Aadi Pooram is one the major festival celebrated in every Vaishnavite temples. It falls on the Aadi month , the fourth month of the Tamil calender , and on the Pooram star . This day is considered as Goddess Andal's Birthday , and it is also believed that Andal is the incarnation of goddess Lakshmi. Andal is one among the 12 Alwars , and she is a great poetess , who is well known for her works which include Thiruppavai and Nachiar Thirumozhi . Andal and all other alwars are the most famous devotees of Lord Vishnu.
According to the legend : It was said that goddess Lakshmi took Human form on this day . A Vaishavite saint named , Periyalwar in Srivalliputar , prayed to Goddess Lakshmi that he had no children ...One day morning when Periyalwar was ploughing his field , he found a beautiful child near the Tulasi plant . He took the child home and named her as Andal , and it was on a Pooram star day in the month of Aadi . Therefore this day is celebrated as the birthday of Aandal.
There is one more famous story realted to the life of Aandal , which goes like this : Everyday Periyalwar used to tie garland to Lord Vishnu and offer that to Lord. Aandal will wear the garland everyday before wearing to Lord Vishnu , which was not know to her father ...One day he found this and he made a new garland and took it to the temple , after doing all rituals and decoration to Lord Vishnu , he offered this new garland to Lord. But this new garland fell off ...Inspite of several attempts , Periyalwar was unable to offer the Garland to Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu , he himself came before periyalwar and told that he want to have only the garland which Aandal wored ..and he told him that she is none other than Goddess Lakshmi .
This Aadi pooram is celebrated in grand manner in Srivalliputur , Srirangam and in many other places and it is celebrated for 10 days . In Temples , all women offer Glass bangles to goddess and those bangles are distributed to all the ladies. On this day people will read
Lalitha Sahasranamam and Thiruppavai .
