NAMMALWAR

NAMMALVAR WAS a great mystic poet. He shines like a sun in the firmament of Srivaishnavism. He has been revered both as an Alvar and an Acharya. Tradition holds that other Alvars are only Angas - componenets, while Nammalvar is Angi - the whole of Vaishnavism. Of his four Prabandhas, being grand literary creations indited in anaphoric sequence, a rare feat, and forming more than one-fourth of the entire corpus of the Nalayira Divya Prabandham,the Tiruvaymozhi stands supreme, as his magnum opus. This text contains more than 1000 poems and has been celebrated to be the ocean of Dravida Veda by Nathamuni and Vedanta Desika. It has been richly commented by erudite scholars including Tirukkurukai Piran Pilan, the disciple of Ramanuja Nanjeeyar, Periyavachanpillai and his successors. Nammarlwar's supreme mystical experience has been elegantly and effectively communicated in the Akam poems, involving bridal mysticism. As a bride to the eternal groom, unable to bear the pangs of separation, he sends forth various species of birds, wind and his own heart as messengers, to project the plight of separation and for speedy reunion with the Supreme. In some poems, he becomes the mother of the heroine and speaks in the vein of the Gitacharaya stating that the Lord is all the animate and inanimate beings, as their creator, sustainer and immanent principle. He is also transcendent.

Courtesy: S.N.KANDASWAMY- THE HINDU