Alvars

For the city in Rajasthan, see Alwar. For the village in period of two centuries from the 9th to the 11th cenIran, see Alvars, Iran.
tury involving references to religious leaders in Vaishnavism, Shaivism and even Jainism and to political perThe alvars, also spelt as alwars or azhwars (Tamil: sonalities. He states: "zhvr is but a corrupt form of
vr which has been used interchangeably with nyanr
, zvrka [aar], those immersed in
god) were Tamil poet-saints of South India who espoused in secular and religious contexts in the Tamil land and
"... Notwithstanding the Vaishnava claim of unbroken
bhakti (devotion) to the Hindu god Vishnu or his avatar
[1] teacher-student tradition, the fact that Nathamuni has
Krishna in their songs of longing, ecstasy and service.
They are venerated especially in Vaishnavism, which re- used the form vr but Pin [A disciple and younger
cousin of Rmnuja] ended up using the form zhvr suggards Vishnu or Krishna as the Supreme Being.
gests that there has been an error in transmission someMany modern academics place the Alvars date between where along the teacher-student chain between the two
5th century to 10th century CE, however traditionally the teachers. This error was obviously due to the inuence
Alvars are considered to have lived between 4200 BCE - of the sound variation that has occurred in the Srirangam
2700 BCE. Orthodoxy posits the number of alvars as ten, area and elsewhere
though there are other references that include Andal and
Madhurakavi, making the number twelve.[2] Andal is the
only female saint-poet in the 12 Alvars. Together with
the contemporary sixty three Shaiva Nayanars, they are 2 Legacy
among the most important saints from Tamil Nadu.
Alvars are considered the twelve supreme devotees
of Vishnu, who were instrumental in popularising
Vaishnavism in the Tamil-speaking regions.[8] The religious works of these saints in Tamil, songs of love and
devotion, are compiled as Nalayira Divya Prabandham
containing 4000 verses and the 108 temples revered in
their songs are classied as Divya desam.[9][10] The saints
had dierent origins and belonged to dierent castes. As
per tradition, the rst three alvars, Poigai, Bhutha and
Pey were born miraculously. Tirumizhisai was the son of
a sage; Thondaradi, Mathurakavi, Peria and Andal were
from brahmin caste; Kulasekhara was a Kshatria, Namm
was from a cultivator family, Tirupana from panar community and Tirumangai from kazhwar community. Divya Suri Saritra by Garuda-Vahana Pandita (11th century), Guruparamparaprabavam by Pinbaragiya Perumal
Jiyar, Periya tiru mudi adaivu by Anbillai Kandadiappan,
Yatindra Pranava Prabavam by Pillai Lokacharya, commentaries on Divya Prabandam, Guru Parampara (lineage of Gurus) texts, temple records and inscriptions give
a detailed account of the alavars and their works. According to these texts, the saints were considered incarnations
1 Etymology
of some form of Vishnu. The songs of Prabandam are
temples of South India
Alvars literally means 'people who are immersed'. They regularly sung in all the Vishnu
[10][11]
daily
and
also
during
festivals.
are so called because they were immersed in their devotion and love to their Lord, Vishnu.[6] However recently It is widely accepted by tradition and historians alike
S.Palaniappan has argued that what was originally vr that the rst three alvars, Poigai, Bhutha and Pey, are
got changed through hyper correction and folk etymol- the earliest among the twelve alvars.[9][10][12][13][14] Along
ogy to zhvr.[7] Palaniappan cites inscriptional evidence with the 63 Shaiva nayanars, they inuenced the ruling
for a gradual sound change from vr to zhvr over a Pallava kings, creating a Bhakti movement that resulted
The devotional outpourings of Alvars, composed during
the early medieval period of Tamil history, helped revive
the bhakti movement, through their hymns of worship
to Vishnu and his avatars. They praised the Divya Desams, 108 abodes (temples) of these Vaishnava deities.
The poetry of the Alvars echoes bhakti to God through
love, and in the ecstasy of such devotions they sang hundreds of songs which embodied both depth of feeling and
felicity of expressions.[3] The collection of their hymns
is known as Divya Prabandha. The Bhakti literature
that sprang from Alvars has contributed to the establishment and sustenance of a culture that broke away from
the ritual-oriented Vedic religion and rooted itself in devotion as the only path for salvation. In addition they
helped to make the Tamil religious life independent of
a knowledge of Sanskrit.[4] As part of the legacy of the
Alvars, ve Vaishnava philosophical traditions (sampradayas) have developed at the later stages.[5]

5 NOTES

in changing the religious geography from Buddhism

and Jainism to these two sects of Hinduism in the region. The alvars were also instrumental in promoting
the Bhagavata cult and the two Hindu epics, namely,
Ramayana and Mahabaratha.[15] The verses of the various azhwars were compiled by Nathamuni (824 - 924
AD), a 10th-century Vaishnavite theologian, who called
it the Dravida Veda.[16][17]

Summary

Some modern scholars suggest that they lived during 5th

- 9th century CE, on the basis of a few historical evidences, although no clear evidence exists.[18][19] The
Encyclopdia Britannica says that Alvars lived between
7th-10th century CE.[20] Professor of Religion and Asian
Studies, James G. Lochtefeld of Carthage College, notes
in his The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, the rst
three Alvars Poigai, Bhoothath and Pey belonged to the
7th century; while Nammalvar and Madhurakavi belonged to the 10th century; while rest of them lived in
the 9th century.[21]

[6] "Meaning of Alvar". ramanuja.org. Retrieved 2007-0702.

