Nalayira Divya Prabandham

01The Tamil Veda

Shri Vaishnavas call their tradition Ubhaya Vedanta, the Vedanta of two Vedas: the Sanskrit Veda with the Upanishads, and the Tamil Veda of the Alvars. The four thousand pasurams of the Nalayira Divya Prabandham are that Tamil Veda. In the temple they are given the same honour as the Sanskrit, recited in procession and at the daily worship, and Nammalvar's Tiruvaymoli in particular is called the Dravida Upanishad. Madhurakavi Alvar praised his guru as "vedam tamil seyda Maran Sadagopan", the Maran who made the Veda into Tamil, and Nathamuni's own verse placed at the head of that hymn repeats the claim.

02The twelve Alvars

Alvar means one who is immersed, sunk in the love of Vishnu. Poigai, Bhutam and Pey, the first three, met in the dark in a narrow passage at Tirukkoyilur and felt a fourth presence pressing among them, Vishnu himself; each lit a lamp of song, and those are the first three Tiruvandadis. Then come Tirumalisai, Nammalvar and his disciple Madhurakavi, Kulashekhara the Chera king, Periyalvar and his daughter Andal, Tondaradippodi, Tiruppan and Tirumangai. Their hymns name 108 divya desams, the shrines of Vishnu they sang, from Srirangam and Tirupati to Badrinath and Ayodhya, and two beyond the earth, Kshirabdhi and Paramapada.

03Four thousand in four parts

The collection is counted as four thousands. The First Thousand, 947 pasurams, opens with Periyalvar's Tiruppallandu and holds the songs of seven Alvars, Andal's Tiruppavai among them. The Second Thousand, 1,134, is almost all Tirumangai Alvar's Periya Tirumoli, a pilgrimage in song from one divya desam to the next. The Third, called the Iyarpa, 817 verses, holds the works that are recited rather than sung: the antadis of the first Alvars, Nammalvar's Tiruviruttam and Periya Tiruvandadi, and Tirumangai's two madals. Ramanuja Nurrandadi, by Tiruvarangathu Amudanar in praise of Ramanujacharya, is counted here too. The Fourth Thousand is Nammalvar's Tiruvaymoli alone, 1,102 pasurams.

04Tiruvaymoli

Nammalvar, the tradition says, did not cry or feed as a child and sat sixteen years in silence in the hollow of a tamarind tree at Tirukkurugur, until Madhurakavi came and asked him a riddle, and he answered. What followed was the Tiruvaymoli: one hundred decads, each of ten verses with a closing phalashruti verse, every verse beginning with the last word of the one before, so the whole poem is a single chain. It opens with the Lord who possesses the highest good beyond all height, and moves through longing, separation, the poet speaking as a girl in love, and at the end the soul's arrival in Vaikuntha. Shri Vaishnavas read in it the whole of Vishishtadvaita, the five truths of the soul, the Lord, the way, the goal and what stands in the way.

05Andal and the month of Margazhi

Periyalvar found the child Kodai under a tulasi plant in his temple garden at Srivilliputtur. As a girl she wore the garlands meant for Vishnu before they were taken to the shrine, and when her father found out and made a fresh one, the Lord in a dream asked for hers. So she is Chudikkodutta Nachiyar, the lady who gave the garland she had worn. Her Tiruppavai, thirty verses, is a vow kept in Margazhi by the cowherd girls of Ayarpadi, waking one another before dawn to go to Krishna's door. The tradition tells that she was received into Ranganatha at Srirangam. Ramanujacharya loved the Tiruppavai so much that he was called Tiruppavai Jiyar.

06How Nathamuni found it

The Shri Vaishnava guru-parampara tells that Nathamuni, at Viranarayanapuram, heard pilgrims sing ten verses of Nammalvar to Aravamudan of Kumbakonam, beginning "Aravamude", which ended by saying they were ten of a thousand. No one knew the rest. Nathamuni went to Nammalvar's birthplace at Tirukkurugur and recited Madhurakavi Alvar's short hymn to Nammalvar, Kanninun Siruttambu, twelve thousand times. Nammalvar appeared in his yoga and gave him all four thousand pasurams. He arranged them, set them to music, and taught them to his nephews, the first Araiyars. This is the sampradaya's own account, and Nathamuni stands at its head as the first acharya.

07The padis

After Ramanujacharya the acharyas wrote commentaries on the Tiruvaymoli in Manipravala, Tamil woven with Sanskrit, and each is named by its length in padis, units of thirty-two syllables. Tirukkurugai Piran Pillan, at Ramanuja's own bidding, wrote the Six Thousand. Nanjiyar wrote the Nine Thousand, Periyavachan Pillai the Twenty-four Thousand, and Vadakku Tiruvidhi Pillai wrote down his teacher Nampillai's discourses as the Thirty-six Thousand, called the Idu, the commentary Shri Vaishnavas prize above all. Periyavachan Pillai also wrote commentaries on almost every other work of the four thousand, which is why he is called Vyakhyana Chakravarti, the emperor of commentators.

