Nammalvar

(10th c.) The most prolific composer of all
the Alvars, a group of twelve poet-saints
who lived in southern India between the
seventh and tenth centuries. All the
Alvars were devotees (bhakta) of the god
Vishnu. They emphasized passionate
devotion (bhakti) to a personal god, conveyed through hymns sung in the Tamil
language, which transformed and revitalized Hindu religious life. According to
tradition, Nammalvar was born into a
princely family, but was completely disinterested with life in the world. His distraught parents eventually abandoned
him. Nammalvar crawled into the hollow
of a giant tamarind tree, where he sat in
silent meditation. He remained there
until the arrival of his disciple
Mathurakavi, who managed to rouse
him by posing a question on the nature of
the Self. Nammalvar immediately poured
forth more than one thousand hymns to
Vishnu, each beginning with the last
word of the previous hymn. These hymns
are known as the Tiruvaymoli (“holy
words”). This collection of 1,102 stanzas
is the concluding section of the Nalayira
Divyaprabandham, the collected hymns
of the Alvars. For further information see
Kamil Zvelebil, Tamil Literature, 1975;
John Stirling Morley Hooper, Hymns of
the Alvars, 1929; A. Shrinivasa Raghavan,
Nammalvar, 1975; and A. K. Ramanujan,
Hymns for the Drowning, 1981.