Varalotti On VARALOTTI

Most Gracious Ladies and Gentlemen,

Many of you may be wondering about the origin of my strange-sounding pen name, Varalotti. It is the name of my native village which is about 40 kms from Madurai. It is near Virudhunagar and is part of the present Virudhunagar District.

Thanks to this name I have been mistaken as a Telugu writer. A fan once asked me,

‘Do you write your strories first in Telugu, your mother tongue, and then translate into Tamil?’

That set me thinking on the origin of the name Varalotti for the village, which in this siide is quite odd. Only two days back I had a great revelation. That I am connected with Telugu. And more importantly there is a connection with Aandal as well. Surprised? Read on.


The great king Krishnadeva Rayar came all the way from his capital Vijayanagaram to Srivilliputhur, the birth place of Aandal. The king was an ardent devotee of Aandal. His devotion was so much that he had translated Aandals Thiruppavai into Telugu. The kings work was in verse-form and he named it Aamuktha-Maalyatha.

The King placed his book at the feet of Aandal, worshipped her. Later in Her sannithi he released the book.

Many people had come to hear the Telugu Kings translation of Aandals verses. One of them was a Telugu-Poet living in Srivilliputhur. (Telugu is widely spoken in Srivilliputhur, Rajapalayam and the surrounding areas. Telugu is the mother tongue of the Raju’s community living in those places)

The poet’s name was Venkata Kavi. He was so impressed by the King’s composition that he immediately composed a verse praising King’s work. (We call such ‘on the spot’ compositions as “Aasukavi”)

He praised the king and said that the king was the foster son of Aandal and can be called the 13^th Aazhwar for his translation.

The king was pleased to hear the genuine words of praise. At that time Tamilnadu was under the kings rule. The king gifted a small village near Srivilliputhur to the poet.

The poet was asked to name that village. Now the poet used to worship Lord Venkatesa of Thiruppathi. So he named the village Venkata-Varalapatti. Meaning a village obtained by the grace of, by the boons of Lord Venkatesa.

The poet then shifted his domicile to that village and developed it. As it happened with all the long names Venkata Varalapatti got shortened to Varalapatti and remained so till 60 years back.

The old revenue records and wedding invitations call this village Varalapatti only.

But then it got changed to Varalotti.

There is one Venkatesa Perumal koil in that village. It was in a dilapidated condition. When as a student I used to visit the village the bus conductor would always mock at the poor condition of the temple. The bus-stop was called “Idinja Perumal Koil”.

About 6 years back some three, four families belonging to the village joined hands in renovating the temple. Ours was one of them. Another family which was living in that village till about 20 years ago took the lead and managed the whole event.

On 17^th May, 2001 the Khumbabishekam was performed in the temple. I was there to thank the Lord whose village lent its name to me.

The historic information is taken from a website.
I want to share this with you all.


With Love To All,
Varalotti

Dear Sridhar,
it is very nice to trace one's roots. Yours seem to be deep rooted. It was nice knowing about how the name was changed and has got its present form.

So so Varalotti, you are connected to Aandal amman and also to Telugu origins??! May be we too are connected now in some way ..... a long lost Telugu cousin?:)

It was highly interesting to read the way you have traced your roots back to Venkata Varalapatti. Fascinating. I have heard about Aamuktha Malyaada and never knew it was Aandal's Thiruppavai, somehow, never connected them both although the name means the precious garland worn by the lady. I always learn something new from your posts. You never fail. Thanks.

L, Kamla

It is nice and interesting to know how varalotti name came. I was curious to know and somehow had the intution that it must be related to your native village. I am also interested to know that your works are being reviewed in mayyam.com. I shall visit the site and learn more. Thanks for the info.

Dear Sridhar Sir

Fascinating explanation about Varalapatti aka Varalotti.

Many years ago, when my mom was a RI, the Thalaiyaris who bring the village accounts book and everything, always mentioned Varalotti as Varalapatti. I thought they were just joking with the name. Today I understand that thay have mentioned the village's original name being elder people.

And now I know you are connected with Srivilliputtur (my Hubby's place) and thus we share our dear ladies Meenakshi and Aandaal.
During my childhood I spent many summer holidays there the place being my maternal grandmother's. We used to beg our elder cousins to bring us to the Aandal Kovil and especially the kannadi mandapam there. At that time I also saw a movie about Aandal(forgot the name of the film) and learnt how she got the name 'Soodikkodutha Sudarkodiyal'.
You should write about Aandaal and SriVi more so that we all can learn more.

Best Regards
Vijee

Hi Sridhar
I've been little busy these days and couldn't reply any one post.
Today I just opened and I saw ur's.
I told my friend that, in this site, we've one great writer, and he is from Tamilnadu. She is also from Tamilnadu. So she asked me ur name and details. I told, but she asked what the 'varlotti' means. I told its his initial. Then the topic was ended. Today I saw this explanation.
Anyways, u r also connected to Telugu. Great. So u r our writer too.
I am proud of that.

gayathri.

Hi Varalotti from VARALOTTI,

Liked the journey to the roots. A sthalapuranam in contemporary lingo. And esp the play on casing-Varalotti on VARALOTTI--

I am amazed to hear the links that a little village near Virudunagar has with brave names in history like KrishnaDevaraya. How little we know of our rural areas? We think they are dusty and deserted- no discos or internet cafes or Macdonalds.But places like VARALOTTI have what matters- history, art, reward, Varalotti.

I get goose pimples thinking of the link with Andal.That was one divine coincidence. I must confess that everytime I read your words,'love of God' I do frown a bit. But looks like Andal really loves you.

Let me add some suyapuranam to your VARALOTTI sthalapuranam. My husband partly hails from Palamadai which I hear was bequeathed to Neelakanta Dikshitar.

Keep writing more, we are hooked on to your words!

regards
Vidya

Dear Varloo,

Actually I was not in search of my roots as Alex Halley did. I almost stumbled upon this information in another website where they are discussing my name. A very learned person there patiently explained all this things to me. I just translated it from English to Tamil and posted it here.

Thanks Varloo for being the first to respond.
regards,
sridhar

Dear Distant Cousin Kamla,

After living in this site for nearly two years I feel the relationship we all share (in spite of our place of residence, languages and culture) I feel all of us ILites share a relationship much closer than just distant cousins.

When Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam are all cousin-languages we South Indians should be much more closely related than that. And the same thing applies to national languages and Indian people.
And then onward to the level of the world. And finally come back to what our ancestor ( common ancestor) said 2000 years ago,
yaathum oore yaavarum kelir
யாதும் ஊரே யாவரும் கேளிர்
The whole world is our place and all the people are our relatives.

Thanks Kamla for your post,
sridhar

Dear Raman,

thanks for the post. I know the name of the village and some rudiments of the history of its temple.

All this history I posted here I was perfectly ignorant of, until two, three days back.
As of now only mutual introductions are going on in that site. I think after a while the discussion may heat up.

Thanks for the post, Raman.
sridhar