In this series we bring you the pastimes of great Sri Vaishnava Acharyas who appeared after the celebrated Alwars.

Once Natha Muni went on a pilgrimage to Kumbakonam and visited Lord Aravamudan’s temple. Some devotees were singing Nammalwar’s hymns before the Lord and in the end they sang the phala-shruti, which reads, “We dedicate these ten hymns from the thousand sung by Kurugur Sadagopan to thee.” Natha Muni was captivated by the philosophy and the diction enshrined in those hymns. He requested the devotees to teach him all the thousand hymns composed by Nammalwar and the devotees expressed their ignorance about the remaining 990 hymns. Seeing Natha Muni’s determination to learn the hymns, they asked him to inquire at Kurugur, the birth place of Nammalwar. To his dismay, the people of Kurugur had completely forgotten about Nammalwar as he had left the planet thousands of years before Natha Muni.

Natha Muni’s quest for Nammalwar’s works led him to a very old man called Parankusha Dasa. He too expressed his ignorance about Nammalwar’s works but taught him Kannin-siruthambu, the eleven hymns composed by Madhurakavi Alwar in praise of his spiritual master, Nammalwar. Parankusha Dasa told Natha Muni that his forefathers used to tell him that Nammalwar would personally teach all the hymns composed by him to the person who chants Kannin-siruthambu 12,000 times with devotion before Nammalwar’s Deity at Kurugur. Parankusha Dasa also told Natha Muni that people used to go into a trance just by devotedly singing Kannin-siruthambu and get Nammalwar’s mercy. Natha Muni was so madly in love with Nammalwar’s hymns that he resolved to chant Kannin-siruthambu till Nammalwar showered his mercy on him by teaching the 1,000 hymns.

Nammalwar spoke to Natha Muni in his Deity form and taught Natha Muni all the works composed by him. Nammalwar was so impressed with Natha Muni that he requested all the other alwars to teach their works to Natha Muni and the other alwars complied. Thus, Natha Muni revived all the works of the alwars with the help of Nammalwar. Natha Muni returned to Vira Narayanapuram and started to classify and codify the works of the alwars before teaching them to interested devotees.

A brief history of Nammalwar’s Deity

Madhurakavi Alwar started to cry when Nammalwar decided to quit his material body and Nammalwar asked him the reason for his grief. Madhurakavi Alwar, who was very devoted to Nammalwar, said that it would be impossible for him to live without Nammalwar. Nammalwar asked him to shed all his worries as he would continue to live with him in his Deity form. Nammalwar also told Madhurakavi Alwar that he would get his Deity if he boiled some water from the adjacent Thamarabarani river in a particular process. After Nammalwar disappeared from this planet, Madhurakavi Alwar devotedly brought some water from Thamarabarani river and started to boil it. After boiling the water for sometime, a Deity of Ramanuja emerged from the water and it seemed to prophesize the impending incarnation of Ramanuja. Madhurakavi Alwar was not willing to settle for anything less than the Deity of Nammalwar, whom he loved so much. Therefore, he threw the water along with Ramanuja’s Deity back to Thamarabarani river and started boiling the freshly collected water once again. As told by Nammalwar, a Deity of Nammalwar emerged from the boiling water. Madhurakavi Alwar installed the Deity and started worshipping it.

Later on many devotees started worshipping the Deity to gain spiritual knowledge. Even great acharyas like Manavala Mahamuni and Vedanta Desikar have worshipped Nammalwar’s Deity to perfect their spiritual knowledge. During his lifetime, Bhagavad Ramanuja also visited Kurugur to pay his respects to Nammalwar in his Deity form.

... to be continued.