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12 Alwar Details

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Hagiography

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Andal&nbsp;(Tamil:&nbsp;ஆண்டாள்;&nbsp;IAST: Āṇḍāḻ), also known as&nbsp;Kothai,&nbsp;Nachiyar, and&nbsp;Godadevi, was the only female&nbsp;Alvar&nbsp;among the twelve Hindu poet-saints of South India. She was posthumously considered an&nbsp;avatar&nbsp;of the goddess&nbsp;Bhudevi. As with the Alvar saints, she was affiliated with the&nbsp;Sri Vaishnava&nbsp;tradition of&nbsp;Hinduism. Active in the 8th-century,&nbsp;with some suggesting 7th-century,&nbsp;Andal is credited with two great&nbsp;Tamil&nbsp;works,&nbsp;Tiruppavai&nbsp;and&nbsp;Nachiyar Tirumoḻi, which are still recited by devotees during the winter festival season of Margaḻi. Andal is a prominent figure for women in South India and has inspired several women&#39;s groups such as Goda Mandali.

Legend

Temple for Thirumalisai Alvar, the Alvar

The Alvars, who are regarded as Vishnu&#39;s twelve greatest devotees in Sri Vaishnavism, helped spread Vaishnavism throughout Tamil-speaking areas. The Ramayana and Mahabharata, two Hindu epics, were both promoted by the Alvars, who also had a significant impact on the Bhagavata cult. The 108 temples mentioned in their hymns are referred to as Divya Desams, and the religious writings of these saints in Tamil, including their hymns, are collected in the Naalayira Divya Prabandham, which contains 4000 lines. &nbsp;Nathamuni (824&ndash;924 CE), a Vaishnavite theologian of the 10th century, collated the poetry of the numerous Alvars and dubbed it the &quot;Dravida Veda or Tamil Veda.&quot; Every day, in a number of South Indian Vishnu temples, the hymns of the Prabandam are sung and also during festivels.

The mythological genesis of the Alvars is attributed to an incident in the middle of the Dvapara Yuga that resulted from a contentious argument between Vishvakarma, the divine architect of the gods, and Agastya, a sage, about whether language was better&mdash;Sanskrit or Tamil. [Reference needed] In the midst of this argument, Agastya becomes enraged and curses the former, saying that one of his works of architecture will one day be lost and never be found (a contemporary of Gandhari&#39;s curse to Dvaraka). (According to some traditions, Agastya cursed Vishvakarma to bring Sanskrit into disrepute; the curse came true in the current Kali Yuga.) [Reference needed] Vishvakarma is furious and curses Agastya for tarnishing Tamil, one of his favourite languages, in the future. [Reference needed] Agastya, who feels bad about what he did, is given a divine vision of Vishnu who assures him that Tamil will regain its renown and that a Tamil Veda would appear.

Following the Battle of Kurukshetra, the fall of Dvaraka, and the killing of Krishna by the hunter Jara, Vishnu resumes his dwelling in Vaikuntha, planting the seeds for the Kali Yuga. He starts to worry about the inhabitants of the Kali Yuga. His qualities, such as the Sudarshana Chakra and the Panchajanya, inquire as to the cause of his worry, and he confides in them his anxieties. Vishnu smiles and declines the Sudarshana Chakra&#39;s suggestion that he chop off the heads of all those who reject dharma. Vishnu makes the decision that certain of his amshas (elements of his personality) would take the form of people and guide them on the virtuous path and in their devotion to him. These amshas, who aligned with the blessing bestowed upon Agastya by accepting their birth as the twelve Alvars, also served as an example for later Kali Yuga humans.

Nammalvar (considered to be an incarnation of Vishvaksena) is credited with turning the Rigveda into 100 poems known as the Tiruviruttam, the Yajurveda into Thiruvarshiyam, and the Sama Veda into Tiruvaymoli in 1000 verses, fulfilling the promise that Vishnu made to Agastya (poems)

Varnas

The saints came from various varnas and had various origins. According to legend, the first three Alvars&mdash;Poigai Alvar, Bhuthath Alvar, Peyalvar, and Andal&mdash;were not given birth but instead were miraculously born. Thondaradipodi Alvar, Mathurakavi Alvar, and Perialvar were Brahmin; Kulasekhara was a Kshatriya; Nammalvar was from a cultivator family; Thirupanalvar was from the Tamil Panar community; and Thirumangai Alvar was from the Kalvar community. Thirumalisai Alvar was the son of a sage named Bhargava. With the exception of Andal and Madhurakavi Alvar, only the top 10 Alvars are taken into consideration by some Vaishnavites; however, others also include these two. The 12 Alvars usually praised Srirangam as the only Divya Desam.

