Nammalvar
Encyclopedia
Nammalvar also Nammazhwar,Nammaazhvaar, Nammazhvar, Nammaalvaar, Nammalwar;Tamil
: நம்மாழ்வார்) was one of the twelve Alvars
, well known for his many hymns on devotion to Vishnu
. Legend gives him the date 3102 B.C. (i.e., the beginning of the kali yuga
). He was born in the asterism Visakham, in what is now thirupathi saaram (also known as Thiruvenparisaaram), Tamil Nadu
. His name means "our own alvar
(alvar means "one immersed in God"). He was also known as Maran and Satakopan.
. His father, Kari, was a petty prince who paid tribute to the Pandyan King of Madurai
. He must have been born fully enlightened because as a baby he never cried or suckled and never opened his eyes. According to legend, as a child he responded to no external stimuli and his parents left him at the feet of the deity of Lord Sri Adhinathar
in Alwarthirunagari. The child then got up and climbed into a hole in a tamarind
, sat in the lotus position
, and began to meditate. It appears he was in this state for as long as sixteen years when a Tamil
poet and scholar in North India named Madhurakavi Alvar
saw a bright light shining to the south, and followed it until he reached Nammalvar's tree. Unable to elicit any reaction from the child, he asked him a riddle: "If the small is born in a dead's body(or stomach), what will it eat and where will it stay?" meaning, if the subtle soul is embodied in the gross body, what are its actions and thoughts? Nammalvar broke his lifelong silence and responded, "That it will eat, and there it will rest!" meaning that if the soul identifies with the body, it will be the body but if it serves the divine, it will stay in vaikunta
and eat(think) of God. Madhurakavi Alvar
realized the divinity of this child.
was himself a great devotee, when he asked Nammalvar the right question and made him speak. Immediately he took him for his Acharya(Teacher, Guru
). Nammalvar consented to being his guru, instructed him in the doctrines of Vaishnavism
and thereafter glorified Lord Vishnu
. He composed on the spot a thousand hymns praising Vishnu
, each one starting with the last word of the previous poem. We owe it to Madhurakavi Alvar
for setting them to music. Madhurakavi Alvar
became the Alvar's student and went on to compose poems about his prodigal master.
The following is an interesting episode regarding the way the two of them met. Madhurakavi Alvar
was on a pilgrimage in North India, when all of a sudden, he began to observe a bright light shining forth from the southern direction. This seemed to be beckoning him and so he began to proceed in the direction of its source. His travails brought him to the scenic banks of the river Tamirabarani, to the Hamlet/town of Kurugoor. He observed that the light that drew him emanated from a divine being, one seemingly in his teens sitting within the hollow of a tamarind tree. He spent his time scrutinizing all these. He then proceeded to try to gain the attention of the one under the tree by various means, finally resorted to asking him a question which goes as follows :
MadhuraKavi Alwar : settrathin vayitril siriyadhu pirandhaal, yethai thindru enge kidakkum ?
Nammalwar : Atthai thindru Ange Kidakkum.
These words were the first the Great One ever spoke. These simple words carry a world of meaning that could fill eons of thought and a ton of discussion.
includes the entire fourth thousand and part of the third thousand. these works are
Tiruvaymozhi describes Ranganatha
as a metaphor to discussing the philosophical details in
The latter 2 are described in detail in the srivaishnava website http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/alvars/nammalvar/preface.html.
In the Srivaishnava canon, these four represent (in Tamil language) the four Sanskrit
vedas, respectively, the Sama Veda, Rig Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. According to tradition "He poured the cream of these vedas" into his songs and poetry that were the result of deep mystic experience. Though Nammalvar did not visit any of the 108 divyadesam 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 had glorified in his hymns.
