![]() For the first time in Hindu consciousness, hymns in a language other than Sanskrit were considered to be revealed. This work is considered to be historic since no vernacular language had hitherto been held to be the medium of revelation within Hinduism no other work had been called a Veda. The Tamil Veda is not an imitation of the Sanskrit Veda or even a translation it is considered to have been revealed through the twelve Alvars and primarily through Nammalvar, a poet-saint who lived between the eighth and ninth centuries C.E. Drawing upon classical Tamil poetry, the conventions are adapted to the devotional milieu. Sanskrit myths are known to Nammalvar, and he alludes to them frequently, but it is Vishnu who is cast in the role of a king and a lover, reminiscent of the heroes of the war and love poems of the ancient Tamil. Nammalvar's poems are addressed to Tirumal or Mayon, “the dark one,” the god of the mullai landscape and of Sangam poems - who is identified with Vishnu. In this poem, Vishnu is himself a symbol of the coalescence between Tamil and Sanskrit literatures. The deity Vishnu, addressed in these poems, is also exalted in Sanskrit myth and epic. ![]() Nammalvar is said to have stated that these “thousand songs are to be spread abroad by people of the Tamil land, musicians and devotees”. ![]() This is carried on through all 1,102 verses the last words of the poem are also the first words of the poem. A special feature of the poem is that it is in the style of an antati, that is, the last words of one verse forms the opening words of the next one. Each hundred is divided into 10 decads ( tiruvaymoli) 28 of 10 verses ( pasuram) each. ![]() The poem is divided into 10 sections ( pattu) of about 100 verses each. It is frequently referred to as the Tamil or Dravida Veda. It is the most prominent work of the Naalayira Divya Prabandham, a compilation of the Alvars towards the devotion of Vishnu. 'sacred utterances of the mouth') is a 1102-verse Tamil poem, composed in the ninth century by the Hindu poet-saint Nammalvar, who is regarded as the foremost of the Alvar saints of South India. ![]()
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