3

As among the Sivaites, so among the Vishnuites of the south, history begins with poet-saints.  They are called the twelve Arvars.[571] For the three earliest no historical basis has been found, but the later ones seem to be real personalities.  The most revered of them is Namm’arvar also called Sathagopa, whose images and pictures may be seen everywhere in south India and receive the same reverence as figures of the gods.[572] He may have lived in the seventh or eighth century A.D.[573]

The chronology of the Arvars is exceedingly vague but if the praises of Siva were sung by poet-saints in the seventh century, it is probable that the Vishnu worshippers were not behindhand.  Two circumstances argue a fairly early date.  First Nathamuni is said to have arranged the hymns of the Arvars and he probably lived about 1000 A.D.  Therefore the Arvars must have become classics by this date.  Secondly the Bhagavata Purana[574] says that in the Kali age the worshippers of Narayana will be numerous in the Dravidian country, though in other parts found only here and there, and that those who drink the water of the Kaveri and other southern rivers will mostly be devotees of Vasudeva.  This passage must have been written after a Vishnuite movement had begun in the Dravidian country.[575]

The hymns attributed to the Arvars are commonly known by the name of Prabandham or Nalayiram and are accepted by the Tengalai Vishnuites as their canonical scriptures.  The whole collection contains 4000 verses arranged in four parts[576] and an extract consisting of 602 verses selected for use in daily worship is in part accessible.[577] This poetry shows the same ecstatic devotion and love of nature as the Tiruvacagam.  It contemplates the worship of images and a temple ritual consisting in awakening the god at morning and attending on him during the day.  It quotes the Upanishads and Bhagavad-gita, assumes as a metaphysical basis a vedantized form of the Sankhya philosophy, and also accepts the legends of the pastoral Krishna but without giving much detail.  Jains, Buddhists and Saivas are blamed and the repetition of the name Govinda is enjoined.  Though the hymns are not anti-brahmanic they decidedly do not contemplate a life spent in orthodox observances and their reputed authors include several Sudras, a king and a woman.

After the poet-saints came the doctors and theologians.  Accounts of them, which seem historical in the main though full of miraculous details, are found in the Tamil biographies[578] illustrating the apostolic succession of teachers.  It appears fairly certain that Ramanuja, the fourth in succession, was alive in 1118:  the first, known as Nathamuni, may therefore have lived 100-150 years earlier.  None of his works are extant but he is said to have arranged the poems of the Arvars for recitation in temple services.  He went on a pilgrimage to northern India and according to tradition was an adept in Yoga, being one of the last to practise it in the south.  Third in succession was his grandson Yamunarcarya (known as Alavandar or victor), who spent the first part of his life as a wealthy layman but was converted and resided at Srirangam.  Here he composed several important works in Sanskrit including one written to establish the orthodoxy of the Pancaratra and its ritual.[579]