The Divya Prabandham

Tiruppallandu

Periyalwar's twelve verses of blessing for the Lord. According to tradition, when Perumal appeared on Garuda over Madurai after the Alwar had shown His supremacy at the Pandya king's court, the Alwar forgot His greatness and, fearing the evil eye, sang that He should live for many, many years. This care for the Lord's own welfare is called *mangalasasanam*, and the sampradaya holds it as the sweetest form of love. Nathamunigal placed it at the head of the four thousand.

When it is recited: Tiruppallandu opens every recitation of the Prabandham, in temples and at home, and it is part of the daily nithyanusandhanam.

Periyalwar Tirumozhi

Periyalwar sings Krishna's childhood as Yashoda: His birth, His cradle, His bath, His mischief and His days with the calves, all with a mother's tenderness. He then turns to Rama, to the divya desams and to his own surrender. It is the fullest picture of the Lord as a child in the Prabandham, and the sampradaya says the Alwar's love made him a mother to the Lord.

When it is recited: Some decads are sung at the services they describe: the lullaby (Periyalwar Tirumozhi 1.3) when the Lord is placed in the cradle (oonjal), and the bathing decad (2.4) at His thirumanjanam.

Tiruppavai

Thirty verses in which Andal, as a cowherd girl of Ayarpadi, keeps the Margazhi vow, wakes her friends one by one, and goes with them to Nandagopa's house to wake Krishna. What she asks for in the end is not the reward of the vow but to serve Him in every birth. The sampradaya calls it the seed of all the Vedas, and Sri Ramanuja loved it so much that he was called Tiruppavai Jeeyar.

When it is recited: Tiruppavai is recited every day, in temples and at home, as part of nithyanusandhanam, and through the month of Margazhi it is the centre of every morning, with the day's verse taken up and explained. Its last two pasurams (Tiruppavai 29 and 30) close the recitation at temple services (sattrumurai). At Tirumala, Tiruppavai is recited in place of the Suprabhatam through Margazhi.

Nachiyar Tirumozhi

Andal's 143 verses of longing for the Lord. She prays to Kama to unite her with Him, dreams of her own wedding to Him (Nachiyar Tirumozhi, decad 6), asks His conch, which alone touches His lips, what they are like (decad 7), and at last finds Him at Brindavan. Where Tiruppavai teaches the way with calm, these verses pour out the pain of separation.

When it is recited: Decad 6, Andal's dream of her wedding, is recited at Sri Vaishnava weddings.

Perumal Tirumozhi

Kulasekhara Alwar, a king who longed to be a servant, sings of his love for Srirangam and his wish to be anything at all at Tirumala, even a step on the path to the sanctum (Perumal Tirumozhi, decad 4). He sings as Devaki, who missed Krishna's childhood, as Kausalya lulling Rama to sleep, and as Dasaratha grieving when Rama left for the forest. After his wish, the step before the sanctum in temples is called *Kulasekharan padi*.

Tiruchanda Viruttam

120 verses in a rhythmic *viruttam* metre. Thirumazhisai Alwar, who had searched through many paths before he came to the Lord, declares that Sriman Narayana is the cause of all things and the inner self of every being. The mood is thoughtful and firm, and it also sings of divya desams, Srirangam and Thirukkudanthai among them.

Tirumalai

Forty-five verses sung only of Sri Ranganatha. Thondaradippodi Alwar confesses that he has nothing to offer, no learning and no good deeds, and that the Lord's name and His mercy are his only hope. He praises the Lord's name above every effort and the Lord's devotees above every birth and rank. The tradition says that one who has not learnt Tirumalai does not know Tirumal.

Tiruppalliyezhuchi

Ten verses waking Sri Ranganatha at dawn: the sun rising in the east, the bees stirring, the cool breeze, the devas and sages waiting at His gate. The Alwar asks to be accepted as the servant of His servants, and his very name, Thondaradippodi, means "the dust at the feet of the devotees".

When it is recited: Recited in temples at dawn when the Lord is woken, and through Margazhi together with Tiruppavai. It is part of the daily nithyanusandhanam.

Amalanadipiran

Ten verses that Thiruppan Alwar sang as he was carried into the Srirangam sanctum on the shoulders of Loka Saranga Muni, at the Lord's own command. He describes Sri Ranganatha from His feet upward to His face, and having seen Him, says his eyes will see nothing else. According to tradition he then merged into the Lord. Small as it is, the acharyas wrote rich commentaries on it.

When it is recited: Part of the daily nithyanusandhanam.