08Sung in the temple

In Shri Vaishnava temples the adhyapakas walk ahead of the procession chanting the Prabandham, while the Veda reciters walk behind. During the Adhyayana Utsavam in Margazhi at Srirangam the whole four thousand are recited over about three weeks: ten days of the day festival, the Pagal Pattu, for the First and Second Thousands, then from Vaikuntha Ekadashi, when the Paramapada Vasal is opened, ten nights of the Ira Pattu for the Tiruvaymoli, with the Iyarpa recited at the close. At Srirangam, Alvar Tirunagari and Srivilliputtur the Araiyars, in tall caps, still sing and act out the pasurams with gesture before the deity. In Margazhi girls across Tamil Nadu sing the Tiruppavai, one verse each dawn, and at Tirumala it replaces the Suprabhatam for that month.

What it contains

1. 1
   Mudal Ayiram (First Thousand)

   947 pasurams. Periyalvar's Tiruppallandu and Periyalvar Tirumoli, Andal's Tiruppavai and Nachiyar Tirumoli, Kulashekhara's Perumal Tirumoli, Tirumalisai's Tiruchanda Viruttam, Tondaradippodi's Tirumalai and Tiruppalliyezhuchi, Tiruppan's Amalanadipiran and Madhurakavi's Kanninun Siruttambu. Most of the hymns sung at the daily worship come from this part.

2. 2
   Irandam Ayiram (Second Thousand)

   1,134 pasurams, all by Tirumangai Alvar. His Periya Tirumoli, 1,084 verses, sings shrine after shrine from Badrinath to the far south, and the Tirukkurundandakam and Tirunedundandakam follow. Tirumangai, a chieftain before he became an Alvar, is remembered for building the walls of Srirangam.

3. 3
   Munram Ayiram (Third Thousand, Iyarpa)

   817 verses recited rather than sung. The Mudal, Irandam and Munram Tiruvandadi of Poigai, Bhutam and Pey, Tirumalisai's Nanmugan Tiruvandadi, Nammalvar's Tiruviruttam, Tiruvasiriyam and Periya Tiruvandadi, and Tirumangai's Tiruvezhukutrirukkai and two madals. Ramanuja Nurrandadi, 108 verses on Ramanujacharya, completes the count.

4. 4
   Nankam Ayiram (Fourth Thousand)

   Nammalvar's Tiruvaymoli, 1,102 pasurams in one hundred decads, called the Tamil Upanishad. It is recited at night during the Ira Pattu of the Adhyayana Utsavam, ending with the decad of the soul's ascent to Vaikuntha. The great Manipravala commentaries, from the Six Thousand to the Idu, were written on it.

Famous verses

பல்லாண்டு பல்லாண்டு பல்லாயிரத்தாண்டு பலகோடி நூறாயிரம் மல்லாண்ட திண்தோள் மணிவண்ணா! உன் செவ்வடி செவ்வித் திருக்காப்பு

Many years, many years, many thousands of years, many crores of hundred thousands: O sapphire-hued one with mighty shoulders that overcame the wrestlers, may your lovely red feet be guarded for ever.Periyalvar, Tiruppallandu 1 (First Thousand)

மார்கழித் திங்கள் மதிநிறைந்த நன்னாளால் நீராடப் போதுவீர்! போதுமினோ, நேரிழையீர்!

In the month of Margazhi, on this good day of the full moon, you who wish to bathe, come, come, O girls in fine jewels.Andal, Tiruppavai 1

கண்ணி நுண்சிறுத் தாம்பினால் கட்டுண்ணப் பண்ணிய பெருமாயன், என் அப்பனில், நண்ணித் தென்குருகூர் நம்பி என்றக்கால், அண்ணிக்கும் அமுதூறும் என் நாவுக்கே

Rather than the great Mayan, my father, who let himself be tied with a thin knotted cord, when I come near and say "Nambi of southern Kurugur", nectar springs sweet upon my tongue.Madhurakavi Alvar, Kanninun Siruttambu 1

உயர்வற உயர் நலம் உடையவன் யவனவன் மயர்வற மதி நலம் அருளினன் யவனவன் அயர்வறும் அமரர்கள் அதிபதி யவனவன் துயரறு சுடரடி தொழுதெழென் மனனே

He who has the highest good, beyond which there is nothing higher; he who in grace gave me knowledge and love free of confusion; he who is lord of the unwearied immortals: O my mind, worship his radiant feet that end all sorrow, and rise.Nammalvar, Tiruvaymoli 1.1.1