By Kumar Punithavel
[www.monsoonjournal.com] Thiruvembavai is a festival celebrated by unmarried females to invoke the blessings of Lord Shiva. The festival is said to procure good partners for the unmarried women and also prosperity to their country. This festival is also known as “Pavai Nonpu” meaning penance of damsels.
Thiruvembavai is a liturgy of twenty verses composed by a canonized saint of the Saiva religion- Manickavasagar. During the Lunar month of Markali (December/ January) in all parts of the country where Tamils live, every devout Hindu, man and women, young and old will group themselves and go to the nearest temple in the village or town to offer prayers and sing the song Thiruvembavai. When the verses are sung in the temple, other devotees join in the singing of the hymns in soft and subdued voices. Every verse is followed by short ritual to the chiming of bells, beating of drums, the blowing of conch shells, and cries of “Arohara!” The word ‘Aro’ is the shortened version of the word ‘arogam’ which means blissful and ‘Hara’ is another name for Lord Siva Hence ‘Arohara’ means ‘blissful Siva’. The language and music of the songs fills one’s soul and mind with awe and religious emotion. The existence of the physical body is entirely forgotten for the moment and one is conscious only of the existence of the mind and soul.
“Thiruvembavai” is said to be composed by St. Manickavasagar to be sung by young damsels during the early mornings while going to the temple of Lord Shiva in Annamalai - a holy place of worship from ancient times. This penance as mentioned earlier is called “Pavai Nonpu”. This festival is performed in honor of Lord Shiva and his consort the Goddess Shakthi in the Tamil month of Markali between the second half of December and the first half of January. The verses are in the form of an address by one lady to her companion and vice versa. Traditionally the ladies of the village irrespective of age and caste rise before dawn and walk through streets rousing their friends from door to door to proceed to bathe in the holy tank in the temple. This is done for ten continuous days.
It is believed that a year on earth is equivalent to one day among the celestials! The month of Markali thus becomes the awakening of the celestial world from long a slumber. It is the dawn of a new way of life. A revolution of our hearts and minds towards a better way of life, in which religious and noble ideals play a prominent part in the triumph of mind over matter or good over evil. It is the dawn of a new creation and of secular evolution. Now this creation is the work of Sakthi, the manifested energy of Shiva, the consort of Shiva, who is the author, not of life indeed, but of the whole phenomenal system in which and by which life exerts its energies and achieves its destinies.
The hymns themselves depicting the scenes where ladies go from door to door in their neighborhood speak of the great gift and command of the Tamil Language possessed by the saint. It would be appropriate to quote one or two lines of the hymns as samples. Some maidens upon getting up from their beds before dawn go to their friends’ houses in the neighborhood, find their friends still asleep and thus exhort them as follows;
“Oh Lady of the large bright eye!-is thine ear dull
That it perceives not sound of praise that hails
The great God’s cinctured feet?”….
Seeing the dame in slumber the hymn continues
“She hears the strain resound
Through all the street, yet in forgetful sleep
On her flower-couch she muttering turns!-
See, here she nothing noting lies! Why thus why thus?
Doth this our friend beseem? – our ladies fair arise!”
Half way though the song the saint mentions how one by singing these hymns on could see the one who cannot be seen by even Mal and Ayan,
“The ‘Mount” that Mal knew not, and Ayan saw not, - we
Can know; so Thou dost utter falsities,
Oh guileful one, whose moat with milk and honey flows,
Open thy door!
The saint implores the mighty God for not waking up in the following words,
“Like wax before the fire
Melting- ‘my own, my king, Ambrosia,’ we all
Have sung! Hear thou! Apart from us yet thou sleep?
Dost thou yet speechless lie, like the hard hearted silly ones?
What grace in thy sleep?
A very solemn atmosphere is created by the solemnity of the songs and rituals, time stands still and one feels the presence of the deity himself. The devotees pay homage by lighting camphor and joss sticks.
The language used in the songs by the poet is so majestic that one becomes aware of the existence of one’s soul and the eternity of it. He feels the evanescence and vanity of mundane existence with its moods and changes. As a result he longs for higher and better existence. Perhaps every year you all can wake up early in the morning and sing these songs with your children. This year the Thiruvembavai festival will be celebrated starting from the twenty fifth of December the Christmas day and will last for ten days as usual.