. Whatever Krishna
ate, whatever he drank, whatever betel He chewed was the dearest to the saint. The supreme object of life was to be at the Lord's lotus feet and to serve him eternally in blissful love. Therefore seek him all your life, praise him, surrender to him, speak of his glories and exploits, revel in his majesty and continue the recitation of his names. This was his message to the world at large. Like the Buddha
who appeared in the northernmost part of India and finally engulfed not only India but Asia and the whole world by his teachings, Nammalvar was the star of the southernmost part of India
whose work engulfed the whole world of Vaishnavism
.
(#3102 of Sacred Book - By Sri. Srirama Bharathi Araiyar)
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
: நம்மாழ்வார்) was one of the twelve Alvars
Alvars
The alwar or azhwars were Tamil poet saints of south India who lived between the sixth and ninth centuries A.D. and espoused ‘emotional devotion’ or bhakti to Visnu-Krishna in their songs of longing, ecstasy and service. Sri Vaishnava orthodoxy posits the number of alvars as ten, though there are...
, well known for his many hymns on devotion to Vishnu
Vishnu
Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....
. Legend gives him the date 3102 B.C. (i.e., the beginning of the kali yuga
Kali Yuga
Kali Yuga is the last of the four stages that the world goes through as part of the cycle of yugas described in the Indian scriptures. The other ages are Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga and Dvapara Yuga...
). He was born in the asterism Visakham, in what is now thirupathi saaram (also known as Thiruvenparisaaram), Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
. His name means "our own alvar
Alvars
The alwar or azhwars were Tamil poet saints of south India who lived between the sixth and ninth centuries A.D. and espoused ‘emotional devotion’ or bhakti to Visnu-Krishna in their songs of longing, ecstasy and service. Sri Vaishnava orthodoxy posits the number of alvars as ten, though there are...
(alvar means "one immersed in God"). He was also known as Maran and Satakopan.
Child prodigy discovered
He was born in a small town called Thiruvenparisaaram, in the southernmost region of the Tamil country — nagercoilNagercoil
Nagercoil is the 12th largest city in the southernmost Indian state of Tamil Nadu and a municipality and administrative headquarters of Kanyakumari District...
. His father, Kari, was a petty prince who paid tribute to the Pandyan King of Madurai
Madurai
Madurai is the third largest city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It served as the capital city of the Pandyan Kingdom. It is the administrative headquarters of Madurai District and is famous for its temples built by Pandyan and...
. He must have been born fully enlightened because as a baby he never cried or suckled and never opened his eyes. According to legend, as a child he responded to no external stimuli and his parents left him at the feet of the deity of Lord Sri Adhinathar
Sri Adhinathar
Sri Adhinathar is the name of Vishnu in the temple at Alwarthirunagari, Tamil Nadu, India. He is the Guru Kshethram, representing Bṛhaspati, or Jupiter, in the Navagraha, or nine cosmic influences....
in Alwarthirunagari. The child then got up and climbed into a hole in a tamarind
Tamarind
Tamarind is a tree in the family Fabaceae. The genus Tamarindus is monotypic .-Origin:...
, sat in the lotus position
Lotus position
The Lotus Position is a cross-legged sitting posture originating in meditative practices of ancient India, in which the feet are placed on the opposing thighs. It is an established posture, commonly used for meditation, in the Hindu Yoga and Buddhist contemplative traditions...
, and began to meditate. It appears he was in this state for as long as sixteen years when a Tamil
Tamil people
Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...
poet and scholar in North India named Madhurakavi Alvar
Madhurakavi Alvar
Madhurakavi was a Tamil saint/composer of the 6th to 9th century. He is one of the 12 Alvar saints of South India, who are known for their affiliation to Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism. He composed 11 couplets in praise of his guru, Nammalvar in the 4000 divya Prabhandham...
