Āṇḍāḷ ('She who rules') holds a unique and supremely honored place in Śrī Vaiṣṇava tradition as the only female Āzhvār among the twelve. Born Koḍai ('gift of flowers'), she is regarded as the daughter of Periyāzhvār (Viṣṇucitta) of Śrī Villiputūr (present-day Śrīvilliputūr in Tamil Nadu). According to sacred tradition, Āṇḍāḷ was discovered as an infant beneath a Tulasī plant in the garden of the Vadapatrasāyī temple at Śrī Villiputūr and adopted by Periyāzhvār. From childhood, she was entirely immersed in devotion to Bhagavān, identifying herself with the gopikās — the cowherd women of Vṛndāvana whose love for Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the archetype of intense, unconditional, self-forgetting devotion in the Vaiṣṇava tradition.
Āṇḍāḷ's two prabandhams represent two distinct but related expressions of this gopikā-bhāva. The Tiruppāvai ('The Holy Vow'), composed of 30 pāsurams, is one of the most universally beloved texts in all of South Indian devotional literature. It describes the vratas (vows) of the gopikās in Vṛndāvana who undertake the Mārgazhi (Dhanurmāsa) vrataṃ to pray for rain, prosperity, and ultimately union with Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The Tiruppāvai encodes in deceptively simple language the entire philosophy of Śarāṇāgati (surrender) — the gopikās arrive at Kṛṣṇa's doorstep and request His service (kaiṅkarya), which the āchāryas read as the perfect model of prapatti. It is recited daily in Śrī Vaiṣṇava homes and temples throughout the year and in its entirety each morning during the month of Mārgazhi. The Nācciyār Tirumozhi ('The Sacred Words of the Mistress'), comprising 143 pāsurams, is a more intimate and intense work expressing Āṇḍāḷ's personal viraha for Bhagavān — her longing for union, her vivid dreams of union with Kṛṣṇa, her conversation with a kuyil (cuckoo) as a messenger, her impatience and grief at separation. It is recognized as the most complete literary expression of madhura-bhāva (the sweetness of conjugal devotion) in the Tamil Vaiṣṇava corpus.
The sacred narrative of Āṇḍāḷ's life culminates in her marriage to Śrī Raṅganātha at Śrīraṅgam, which Śrī Vaiṣṇava tradition regards as a literal event — Āṇḍāḷ was taken in bridal procession to the Śrīraṅgam temple and was received into the divine presence of Raṅganātha, vanishing into union with Him. This narrative expresses the Śrī Vaiṣṇava understanding of mokṣa as a nuptial union of the ātman with Bhagavān — the highest fulfillment of the individual soul's nature as the beloved of the Supreme. Āṇḍāḷ is worshipped as a goddess in her own right at the Śrī Villiputūr temple (a celebrated Divya Desam), is counted as a manifestation of Śrī Bhūmi Devī (Bhūdevi), and her image invariably accompanies Vadapatrasāyī in her home shrine. She remains, across all communities of practice in the Śrī Vaiṣṇava world, the most universally celebrated of all Āzhvār figures.