ତିରୁପ୍ପାଵୈ

ଅର୍ଥ:The Tiruppavai is Andal's garland of thirty pasurams (verses) sung in the sacred month of Margazhi, in which she and her companions, imagining themselves as the cowherd girls (gopis) of Ayarpadi, take up the Paavai Nonbu vow to win the grace of Lord Krishna (Narayana).

ଅର୍ଥ:Verse 1: In the month of Margazhi, on this good day of the full moon, come, O well-adorned maidens, come for our holy bath! O fortunate young girls of prosperous Ayarpadi — the son of Nandagopa of the cruel sharp spear, the young lion of doe-eyed Yashoda, dark-bodied, red-eyed, His face like the radiant moon — Narayana Himself will grant us the 'parai' (the boon). Come, that the whole world may praise us, and take up our vow!

ଅର୍ଥ:Verse 2: O you who live in this world, hear the practices we follow for our vow: we sing the feet of the Supreme One who gently sleeps upon the ocean of milk; we eat no ghee, we drink no milk, we bathe at dawn; we do not darken our eyes with collyrium nor wear flowers in our hair; we do nothing forbidden, speak no slander; we give alms and charity as much as we can, and live thinking only of liberation — take up our vow!

ଅର୍ଥ:Verse 3: Singing the name of the Supreme One who grew tall and measured the worlds (Trivikrama), if we bathe and observe our Paavai vow, then without any harm the land will have rain thrice a month; tall red paddy will flourish, fish will leap among them, spotted bees will sleep in the blue lily blossoms, and generous great cows will fill the milk-pots to overflowing — unfailing prosperity will fill the land. Take up our vow!

ଅର୍ଥ:Verse 4: O rain-cloud, deep as the sea, withhold nothing! Plunge into the ocean, draw up its waters, roar and rise; dark like the form of the Primordial Lord, thunder like the discus in the hand of broad-shouldered Padmanabha, flash like His conch, and pour down like the arrow-rain loosed from His Sharnga bow — rain for the world's welfare, so that we too may rejoice to bathe in Margazhi. Take up our vow!