Sri:

These are the poems composed by abiraami battar. The 100 poems praise the Goddess Abiraami.

To my knowledge, the story goes like this:

People in Thiru Kadvoor (The place in which the Mother Abiraami is) were not liking Abirami Battar because of his abnormal behaviours. He was always enjoying with his immersed thoughts about the praise of the Goddess Abirami. and not at all botherd about the worldly matters.

When the King of Tanjore, Saraboji made a visit to the town, these people told Abirami Bhattar and his abnormal behaviours. The King went to the temple to worship the Mother. At that time, Bhattar was in meditation thinking about Mother's gloring face. At that time, King approached him with due respect and asked him what the day (Thithi) it was. Without realising the actual day as a New Moon Day (Amavasya), Abirami Battar mentioned to others that the day was a Full Moon Day (Pournami). Every one laughed at him.

The King went angry and ordered to burn him alive if his words (i.e., Full Moon Day) fail. He was put to test from a hanging platform with lots of fire underneath. Abirami Battar realised his statement and put the blame on Goddess Mother. He said to her that I made this mistake only because of you as I was immersed in your thoughts. He started singing about the Goddess Abiraami in 100 slokas, so beutifully sung.

The songs come under a class of Tamil poetry called "Andhaathi". This means, the next poem should start with the ending from the previous one. One should be able to appreciate the talents and God's grace in Abiraami Battar to sing all these beautiful 100 songs in one night. One more speciality of Abirami Andhathi is, there is no starting and ending. The first verse starts with "udhikkindra sengathir utchi thilagam...." and the 100th verse ending with " ...... udhikindravE".

The end of the story goes like this: Goddess Abirami pleased and appeared (kaakshi) before him and thrown her ear-ring (Thadanga or kundalam) in to the sky which enlightened the whole sky like a full bright moon after Bhattar completing the 79th verse, "vizhikke arulundu vEdam sonna .....". Everyone worshiped the Goddess and her majestic powers. The king requested his apologies to Abiraami Battar.

Vijayalakshmi Mallikarjunan, Griffin, Georgia, U.S.A.

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