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#Andal

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The Goddess works in mysterious ways. Forgive me if the comparison invokes great distaste, but the speech on Andal that got heads roiling has brought about the same effect that Mr. H. Raja's speech had on Mersal the movie- Andal is trending now! So when everybody is busy picking sides or watching the clash between the fervent believers, and the intellectual agnostics, the hallowed dame walks in unnoticed to get herself acquainted with the group of newbies abuzz with one ringing question: who is Andal ? I will refrain from taking you all the way down my memory lane to how my cousin and I as young girls were ushered by our late grandmother into the 4'o clock Margazhi mornings, abuzz with the sound of the alluring Thiruppavai verses sung with raw devotion by those unassuming women in that small, brightly lit Krishnar Kovil in Uthamapalayam. But this was where I first encountered Andal. Andal to many Tamils like me is synonymous with her works of poetry. Some see the
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The Angry Goddess who we love, unabashedly.

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Dark, unclad, red-eyed and undomesticated. Wild and sovereign, magnificent beyond all possible definitions. Immeasurably beautiful and terrifying beyond comprehension. The figure that evokes fear, confusion and even repulsion in the uninitiated, is the same form that evokes love that knows no depths in the hearts of the faithful who behold Her as the Eternal Mother. Image depicting Mother Kali of Kalighat temple, Kolkata. I was inducted into Kali worship at a tender age, when I was taken to a humble, unassuming shrine in Theni, housing a 3 foot high figurine of the female deity identified as Veeramaakali Amman (Veera - Valour; Maa - Great; Kali Amman - Mother Kali : adds up to 'Mother Kali of Great Valour'); my maternal grandmother (Ammachi, as we say in Tamil), said : "They call Her the powerful, angry Goddess; but you should regard Her as your own Mother, fearing Her only when you go wrong." As it is, I developed a genuine affection for the Angry G
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The Other Side of the Feminine.

Loving, nurturing, patient and tame. That is what a woman is perceived to be, expected to be. The face of the moon, to the world below, she is. But what of the other side?  Why is Gauri worshipped and Kali feared in many parts of the world? Why is mankind afraid of the wild, uncontainable form of the feminine? Why are the protective, sacrificial and persevering aspects of a woman highlighted and celebrated as against the downplay of her territorial, defensive and vengeful attributes of self-interest? When Gauri as a concept is conceivable and agreeable, man relents to fear and denial when confronted with the notion of Kali.  Gauri exists because Kali does. Mythology warrants that Gauri arose from Kali. Woman is by nature powerful, sovereign, independent and untamed. For she is nature personified. Nature does not perceive favourites. It protects and destroys simultaneously and nonchalantly, with an absolute sense of definiteness.  Nature sets the arena for
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