Periyalvar

(9th c.) One of the Alvars, a group of
twelve poet-saints who lived in southern
India between the seventh and tenth
centuries. The Alvars were devotees
(bhakta) of the god Vishnu, and their
stress on passionate devotion (bhakti)
to a personal god, conveyed through
hymns sung in the Tamil language,
transformed and revitalized Hindu religious life.
According to tradition, Periyalvar
was born into a brahmin family. From
his youth he showed deep piety, and his
primary means of devotion was to grow
and pick flowers for the image of his
chosen deity, Krishna. The most
famous story about Periyalvar tells of a
dream in which God commanded him to
take part in a scholarly debate to be held
by one of the Pandya kings. Periyalvar,
despite his reservations about his lack
of learning, obeyed this command after
he woke. When he spoke, the words
flowed out under divine inspiration, and
the bag containing the prize money flew
off the hook and into his hands as a sign
of his victory. For further information
see Kamil Zvelebil, Tamil Literature,
1975; and John Stirling Morley Hooper,
Hymns of the Alvars, 1929. See also
Pandya dynasty.