Sri. Andavan Pichai was a Saint and Composer whose songs, sayings, and shlokas, have been sung by many, discoursed by many and inspired many. At the tender age of ten, she was divinely inspired to sing in praise of Lord Muruga (Kartikeya). Even though she never went to school and was taught only Tamil at home, the songs that poured out of her were in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.
Andavan Pichai, named Maragathavalli at birth, was a simple, gentle, serene soul, who lived life with detached attachment, the ideal expressed in Hindu scriptures,. She touched everyone who came into her presence and they were deeply influenced by her simplicity and divinity. Even after her Samadhi in 1990, her devotion to God expressed in her songs continues to touch many.
Birth: Born in the year 1899 on September 6th in Chennai, India, her birth was considered auspicious by her uncle Venkatasubbiyer and father Sankaranarayana Sastri. Both brothers were lawyers of very high standing and devoutly religious and scholarly. At the time of her birth, Venkatasubbiyer received an emerald idol of Devi Maragathavalli from the Venkatagiri Raja. Having a premonition, he named the little girl Maragathavalli. It was not surprising therefore, that she had an abundance of Devi Kataksham (Blessings) in the form of Kalpagavalli, Sharada and Rajarajeshwari and sang their praises in a state of trance.
Childhood: Valli was tutored along with her other siblings at home. Valli would often slip away and gaze with forlorn hope at she knew not what. She was dubbed affectionately with the appellation ‘Nirakshara Kukshi’, meaning a soul without knowledge of even the alphabets, by her father.
Nearing 10, made an object of ridicule by her kith and kin, for she spoke with a lisp, the child Valli looked in mute desperation at her father – (a well-renowned national poet, famous for such poetic gems as ‘Vande Mataram Ambikam Bhagavatim’ and other scholarly works like Bhoja Charitram, The Age of Sankara etc.) - trying to express the emotions churning in her heart.
One night, Valli went to bed, an aching prayer in her heart. The next morning, she got up with great purpose and went to stand beside her father. Surprised, he asked her gently, “Do you want to tell me something?” Valli nodded, closed her eyes and recited a poem, the gist of which went: “The One did become many; Creates, preserves, and annihilates; That which is beyond the reach of the Vedas, and stands Alone, such Parabrahman do I, Maragathavalli bow down to with both hands joined together in prayer that my speech may become poetry singing His praises.”
Sankaranarayana Sastri gazed in thunderstruck amazement at her rhetoric and knowledge. “Where did you come by this knowledge?” he asked. She recounted how Payyan (Lord Muruga) came to her and asked her to put out her tongue and wrote OM upon it with His Vel (spear). He then sat beside her and blessed her with divine knowledge enabling her to find the nectar of wisdom. She lost her baby-like lisp and was able to sing His praises.
A simple rendering of what she divined from one of her songs:
“Diving in the deep sea with much trouble a pearl is found,
Diving in the sea of wisdom, I found a pearl named Muruga.
Will the five senses surround me and take him away?
Will the illusion of life, the big stealer take him away?
Will the destructive ego snatch at him while no one is watching?
Will the uncontrolled mind snap at him and take him away?
Let that Murugan himself come and guard this pearl I have found.
Just like jewels are locked in a box
So should this Murugan be locked within me.”
This set Maragathavalli on a path of inspired writing about her devotion to God in His various forms: Krishna, Shiva, Devi, Muruga and so on. Nothing could stem the flow of this tide once started – not marital status, nor children, nor household bonds. The quintessence of the above poem ruled the way she lived. She performed her karmas, but always kept a part of herself away, in a detached corner, reserved for her devotion to God.
How Maragathavalli became Andavan Pichai:
Maragathavalli (affectionately called Maththa), got married at a very tender age. She went to her husband, Sri Narasimha Sastry’s house when she was older as was the norm in those days. She performed all her duties diligently, but the inner core of her was always dedicated to Lord Muruga. She would fall in a trance every now and then, and forget the whole world as she sang in praise Lord Muruga. She was asked by the elders in the house to desist from singing the Lord’s praises at all odd hours, for it could bring nothing but denigration for the family. In the world she lived in, a woman was always in the background. Since she showed a marked inclination towards spirituality, there were many who soon became her followers, which did not accord well with the conservative ideas of the time. Valli gave the requisite promise not to sing Murugan’s praises to the elders, but was miserable within. Lord Muruga came to her in her dream and promised her that a day would come when he would will free her personally from her promise and she would be able to sing his praises again.
She continued to compose spiritual songs in her mind, but kept her promise to not sing. Twenty four years later, she was freed of the promise she made to the elders by a near-death experience, when she suffered a heart attack in 1948. In her own words in ‘Charitram’, she wrote that Lord Muruga and Lord Ganapthy themselves came to free her from her dilemma. Lord Muruga assured her that it was His wish that she should sing his praises again. Even though the elders to whom she had given the promise were gone, she expressed concern that to break that promise might bring harm to the family. The Lord assured her that as promised to her 24 years ago, he had made everything alright and that He was eager to hear her, Maragathavalli, sing his praises again. He called her ‘Pichi’, one who is mad for love of him. After nearly dying, she had been granted a new lease on life and her spirit could soar again singing about Lord Muruga. That day she became ‘Andavan Pichi’ later ‘Pichai’ meaning a gift from God to her followers.
She faced an even more uphill battle to make people in her orbit accept her wish to escape from the mundane world to the world of Spirituality. But now she was able to face everything with the blessings of Lord Muruga. It was during this time that in 1952 she sang ‘Ullam Uruguthada” in Kalikamba Temple, Chennai, where it is engraved for eternity in her Murugan Sannidhi. Even as the family was growing, a part of her was receptive to Lord Muruga and she not only sang in his praise, but was inspired to sing on Shiva, Devi, Krishna, Narayana and other deities also. Andavan Pichai’s legacy will live on forever.