Works

The Alvars and their accomplishments are described in great detail in temple documents and inscriptions. These texts state that the saints were regarded as manifestations of Vishnu in some way. Most of them are not:

Divya Suri Saritra by Garuda-Vahana Pandita (11th century) 
Guruparamparaprabavam by Pinbaragiya Perumal Jiyar 
Periya tiru mudi adaivu by Anbillai Kandadiappan 
Yatindra Pranava Prabavam by Pillai Lokacharya 
commentaries on Divya Prabandam 
Guru Parampara (lineage of Gurus) texts

Dating

The first three Alvars, Poigai Alvar, Bhoothath Alvar, and Pey Alvar, are said to be from the Dvapara Yuga in accordance with a traditional account by Manavala Mamunigal (even before the birth of Krishna, i.e., before 4200 BCE). Tradition and historians generally concur that the trio is the oldest of the twelve Alvars. Together with the other three Saiva Nayanmars, they had an impact on the Pallava rulers who were in power, sparking a Bhakti movement that led to the shift of Buddhism and Jainism in the area to these two sects of Hinduism.

A small portion of the Divya Prabandham was lost after the Alvar era. Vishnu is thought to have despatched Nathamuni, who saw Nammalvar through the idol, to rescue them, as Madhurakavi Alvar was instructed by Nammalvar to obtain.

Work Done

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Her first work is the&nbsp;Tiruppavai, a collection of 30 verses in which Andal imagines herself to be a&nbsp;gopi, one of the cowherd girls known for their unconditional devotion to Krishna. In Tiruppavai, Andal idolized&nbsp;Radha&nbsp;as the ideal gopi and also invoked the gopis of&nbsp;Braj.&nbsp;Nappinai&nbsp;is identified as a form of&nbsp;Lakshmi, who is accorded the status of the supreme consort of Vishnu in Sri Vaishnavism.In these verses, she describes the yearning to serve Vishnu and achieve happiness not just in one lifetime, but for all eternity. She also describes the religious vows (pavai) that she and her fellow cowherd girls will observe for this purpose. It is said that Tiruppavai is the nectar of Vedas and teaches philosophical values, moral values, ethical values, pure love, devotion, dedication, single-minded aim, virtues, and the ultimate goal of life.

Andal extols Krishna thus in this text:

மரயனைமன்னு வடமதுரைலமந்தனை

தூயபெருநீர்&zwnj; யமுனைத்துறைவனை ஆயர்குலத்தினில்&zwnj; தோன்றும்&zwnj; ௮அணிவிளக்மை தாயைக்குடல்&zwnj; விளக்கம்&zwnj; செய்த தாமோதரனை தூயோமாய்வந்துநாம்&zwnj; தூமலர்&zwnj; தூவித்தொழுது வாயினால்பாடி மனத்தினால்&zwnj; சித்திக்க ோயபிழையும்&zwnj; புகுதருவான்&zwnj; நின்றனவும்&zwnj; தியினில்தூசாகும்&zwnj; செப்பேலோரெம்பாவாய்&zwnj;

My dear girls! you all know the Mayan, (Sri Krishna the Mysterious, whose greatness is beyond description and whose actions are beyond common understanding), who was born in North Matra and who sports in the large waters of the Pure Jumna, who shines like a Ratna Deepa (Emerald lamp) among the cowherd folk, the Damodara who brought name and fame to His mother Yasoda! We shall approach Him in all purity, We shall strew pure and choice flowers at His feet and worship Him. We shall sing about Him and we shall (unceasingly) think of Him: and thereby shall our sins, those already committed and those we are likely to commit in the future, all of them disappear like cotton in fire.

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