Talk-Thirumangai Alwar (M. Venkataraman)

Glimpses from Indian spirituality, mythology and way of life.

The Alwars are a group of twelve ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu in the eighth and ninth centuries. They are famous for their poetry in praise of Lord Vishnu. The collection of their 4000 poems is known as the ‘Naalaayira Divya Prabhandam’.

Among the Alwars, the first in the line up is Poigai Alwar, Bhudat Alwar and Pei Alwar. They are collectively called as "Mudhal Alwars" (the first Alwars) and belong to the same period of time. The other Alwars are Perialwar, Andal, Nammalwar, Madhura kavi Alwar, Tirumazhisai Alwar, Thondaridipodi Alwar, Thirumangai Alwar, Tiruppan Alwar and Kulasekara Alwar.

The Nalayira Divya Prabandham is the collective corpus of the passionate hymns of the Alwars. These hymns are known as ‘Paasurams’. These are in the form of adoration of the deities of 108 temples. These 108 temples are known as Divya Desams and are situated in different parts of the country. The adorations in the Naalayira Divya Prabandham employ every form of poetics and prosody available in Tamil.

In this episode, I have dealt a little bit about Thirumangai Alwar. I have also brought about an audio book titled ‘Alwars-The Vaishnvie Saints’ which will be available with leading audio book-sellers like Google’s play books.

https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/VENKATARAMAN_M_Alwars?id=AQAAAEAcKRZpGM

https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/id1530919441

https://www.chirpbooks.com/audiobooks/alwars-by-venkataraman-m

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