8.1.3 Alwars, Nayanars and Basava

Explained

Alwar stories worth knowing.

• Tirukkovalur: on a rainy night the three Mudhal Alwars crowded into a small shelter; they felt a fourth person press in, Vishnu himself. Their three Tiruvandadis (100 verses each) begin there: Poigai lit a lamp with the world as the bowl, the ocean as the ghee and the sun as the flame; Bhutam lit one with love as the bowl and longing as the ghee; by their light Pey saw Narayana with Lakshmi.
• Tirumazhisai (born of the panchama class, held to be an amsha of the Chakra): when he left Kanchi, the Lord rolled up his serpent bed and followed him, so the Kanchi Lord is called Yathoktakari ("one who does as he is told").
• Nammalwar is said never to have cried or fed as a baby; his parents left him at the temple, where he sat in meditation under a tamarind tree for 16 years until Madhurakavi came.
• Andal was found by Periyalwar under a tulasi plant. She secretly wore the garlands meant for the Lord; the Lord told Periyalwar he preferred those garlands. Tiruppavai is sung in the month of Margazhi (Dhanurmasa).
• Periyalwar won a debate at the Pandya court; Vishnu appeared on Garuda and Periyalwar sang Tiruppallandu to ward off the evil eye.
• Kulasekhara wished to be a step at Tiruvenkatam (Tirumala) so that devotees would tread on him; hence Kulasekhara padi, the step at the sanctum.
• Tondaradippodi (born Vipranarayana; renamed himself "dust of the devotees' feet") kept a flower garden at Srirangam and strung garlands for the Lord; he wrote Tiruppalliyezhuchi, the waking song for Ranganatha.
• Tiruppan, of the Panar community, was carried into Srirangam on the shoulders of the priest Lokasaranga Muni at the Lord's command, so he is called Munivahana ("carried by a sage").
• Tirumangai robbed to fund temple service; Vishnu stopped him, taught him the Ashtakshara, and he became a devotee; he is linked with the walls of Srirangam.

Divya Prabandham.

• Nathamuni heard a few Tiruvaymozhi verses sung at Kumbakonam, went to Tirukkurugur, recited Madhurakavi's verses 12,000 times, and Nammalwar appeared and gave him all four thousand.
• Four parts of about 1,000 each: Mudal Ayiram, Periya Tirumozhi, Iyarpa, Tiruvaymozhi. Some counts add Ramanuja Nootrandadi of Tiruvarangathu Amudhanar to reach 4,000.
• Sri Vaishnavas call the hymns the Tamil Veda and the system Ubhaya Vedanta (Sanskrit and Tamil Vedas together). Ramanuja's school took the Alwars as its foundation.

Nayanars: the four great teachers and their paths (margas).

Nayanars worth knowing.

• Kannappa (Tinnan), a hunter, offered meat and water carried in his mouth; when the linga's eye bled he gave his own eyes. Shiva stopped him at the second eye. Srikalahasti.
• Karaikkal Ammaiyar (Punithavathi): the mango miracle; she gave up beauty for a ghost-like form and climbed Kailasa on her hands; Shiva called her "mother"; her Tiruvalangattu Mutta Tiruppadigam is in Tirumurai 11.
• Nandanar (Tirunalaippovar), of a low caste, entered Chidambaram after a fire ordeal.
• Siruttondar (Paranjoti), the Pallava general who took Vatapi, offered his own son to Shiva disguised as a guest.
• Kochengat Chola, a spider at Tiruvanaikaval in his former birth, built many madakkoil temples.
• Chandeshvara, a cowherd boy, poured milk on a sand linga; his shrine stands in every big Shiva temple (offerings are "reported" to him).
• Pusalar built a temple to Shiva in his mind; tradition links it with the Pallava Rajasimha's Kailasanatha temple.

Shaiva sects of the Telugu country (named in the Malkapuram and Tripurantakam inscriptions).

Basava and the sharanas.

• Parents Madarasa and Madalambike; tradition says he refused the sacred thread and went to Kudalasangama, where he studied under Jatavedamuni.
• At Kalyana he rose from accountant to chief minister of Bijjala II. His wives: Gangambike and Neelambike.
• Allama Prabhu (vachana signature Guheshwara) presided over the Anubhava Mantapa from the Shunya Simhasana ("throne of the void").
• Akka Mahadevi of Udutadi left the king Kaushika, came to Kalyana and ended her life at Kadalivana in Srisailam.
• Kalyana Kranti (c. 1167): to break caste walls Basava backed an inter-varna marriage, a Brahmin girl to a cobbler's son; it angered the orthodox; on Bijjala's orders the families were put to death (the course book says the couple were killed), violence followed and the sharanas scattered. Grieved, Basava gave up office and returned to Kudalasangama, where he died.
• Teachings: Kayakave Kailasa (work is worship; the course book likens it to Shramayeva Jayate), so no begging; God is formless, stone images are futile; astrology, vastu, yajnas and pilgrimages are rejected. Pancha Sutras: Arivu (knowledge), Achara (conduct), Anubhava (experience), Kayaka (work), Dasoha (offering). He influenced Vemana and Veerabrahmendra Swamy.
• What Veerashaivas reject: caste rank, untouchability, Vedic sacrifice, temple-centred ritual and pilgrimage, and ideas of ritual pollution. Their dead are buried, seated, not cremated.

Core Veerashaiva terms.

• Ashtavarana (eight shields): Guru, Linga, Jangama, Vibhuti, Rudraksha, Padodaka, Prasada, Panchakshari mantra (Om Namah Shivaya).
• Panchachara (five conducts): Lingachara, Sadachara, Shivachara, Bhrityachara, Ganachara.
• Shatsthala (six stages of the soul's ascent): Bhakta, Maheshvara, Prasadi, Pranalingi, Sharana, Aikya (union).
• Jangama: a wandering Veerashaiva teacher; treated as Shiva himself.