Tirumangai

(9th c.) By far the most picturesque of
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, 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, Tirumangai was born into a
caste of thieves, and theft, robbery, and
deceit play an important role in the stories associated with him. One story
reports that after taking a vow to feed
1,008 Vaishnavas for a year, he resorted
to highway robbery to raise the necessary funds; on another occasion he took
to robbery to raise funds to enlarge the
temple at Shrirangam. In these and
other works, he had the continual help
of Vishnu, his chosen deity; regardless of
their truth or falsity, these stories reveal
a great deal about the passionate
devotional commitment of his time.
For further information see Kamil
Zvelebil, Tamil Literature, 1975; and
John Stirling Morley Hooper, Hymns of
the Alvars, 1929.