Andaal is one of the most greatest saints of Sri Vaishnava Bhakti movement. She was the only woman among the 12 Azhvaars. The few details that we can gather from the story of Andal is that she was the daughter of Sri Vishnucitta (another Azhvaar - popularly called as 'Periyaazhvaar'). Her father established the supremacy of Lord Vishnu at Pandya court. He built the temple tower(Gopuram) of Srivilliputtur with the prize money received at the court. From Andaal's 'Tiruppaavai', it is found that the year in which she undertook 'paavai nonbu'(a vrata to attain Vishnu as her husband), Jupiter set after the rise of Venus in the early morning after twilight on the full moon day of Tamil month Maargazhi (Tiruppaavai 8 an 13). Her date as given by traditional texts is unacceptable as they say that she was born about 5000 years ago. We know that her period was somewhere in the post-Kalabhran era as her father attended the Pandyan court and the language of her works are post-Sangam Tamil.
Now, we try to find out the year in which Tiruppaavai could have been composed keeping in mind the astronomical phenomena mentioned above. People have tried to claim that Tiruppaavai was composed in 736 CE or even in the mid 9th century CE. The latter is based on the assumption that Vallabha Deva Pandyan mentioned in Periyaazhvaar's hagiography must be Srimara Srivallabha (830 CE – 862 CE). This assumption does not hold water as it is very common to write the name of a person in Sanskrit as the translation of his Tamil name. As such 'Vallabha deva' must be a translated name as 'Srimara Srivallabha' would have been identified by his own name rather than simply 'Vallabha deva'. The date of 736 CE is not possible as this was the period of Tirumangai Azhvaar (contemporary of Pallavamalla Nandivarman) who was the last of Azhvaars. Hence, Periyaazhvar most probably belonged to an earlier era.
From the works of the first four Azhvaars and the lack of personal information about them, we can conclude that they belonged to the dark age of Kalabhran era. Kulashekara Azhvaar nust have also belonged to this era as he claims that he ruled all the 3 Tamil countries(Chera, Chola and Pandya) [Perumal Tirumozhi 2-10]. This could have happened only in the Kalabhran era. For no Chera king ruled the entire Tamil land between the 6th and 10th century CE. Periyaazhvaar is placed after Kulashekara Azhvaar. It is also mentioned that he attended the Pandya court. Hence, he must belong to the post-Kalabhran era. It is stated that he attended the court when there was an assembly for 'tattva nishkarsha' (finding out the supreme truth). The most probable explanation for this would be that the Pandyan dynasty had been re-established and they wanted to revert to their ancient ways as the presence of Kalabhras had hindered their religious freedom. Now we try to find out the possible dates in which Tiruppaavai could have been composed:
10 Jan 662 Full Moon
Venus rises: 4.53 AM Jupiter sets: 5.20 AM Sun rises: 6.42 AM
30 Dec 578 Full Moon
Venus rises: 5.29 AM Jupiter sets: 6.11 AM Sun rises: 6.39 AM
18 Dec 731 Full Moon
3:29 - Venus rises 3:57 AM - Jupiter sets 6:33 AM - Sun rises
24 Dec 744 Full Moon
Venus rises: 3.43 AM Jupiter sets: 6.33 AM 5.02 AM – Mars rises
Sun rises: 6.37 AM 6.23 AM – moon sets
Among the given dates, only 662 CE and 578 CE can be considered as 731 CE and 744 CE are very late for Andal, this being the period of Tirumangai Azhvaar. Among the two years 578 CE and 662 CE, 578 CE must be the year of composition of Tiruppaavai as the Pandya ruler of 662 CE was a Jain who converted to Saiva sect. He could not be the patron of Periyaazhvaar. 578 CE is considered to be the period of Kadungon who conquered the Kalabhras and freed the Pandya country from their yoke. He was also the first Pandya ruler of the post-Kalabhran era. Being so, there is a very high chance for such a king to convene an assembly, to establish the ancient Brahminical system, in which Periyaazhvaar seems to have participated. Also the name 'Kadungon' ends with the Tamil word 'kon' which has very similar meaning to 'Vallabha'. Hence, this is the most probable period. We conclude this short essay by stating that Andaal and Periyaazhvaar belonged to the 6th century CE. The first four Azhvaars (Poigai, Bhutam, Pei and Tirumazhisai) along with Nammazhvaar and Kulashekara Azhvaar belonged to the Kalabhran era. Periyaazhvaar and Andaal belonged to the early post-Kalabhran era. Tondaradipodi and Panaazhvaar belonged to the 7th and early 8th century CE while Tirumangai Azhvaar belonged to the 8th century CE.