[7] Alvar or Nayanar : The Role of Sound Variation, Hypercorrection and Folk Etymology in Interpreting the Nature of Vaisnava Saint-Poets (PDF). South-Indian Horizons, Institut Francais de Pondichry (French Institute of
Pondicherry). 2005.
[8] B.S. 2011, p. 47-48
[9] Rao, P.V.L. Narasimha (2008). Kanchipuram Land of
Legends, Saints & Temples. New Delhi: Readworthy Publications (P) Ltd. p. 27. ISBN 978-93-5018-104-1.
[10] Dalal 2011, pp. 20-21
[11] Ramaswamy, Vijaya (2007). Historical Dictionary of the
Tamils. Scarecrow Press. p. 211. ISBN 9780810864450.
[12] Aiyangar, Sakkottai Krishnaswami (1920). Early history
of Vaishnavism in south India. Oxford University Press.
pp. 1718.
[13] Lochtefeld, James (2002). The Illustrated Encyclopedia
of Hinduism: N-Z. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 515.
ISBN 9780823931804.
[14] Krishna (2009). Book Of Vishnu. Penguin Books India.

Traditionally the Alvars are considered to have lived bep. 136. ISBN 9780143067627.
tween 4200 BCE - 2700 BCE.[22][23] Traditional dates
take them to the age of Shuka from the period of the [15] B.S. 2011, p. 42
Bhagavata Purana, many are from Dwaparayuga, while
[16] Mukherjee (1999). A Dictionary of Indian Literatures:
Nammalwar belongs to the early part of Kaliyuga.[24]
Beginnings-1850 Volume 1 of A Dictionary of Indian Lit-

erature, A Dictionary of Indian Literature. Orient BlackThe following table shows the place, century and star
swan.
p. 15. ISBN 9788125014539.
of birth of each Alvar. Scholarly dating is based on
summary of views of modern scholars by Dr. N Subba [17] Garg, Gag Rm (1992). Encyclopaedia of the Hindu
Reddiar.[18]
World: Ak-Aq. Concept Publishing Company. pp. 352
354. ISBN 9788170223757.

See also
Bhakti movements
Tamil mythology
Nathamuni

Notes

[1] Andrea Nippard. The Alvars (PDF). Retrieved 201304-20.

[2] Flood 1996, p. 131
[3] Indian Literature Through the Ages. Indian literature ,
Govt of India. Retrieved 2013-04-20.

[18] "Philosophy and Theistic Mysticism of the l vrs", by S.

M. Srinivasa Chari, publisher = Motilal Banarsidass, isbn
= 9788120813427, p. 11
[19] Mdhavndra Pur: A Link between Bengal Vaiavism and South Indian Bhakti, by Friedhelm HardyThe
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain
and Ireland No. 1 (1974), pp. 23-41, Published by:
Cambridge University Press, URL: http://www.jstor.org/
stable/25203503
[20] Azhvar. Encyclopdia Britannica. Encyclopdia Britannica Online. Encyclopdia Britannica Inc., 2014.
Web. 30 Dec. 2014 <http://www.britannica.com/
EBchecked/topic/18115/Azhvar>.
[21] James G. Lochtefeld (2002). The Illustrated Encyclopedia
of Hinduism: A-M. The Rosen Publishing Group. pp. 29
30. ISBN 978-0-8239-3179-8.

[4] "About Alvars". divyadesamonline.com. Archived from

the original on 2007-06-21. Retrieved 2007-07-02.

[22] "Philosophy and Theistic Mysticism of the l vrs", by S.

M. Srinivasa Chari, publisher = Motilal Banarsidass, isbn
= 9788120813427, p. 10

[5] Mittal, S. G. R.; Thursby (2006). Religions of South

Asia: An Introduction. Routledge. p. 27. ISBN
9780203970027.

[23] "rbhyam: Catustrytmaka", by Rmnuja, Raghunath Damodar Karmarkar, p.18, original from = The University of Michigan

[24] Jean Filliozat. Religion, Philosophy, Yoga: A Selection of

Articles. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 23.
[25] "Ancient India: Collected Essays on the Literary and Political History of Southern India", by Sakkottai Krishnaswami Aiyangar, p. 403-404, publisher = Asian Educational Services
[26] Music and temples, a ritualistic approach, by L. Annapoorna, p. 23, year = 2000, isbn = 9788175740907
[27] "History of Classical Sanskrit Literature", by M. Srinivasachariar, p. 278, isbn=9788120802841

References
Flood, G.D. (1996). An Introduction to Hinduism.
Cambridge University Press.
Hymns For The Drowning by A.K. Ramanujan
(Penguin),

Nammalvar by A.Srinivasa Raghavan (Sahitya Akademi,

New Delhi),1975, ISBN 81-260-0416 9 Alwargal - ^Or
Eliya Arimugam by Sujatha (Visa Publications, Chennai,
India)(in Tamil), 2001

External links
The Twelve Alvars
Alvars and Srivaishnavism
The Alvar Saints (ramanuja.org)
The Alvar Saints of Tamilnadu by Jyotsna Kamat

8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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