Muthal-aazhvaargal

Mudal-aazhvaargal:

These are three: PoigaiAzhwar , born in Kanchipuram under asterism ‘Tiruvonam’, Bhoothathazwar , born in Tirukkadalmallai or the present day Mahabalipuram under asterism ‘avittam’ and Peyazhwar , born in Mylapore under asterism ‘sadhayam’.These are the earliest of the Alvars. 'Muthal' in Tamil, means 'the first'.

All three, who lived about 500 AD, were renunciates with total dispassion, full of divine enlightenment and God-intoxication. They did not mix with the ordinary people of this mundane world. They never stayed at the same place. Instead they were roaming about the whole land, individually and separately. Lord Vishnu perhaps decided to spread a divine message to the world through them. It was he who divined that all three of them should be together one day in the town of Tirukoilur, on a particular night of darkness. And he also joined them in that small passage of a corridor as the fourth man. The three had the spark of divine contact and illumination and poured out thrilling poetry of divine intoxicated experience.

Thus arose the three parts of the Divya Prabhandham, called First Tiru-anthaadi, Second Tiru-anthaadi and the third Tiru-anthaadi, altogether consisting of 300 songs, usually counted among the third thousand of the 4000 songs of Divya Prabandham.

Sources

• Naalaayira divya prabhandham: Commentary by. Dr. Jagadrakshakan. (1997) Aazhvaargal Research Centre, Chennai 600017.