saw a bright light shining to the south, and followed it until he reached Nammalvar's tree. Unable to elicit any reaction from the child, he asked him a riddle: "If the small is born in a dead's body(or stomach), what will it eat and where will it stay?" meaning, if the subtle soul is embodied in the gross body, what are its actions and thoughts? Nammalvar broke his lifelong silence and responded, "That it will eat, and there it will rest!" meaning that if the soul identifies with the body, it will be the body but if it serves the divine, it will stay in vaikunta
Vaikunta
Vaikuntha , Param Padam , or Paramapadam is the abode of Lord Vishnu. It is believed, in the tradition of Vaishnavites, to be the place of eternal bliss, exclusive to the Lord, His eternal consort, the Goddess Lakshmi, and the three-folded Serpent Sesha Naga, upon whom the Lord, and His Shakti ,...
and eat(think) of God. Madhurakavi Alvar
Madhurakavi Alvar
Madhurakavi was a Tamil saint/composer of the 6th to 9th century. He is one of the 12 Alvar saints of South India, who are known for their affiliation to Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism. He composed 11 couplets in praise of his guru, Nammalvar in the 4000 divya Prabhandham...
realized the divinity of this child.
First disciple
Madhurakavi AlvarMadhurakavi Alvar
Madhurakavi was a Tamil saint/composer of the 6th to 9th century. He is one of the 12 Alvar saints of South India, who are known for their affiliation to Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism. He composed 11 couplets in praise of his guru, Nammalvar in the 4000 divya Prabhandham...
was himself a great devotee, when he asked Nammalvar the right question and made him speak. Immediately he took him for his Acharya(Teacher, Guru
Guru
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...
). Nammalvar consented to being his guru, instructed him in the doctrines of Vaishnavism
Vaishnavism
Vaishnavism is a tradition of Hinduism, distinguished from other schools by its worship of Vishnu, or his associated Avatars such as Rama and Krishna, as the original and supreme God....
and thereafter glorified Lord Vishnu
Vishnu
Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....
. He composed on the spot a thousand hymns praising Vishnu
Vishnu
Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....
, each one starting with the last word of the previous poem. We owe it to Madhurakavi Alvar
Madhurakavi Alvar
Madhurakavi was a Tamil saint/composer of the 6th to 9th century. He is one of the 12 Alvar saints of South India, who are known for their affiliation to Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism. He composed 11 couplets in praise of his guru, Nammalvar in the 4000 divya Prabhandham...
for setting them to music. Madhurakavi Alvar
Madhurakavi Alvar
Madhurakavi was a Tamil saint/composer of the 6th to 9th century. He is one of the 12 Alvar saints of South India, who are known for their affiliation to Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism. He composed 11 couplets in praise of his guru, Nammalvar in the 4000 divya Prabhandham...
became the Alvar's student and went on to compose poems about his prodigal master.
The following is an interesting episode regarding the way the two of them met. Madhurakavi Alvar
Madhurakavi Alvar
Madhurakavi was a Tamil saint/composer of the 6th to 9th century. He is one of the 12 Alvar saints of South India, who are known for their affiliation to Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism. He composed 11 couplets in praise of his guru, Nammalvar in the 4000 divya Prabhandham...
was on a pilgrimage in North India, when all of a sudden, he began to observe a bright light shining forth from the southern direction. This seemed to be beckoning him and so he began to proceed in the direction of its source. His travails brought him to the scenic banks of the river Tamirabarani, to the Hamlet/town of Kurugoor. He observed that the light that drew him emanated from a divine being, one seemingly in his teens sitting within the hollow of a tamarind tree. He spent his time scrutinizing all these. He then proceeded to try to gain the attention of the one under the tree by various means, finally resorted to asking him a question which goes as follows :
MadhuraKavi Alwar : settrathin vayitril siriyadhu pirandhaal, yethai thindru enge kidakkum ?
Nammalwar : Atthai thindru Ange Kidakkum.
These words were the first the Great One ever spoke. These simple words carry a world of meaning that could fill eons of thought and a ton of discussion.
