Introduction
Neela Devi, known in Tamil as Nappinnai, is a consort of Krishna especially prominent in Tamil Vaishnava (Alvar) devotional literature, where she is treated as a third principal consort of Vishnu alongside Sri (Lakshmi) and Bhu (Bhudevi).
This article follows Tamil Vaishnava (Sri Vaishnava) devotional tradition.
In Tamil poetry
Nappinnai appears prominently in the Sangam-influenced devotional poetry of the Alvars, notably in the Tiruppavai of Andal and other early Tamil Vaishnava hymns, as Krishna's beloved among the cowherd community of Gokula, closely associated with cattle and pastoral imagery, distinct from the Sanskrit Puranic Rukmini or Satyabhama.
Neela Devi in temple worship
In many South Indian Vishnu temples, particularly those following the Sri Vaishnava (Ramanuja) tradition, the deity is worshipped with three consorts, Sri, Bhu and Neela, standing or seated at his sides, reflecting the greater prominence given to this third consort in the Tamil devotional stream compared to the wider Sanskrit Puranic corpus, where she is much less discussed.
Identification
Nappinnai is sometimes identified with the cowherd girl Nila in the Sanskrit Harivamsha, though the connection between the Tamil and Sanskrit figures is not fully consistent across sources.