strong Tami,” the actual commentary takes its exposition of the word Cakam, and specifically the phrase, caka-t-tami mlai in a different direction. The aforementioned line is thus interpreted as “a garland of songs meant to be recited, enjoyed, and practiced together.” Here the word cakam is taken in its literal meaning—that of coming together, a gathering, a joining, an association, or society. If one takes this interpretation seriously, then the phala ruti ends with an emphatic assertion of one of the central themes of the Tiruppvai—that it is best and most efficacious to love god with like-minded companions.

vaka-k katal:

“the ocean with its many waves. “The word vaka presents some problems for the translator. The word can mean wave (from the Sanskrit bhaga) or a bend in the river. It can also refer to Bengal (vaga), and thus to the Bay of Bengal. In the commentaries, it is taken as referring to the ocean of milk, or the ocean upon which ships sail. I have interpreted it in the most obvious meaning, as waves.

NOTES

1. Miller, Barbara Stoler. The Bhagavad Gita: Krishna’s Counsel in Time of War. New York: Bantam Dell, 1986.

2. Jagannathachariar, C. Tiruppvai: Textual, Literary and Critical Study. Madras: Tiruvallikeni Devasthanam, 1982. p. 32.

3. Miller, Barbara Stoler. The Bhagavad Gita: Krishna’s Counsel in Time of War. New York: Bantam Classic, 1986.