Tondaradippodi

(9th c.) One of the Alvars, a group of
twelve poet-saints who lived in southern
India between the seventh and tenth
centuries. All of 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,
Tondaradippodi was born as a brahmin
named Vipra Narayana, and his family’s
hereditary labor was to arrange the flowers for the worship of Ranganatha, a
form of Vishnu who is the presiding
deity at the temple of Shrirangam. He
became enamored of a courtesan who
cast her spell on him, and for a time paid
attention to nothing else. In the end he
was saved by Ranganatha, to whom
Vipra Narayana devoted himself for the
rest of his life, taking as a symbol of this
his new name (“Dust of the Feet of the
Slaves [of God]”). For further information see Kamil Zvelebil, Tamil Literature,
1975; and John Stirling Morley Hooper,
Hymns of the Alvars, 1929.