According to tradition, Poigai Alwar appeared in a golden lotus in the temple pond at Thiruvekka in Kanchipuram, the home of Yathotkari Perumal. Poigai is Tamil for a pond, and so he came to be called Poigai Alwar. He is the first of the three Mudhal Alwars, the "first Alwars", who appeared on three days one after another.
On a dark, rainy night at Thirukkovalur, Poigai Alwar took shelter in the narrow front passage of a sage's hermitage. There was room for one person to lie down. Bhoothath Alwar came and asked for shelter, and the two sat. Then Pey Alwar came, and the three stood side by side. Soon they felt a fourth pressing in among them in the dark. It was Perumal Himself, Trivikrama of Thirukkovalur, who could not stay away from His devotees.
To see who had come, Poigai Alwar lit a lamp and began to sing. His Mudhal Tiruvandadi (100 verses) opens with a lamp made of the whole world (Mudhal Tiruvandadi 1). It is an andadi: each verse begins with the word on which the one before it ended, like a garland in which every flower holds the next. It praises the Lord who measured the worlds with His feet as the one refuge of every soul.
The three Tiruvandadis of the Mudhal Alwars open the Iyarpa, the third thousand of the Nalayira Divya Prabandham. The sampradaya remembers these three as the ones who first lit the lamp by which every later Alwar and acharya found the way.
A pasuram to begin with
Mudhal Tiruvandadi 1 · verse 2082 of the four thousand
On a rainy night at Thirukkovalur, Poigai Alwar lit the first lamp of the Divya Prabandham with this verse, to see who had come into the dark passage.
Meaning
With the earth as the lamp's bowl, the wide ocean as its ghee, and the hot sun as its flame, I have placed this garland of words at the feet of the Lord who holds the radiant discus, so that the ocean of sorrows may pass away.
Word by word
- vaiyam
- the earth
- takaḷiyā
- the bowl of a lamp
- vār kaṭalē
- the wide ocean
- ney
- ghee
- veyya katirōṉ
- the hot sun
- viḷakku
- the lamp's flame
- cuṭar-āḻiyāṉ
- the Lord who holds the radiant discus
- col-mālai
- a garland of words
- iṭar-āḻi
- the ocean of sorrow
- nīṅkukavē
- may it pass away
The verse is from the e-text of the Nalayira Divya Prabandham by Project Madurai. The meaning is a simple rendering in the light of the acharyas' commentaries, and is awaiting a scholar's review.
Ask Sri Paduka about this pasuram →All the pasurams
Poigai Alwar sang 100 pasurams. Each one is here in English letters, with a simple meaning and the meanings of its key words.