Between my second and third trips to Srivilliputhur, something shifted. I found myself in the in-between: physical stationed in Kovai, and immersed in the stories, voices, and presence of those I had met in December 2024 who had come from across India.
Over January and February 2025, I started reconnecting with the yātris I had met earlier. I’d call them, schedule interviews, and just listen. It became a kind of satsaṅg for them as well.
One group stood out as they were a few friends from around India, various ages and backgrounds, none of whom knew Tamil, and all of whom spoke perfect English. I was definitely pleasantly surprised, and it made my work with interviewing easier, since I could do it in English. They had met through a common ashram in Ayodhya, rooted in a Vaishnavite tradition. Their stories were filled with devotion, and one line from a young man in Kolkata among them still echoes within me: “Women are the negotiators and the diplomats of the community.” What a powerful truth.
He explained how women are constantly engaging with neighbors, managing relationships, upholding the emotional fabric of their communities. That was diplomacy in action: in kitchens, courtyards, community events, and temples.
Each conversation circled back to bhakti but as a lived force. The love for Andal wasn’t only personal. It created bridges between strangers, between castes, between regions. Andal’s poetry had given people a shared emotional language, even when their spoken languages were different.
And Andal herself? She had long outgrown the boundaries of Tamil Nadu.
Though her temple is the state emblem of Tamil Nadu, her reach extends far beyond. Through the Vaishnavite tradition, Andal journeyed into Andhra, carried by the verses and patronage of Krishnadevaraya. Her presence is felt in Bengal, where stories of her were written in Bengali as early as the 1800s. Through ISKCON and the Hare Krishna movement, she’s part of the devotional lives of people in Thailand, Burma, the UK, the US, and Canada.
Wherever the Vaishnavite tradition thrives, Āṇḍāḷ thrives too.
Now, in the digital age, her voice lives on in YouTube videos and Instagram posts, created and watched by people from Singapore to San Francisco. People speak and perform in Tamil, Telugu, English, French. and all of them are drawn to her. Some perform her songs through music, others choreograph dances or create dramatic interpretations. Andal is embodied through these works.
Field work is like the sound OM. There is a beginning— when you first start and are surprised by everything: A. There is a middle when you immerse in the field research: Uuuuu. There is an end: when you return home: MMMM. And then, there is a time for contemplation in silence, of what you just experienced— the Turiya before you begin again.