Periyalvar (Vishnuchittar)

01The garden at Srivilliputhur

Vishnuchittar was a Brahmin of Srivilliputhur, in the Pandya country, whose service was to grow flowers and make garlands for Vatapatrashayi, Vishnu lying on the banyan leaf, in the town’s temple. The Sri Vaishnava tradition counts him an avatar of Garuda, and dates his coming to the 47th year of the Kali Yuga. Historians place him by his own words: a verse names the reigning Pandya as Nedumaran, a devotee of the Lord of Tirumalirumcholai, which points to Shrimara Shrivallabha or his father Jatila Parantaka, and so to the first half of the 9th century. Some lists put him first among the twelve Alvars, others eighth. His hymns, the Tiruppallandu and the Periyalvar Tirumoli, together 473 verses, stand at the head of the Nalayira Divya Prabandham.

02A blessing for the Lord

The hagiographies tell that the Pandya king at Madurai, whom they call Vallabhadeva, wished to know who the supreme God was and hung a purse of gold from a pole in his hall for the scholar who could prove it. Vishnuchittar, who had no learning in debate, was sent by the Lord in a dream. He spoke from the Vedas that Narayana is the Supreme, and the pole bent down and let the purse fall into his hands. The king took him in procession on an elephant through Madurai, and Vishnu appeared in the sky on Garuda to see his devotee honoured. Afraid that some evil eye might fall on the Lord, the old man sang over him ‘Pallandu, pallandu’, ‘many years, many years’, wishing him long life as a father blesses a child. For that tender boldness he was called Periyalvar, the great Alvar. The Tiruppallandu is still sung at the start of worship in Sri Vaishnava temples.

Place · Pandya capital from before the MauryasMadurai, city of the SangamThe Pandya capital on the Vaigai, home of the third Tamil Sangam, the assembly of poets whose work became Tamil’s classical canon. Megasthenes heard of its pearl-rich kingdom in Pataliputra.Read →

03Krishna’s childhood, and Kodhai

In the Periyalvar Tirumoli he sings as Yashoda: the birth of Krishna, the bath, the cradle songs, the moon called down to play with the baby, the first steps, the butter stolen, the ear-boring, the calves taken to graze. Tamil poets later made a whole genre, the pillaitamil, out of songs on a divine child, and his verses stand at its source. One morning in his tulasi garden he found a baby girl lying beneath the plant. He named her Kodhai and brought her up; she became Andal, the only woman among the Alvars, and Sri Vaishnavas honour her as Bhudevi. The garland she wore herself before her father offered it to the Lord is the katha behind her name Sudikkodutta Nachiyar. The temple of Srivilliputhur holds both father and daughter, and its Garudasevai festival, in which five temples of the area bring their deities on Garuda, is kept in his honour.