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64
The Arvārs
[CH.
ärvär) were the last to come. The traditional date ascribed to the earliest Arvar is 4203 B.C., and the date of the latest Arvär is 2706 B.C.', though modern researches on the subject bring down their dates to a period not earlier than the seventh or the eighth century A.D. Traditional information about the Arvärs can be had from the different "Guru-paramparā" works. According to the Guru-parampara, Bhutatt-, Poygaiy- and Pēy-arvārs were incarnations of Visnu's Gadā, Sankha and Nandaka, and so also Kadanmallai and Mayilai, while Tiru-mariṣai Piran was regarded as the incarnation of the cakra (wheel) of Viṣņu. Namm'-ārvār was incarnation of Visvaksena and Kula-sekhara Peru-mal of the Kaustubha of Viṣṇu. So Periy-ārvār, Tondar-adi-podiy-ārvār and Tirumangaiy-ārvār were respectively incarnations of Garuda, Vanamālā and Sarnga of Viṣnu. The last Arvār was Tiru-pāṇ-ārvār. Andāl, the adopted daughter of Periy-aṛvār, and Madhura-kaviy-ārvār, the disciple of Namm'-āṛvār, were also regarded as Arvārs. They came from all parts of the Madras Presidency. Of these seven were Brahmins, one was a Kṣattriya, two were sūdras and one was of the low Panar caste. The Guru-paramparās give incidents of the lives of the Arvars and also fanciful dates B.C. when they are said to have flourished. Apart from the Guru-paramparas there are also monographs on individual Arvārs, of which the following are the most important: (1) Divya-suri-carita by Garuḍa-vahana Pandita, who was a contemporary of Rāmānuja; (2) Guru-paramparā-prabhāvam of Pinb'-aragiya Peru-mal Jiyar, based on the Divya-süri-carita and written in mani-pravāļa style, i.e. a mixture of Sanskrit and Tamil; (3) Periya-tiru-mudiy-aḍaivu of Anbillai Kanḍādai-yappan, written in Tamil; (4) Upadesa-ratna-mālai of Maṇavāla Mā-muni, written in Tamil, contains the list of Arvars; (5) Yatindra-pravaṇaprabhavam of Pillai Lokācāryar. The other source of information regarding the Arvars is the well-known collection of the works of Arvārs known as Nal-ayira-divya-prabandham. Among these are the commentaries on the Divya-prabandham and the Tiru-vay-mori of Namm'-ārvār. In addition to these we have the epigraphical evidence in inscriptions scattered over the Madras Presidency2.
1 Early History of Vaisnavism in South India, by S. K. Aiyangar, pp. 4-13; also Sir R. G. Bhandarkar's Vaisnavism, Saivism and Minor Religious Sects, pp. 68, 69.
2 Sir Subrahmanya Ayyar Lectures, by the late T. A. Gopi-natha Rau, 1923.
