Story of Nammalwar

Nammalwar belonged to 3059 BC and was considered as the avatar of vishveksena who was Vishnu's army commander. He was born in Thirukkurukur which is now known as Alwarthirunagari,which is in the southernmost region of Tamilnadu. He belonged to the vellalar family who followed 4 Vedas.

 About his childhood it is said that he was born fully enlightened because as a baby he never cried and remained speechless. His parents left him at the deity of Sri Adhinatar in Alwarthirunagiri.The child sat in a golden cradle hanged from the branch of a tamarind tree, in lotus position and started to meditate. He was in that state for 16 years. One day Madurakavi Alwar,who was elder than him,saw a bright light in the south when he travelled in the North India.He followed the light until he reached the tree where the boy was meditating.He asked the motionless boy, the answer for a riddle,"If the small is born in a stomach,what will it eat? and where will it stay?" The boy broke his prelonged silence and responded for the riddle. After that the boy became the famous devotee Nammalwar.

Nammalwar was also known as the famous names as Shadakopa Yogi , Parankush, Maran, etc.Behind these names there are stories told by the people.

 Nammalwar: When the great Tamil poet Kambar sang an andhadhi song about this Alvar in front of God Ranganathan,a voice heard from the statue telling," He is Namma( means mine)Alwar." After that event Nammalwar name became very popular.

 Shadakopa:   This name is formed with two words Shada and Kopa. Shada means a case of air that infect the infants generally at birth. Kopa means destroying with anger. Since Nammalwar had to destroy with anger the shada that came to infect him, he was called Shadakopa Yogi.

Parankush:   Alwar got ultimate happiness by giving naughty answers to other challenging poets when doing a debate with them. So he was popularly known as Parangush.

Maran: This name was given by his parents, since he was not crying, not moving his legs and not sucking mother's milk.

Among all the twelve Alwars, Nammalwar is considered as the greatest, because he only composed 1352 verses among the 4000 poems in the ' Nalayira Divya Prabandham'.He was considered as the Tamil vedavyasar, because his verses are compiled into four forms as follows:

 Thiruvaimozhi - 1112 verses

Thiru Azerium - 7 verses

 Thiruviruttam - 100 verses

 Periya Thiruvananthadi- 87 verses 

These are known as Tamil Vedas because Nammalwar had composed his poems to describe the synopsis of all four Vedas Rig, Yajur, Sama and Adharva.

 Tamil word ' vaymozhi' means reciting by mouth oraly. In ancient times Vedas and Puranas were recited and taught oraly by the Rishis to the their disciples. So Tamil word'vay mozhi'means Vedas . So Thiruvaymozhi composed by Nammalwar is known as Tamil Vedas .Thiruviruttam is the synopsis of Rig Veda;Thiru Asiriyum is the synopsis of Yajur and Periya Thiruvanthati is Atharva Veda.Thiruvoymozhi is the synopsis of Sama Veda.

At the age of 35, Nammalwar reached Vaikundam on the month of Margazhi and on the day of Yekadassi.It is said that God Vishnu himself opened the door of Vaikundam to receive Nammalwar to Vaikundam. At that time all the devotees also went along with Nammalwar to the Vaikundam.Every year in Srirangam temple on the month of Margazhi, Tendays festival and Tennights festival are celebrated and at the end of the festival on Yekadassi the door of Vaikundam in the temple is opened and the moorthy of Nammalwar is taken inside as sending him to Vaikundam along with all the devotees.