Writings
His contribution of four works (numbering 1296 hymns) to the four thousand of the Divya PrabhandhamNaalayira Divyap Prabhandham
The Nalayira Divya Prabandham is a collection of 4,000 Tamil verses composed before 8th century AD, by the 12 Alvars, and was compiled in its present form by Nathamuni during the 9th – 10th centuries. The work is the beginning of the canonization of the 12 Vaishnava poet saints, and these hymns...
includes the entire fourth thousand and part of the third thousand. these works are
- Tiruvaymozhi (1102 verses),
- Tiruviruttam (100 verses),
- TiruvAsiriam (7 verses) and
- Periya Tiruvanthadi (87 verses).
Tiruvaymozhi describes Ranganatha
Ranganatha
Ranganātha , also known as Sri Ranganatha, Ranganathar, or Ranga, is a Hindu deity, more well known in South India. The deity is a resting form of Lord Vishnu, one of the foremost of Hindu Gods. His consort is Goddess Lakshmi, also known as Ranganayaki, Thayar...
as a metaphor to discussing the philosophical details in
- The nature of the paramatma(divine soul)
- The nature of the jeevatma(living soul)
- The means for the jeevatma(living soul) to attain the goal of Paramatma(divine soul)
- The blocks and hurdles on the way and
- The goal mokshaMokshaWithin Indian religions, moksha or mukti , literally "release" , is the liberation from samsara and the concomitant suffering involved in being subject to the cycle of repeated death and reincarnation or rebirth.-Origins:It is highly probable that the concept of moksha was first developed in...
(divinity).
The latter 2 are described in detail in the srivaishnava website http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/alvars/nammalvar/preface.html.
In the Srivaishnava canon, these four represent (in Tamil language) the four Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
vedas, respectively, the Sama Veda, Rig Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. According to tradition "He poured the cream of these vedas" into his songs and poetry that were the result of deep mystic experience. Though Nammalvar did not visit any of the 108 divyadesam 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 had glorified in his hymns.
Acme of devotion
The subject matter of the four works was certainly the five principles, namely, the Lord, the soul, the means, the end, and the obstacles to spirituality. Through all this ran a thread of the acme of devotion to Lord KrishnaKrishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
. Whatever Krishna
Krishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
ate, whatever he drank, whatever betel He chewed was the dearest to the saint. The supreme object of life was to be at the Lord's lotus feet and to serve him eternally in blissful love. Therefore seek him all your life, praise him, surrender to him, speak of his glories and exploits, revel in his majesty and continue the recitation of his names. This was his message to the world at large. Like the Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
who appeared in the northernmost part of India and finally engulfed not only India but Asia and the whole world by his teachings, Nammalvar was the star of the southernmost part of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
whose work engulfed the whole world of Vaishnavism
Vaishnavism
Vaishnavism is a tradition of Hinduism, distinguished from other schools by its worship of Vishnu, or his associated Avatars such as Rama and Krishna, as the original and supreme God....
.
A sample hymn
- Makes me serve him all the time and everywhere;
- Anchors me thus by seating himself in my mind;
- Swerves me not by gracing me in his service alone;
- Krishna's wish is my wish, my pleasure, my glory.
(#3102 of Sacred Book - By Sri. Srirama Bharathi Araiyar)
Sources
- A.K. Ramanujan, introduction, in Nammalvar, trans. A.K. Ramanujan, Hymns for the Drowning: Poems for Vishnu.
- Sri Srirama Bharathi Araiyar 'Sacred Book'. 1995: Dhivya Prabhanda Pathasala, Jalladam Pattai - Chennai, India 601 302.
- A. Srinivasa Raghavan, Nammalvar, (in "Makers of Indian Literature" Series), Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, India, 1975/1998.
- Sujatha, (Tamil), (in Alvargal - Oor Eliya Arimugam), Visa Publications, Chennai, India, 2007.
External links
- Vaishnavism
- Nammalvar : Hymns for the drowning translations by AK Ramanujan
- Alvars and Srivaishnavism
- Srivaishnava Sampradhayam
- Thrikodithanam Mahavishnu Temple - Temple associated with Nammalvar
- Araiyar Sevai http://www.araiyar.com