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Hagiography

Nammalvar&nbsp;(Tamil: நம்மாழ்வார், lit. &#39;Our Alvar&#39;;&nbsp;IAST&nbsp;Nammāḻvār) was one of the twelve&nbsp;Alvar&nbsp;saints of&nbsp;Tamil Nadu, India, who are known for their affiliation to the&nbsp;Vaishnava&nbsp;tradition of&nbsp;Hinduism. The verses of the Alvars are compiled as the&nbsp;Naalayira Divya Prabandham, where praises are sung of 108 temples that are classified as divine realms, called the&nbsp;Divya Desams. Nammalvar is considered to be the fifth in the line of the twelve Alvars. He is highly regarded as a great mystic of the Vaishnava tradition. He is also considered to be the foremost among the twelve Alvars, and his contributions amount to 1352 among the 4000 stanzas in the&nbsp;Naalayira Divya Prabandam.

According to traditional scriptures, Nammalvar was born in 3059 BCE in&nbsp;Alwarthirunagiri;&nbsp;historically he flourished in 8th century CE.&nbsp;In Hindu legends, Nammalvar remained speechless from the moment of his birth, sitting under a tamarind tree when he first interacted with&nbsp;Madhurakavi Alvar, who saw a bright light shining to the south, and followed it until he reached the tree where the boy was residing.

The works of Nammalvar were compiled by Madhurakavi as four different works, the&nbsp;Tiruvaymoli&nbsp;(1,102 verses),&nbsp;Tiruviruttam&nbsp;(100 verses),&nbsp;Tiruvaciriyam&nbsp;(or Tiru Asiriyam - 7 verses) and&nbsp;Periya Tiruvantati&nbsp;(87 verses). The works of Nammalvar contributed to the philosophical and theological ideas of Vaishnavism.

The Garudasevai festival in&nbsp;Nava Tirupathi, the nine Vishnu temples in Thoothukudi region, and the&nbsp;Araiyar Sevai&nbsp;during the Vaikunta Ekadasi festival in&nbsp;Srirangam temple&nbsp;are dedicated to him. The verses of Nammalvar and other Alvars are recited as a part of daily prayers and during festive occasions in several Vaishnava temples in Tamil Nadu.

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. 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

He contributed four pieces of works to&nbsp;Divya Prabhandham. These works consisted of 1,296 poems, making him the most prolific contributor to the 4,000 hymns written by the Alvar poet-saints.[14]&nbsp;These works are:

<ul>
	<li>Tiruvaymoli&nbsp;(1102 verses)</li>
	<li>Tiruviruttam&nbsp;(100 verses)</li>
	<li>Tiruvaciriyam&nbsp;(7 verses)</li>
	<li>Periya Tiruvantati&nbsp;(87 verses)</li>
</ul>

Tiruvaymoli&nbsp;describes&nbsp;Ranganatha&nbsp;as a metaphor for discussing the philosophical details in

<ul>
	<li>The nature of the&nbsp;paramatma&nbsp;(divine soul)</li>
	<li>The nature of the&nbsp;jeevatma&nbsp;(living soul)</li>
	<li>The means for the&nbsp;jeevatma&nbsp;(living soul) to attain the goal of&nbsp;Paramatma&nbsp;(divine soul)</li>
	<li>The blocks and hurdles on the way and</li>
	<li>The goal&nbsp;moksha&nbsp;(divinity).</li>
</ul>

In the Sri Vaishnava canon, these four represent (in Tamil language) the four&nbsp;Sanskrit&nbsp;vedas, respectively, the&nbsp;Sama Veda,&nbsp;Rig Veda,&nbsp;Yajur Veda&nbsp;and&nbsp;Atharva Veda. According to tradition &quot;He poured the cream of these vedas&quot; into his songs and poetry that were the result of deep mystic experience. Though Nammalvar did not visit any of the 108&nbsp;divyadesam&nbsp;temples talked about in the Vaishnava religion, it appears from his works he must have had the vision of all the archa forms in the temples he glorified in his hymns.[24]

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