Poems from Nammāḻvār’s Tiruvāymoḻi
<p>Anyone who reads his poems can see why: the poems are at once philosophic and poetic, direct in feeling yet intricate in design, single-minded yet various in mood — wondering, mischievous, tender, joyous, subtly probing, often touching despair but never staying with it. He composed four works, of which the 1,102 verses of Tiruvāymoḻi (Sacred utterances/sacred truth) are the most important. Very early, the Tiruvāymoḻi was hailed as “the ocean of Tamil Veda in which the Upaniṣads of the thousand branches flow together.” His poems have been chanted in temple services and processions since the eleventh century. Indeed, at the Śrīrankam temple a special ten-day festival is devoted to his work: a professional reciter (with the title <em>araiyar</em>, “king”), dressed in ritual finery, sings and enacts the hymns for the listening image of Lord Viṣṇu.</p>
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