Kanninun Siruthambu

Madhurakavi Alwar's eleven verses do not sing of Perumal directly but of Nammalwar, his acharya, as everything to him. They are the model of *acharya abhimanam*, the teaching that whole-hearted devotion to one's acharya is itself the surest refuge. Nathamunigal recited them twelve thousand times at Thirukkurugur and received the whole Prabandham, so the sampradaya says the four thousand came back to us through these eleven.

When it is recited: Part of the daily nithyanusandhanam. Though it closes the First Thousand, it is also recited just before Tiruvaymozhi, because it is the key through which Tiruvaymozhi came back: the disciple who loved Nammalwar is heard before Nammalwar himself.

Periya Tirumozhi

Thirumangai Alwar's great work of 1,084 verses, sung as he travelled from Badrikashramam in the north to the temples of the south. It opens with the Alwar's joy at finding the name Narayana (Periya Tirumozhi 1.1) and sings mangalasasanam to more divya desams than any other Alwar's work. The sampradaya sees his six works as the six limbs (angas) of the Vedas that Nammalwar's four works are.

When it is recited: In the Adhyayana Utsavam it is recited with the First Thousand during the Pagal Pathu, the ten days before Vaikunta Ekadasi. Selected decads, known as Koil Tirumozhi, are part of the daily nithyanusandhanam.

Tirukkurundandakam

Twenty verses in the short *thandakam* metre. Thirumangai Alwar sings of how the Lord came to dwell in his heart, of the joy of holding Him there in meditation, and of the divya desams where he saw Him.

Tirunedundandakam

Thirty verses in the long *thandakam* metre, held to be the last of Thirumangai Alwar's works. In its middle part the Alwar sings as a girl separated from the Lord, and as her mother speaking of her. Parasara Bhattar expounded this work to win the great scholar Nanjeeyar to the sampradaya, and so it is especially dear at Srirangam.

When it is recited: At Srirangam the Adhyayana Utsavam opens with the Tirunedundandakam day, when this work is recited before Sri Ranganatha, before the Pagal Pathu begins.

Mudhal Tiruvandadi

Poigai Alwar's hundred verses, sung at Thirukkovalur on the rainy night when the three Mudhal Alwars stood pressed together in a narrow passage and felt the Lord among them. It 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. It opens the Iyarpa.

Irandam Tiruvandadi

Bhoothath Alwar's hundred verses, sung on the same night at Thirukkovalur. He lights a lamp of love (Irandam Tiruvandadi 1). The teachers explain Poigai Alwar's lamp as knowledge of the Lord and this second lamp as the love that grows from that knowledge.

Moondram Tiruvandadi

Pey Alwar's hundred verses. By the light of the two lamps he saw the Lord with Thayar, and he begins by singing of that vision (Moondram Tiruvandadi 1). The verses return again and again to the divya desams, Thiruvenkatam above all.

Naanmugan Tiruvandadi

Thirumazhisai Alwar's 96 verses take their name from the four-faced Brahma (Naanmugan), whom the first verse names as born from Narayana. The whole work holds that Narayana alone is the Supreme and that every other deity owes its place to Him, and the Alwar declares that he will worship no other.

Tiruviruttam

The first of Nammalwar's four works, a hundred verses held by the sampradaya to be the essence of the Rig Veda. It opens with a prayer to be freed from this bodily birth so as to serve the Lord, and most of its verses are in the voice of a girl in love with Him (*nayika bhava*), of her mother, and of her friend.

Tiruvasiriyam

Seven long verses in the *asiriyam* metre, held to be the essence of the Yajur Veda. Nammalwar sings of the Lord's form and of Him as the cause and master of all, and turns away from every lesser goal, even from the joys of the higher worlds.

Periya Tiruvandadi

Eighty-seven verses in *andadi* form, held to be the essence of the Atharva Veda. Nammalwar speaks often to his own heart, and the verses dwell on how the Lord, greater than all things, chose the Alwar's small heart as His home; the tradition explains the name "Periya" (great) from this.

Tiruvezhukkutrirukkai

A single pasuram by Thirumangai Alwar to Aravamudhan of Thirukkudanthai, built so that the numbers one to seven rise and fall in the shape of a temple chariot (*ratha bandham*). It is counted as one pasuram in the four thousand.

Siriya Tirumadal

In old Tamil custom, a girl whose beloved would not come to her could ride a *madal*, a horse made of palmyra stems, through the streets to shame him into coming. In this long unbroken poem Thirumangai Alwar, as a girl in love with the Lord, resolves to do just that. For the four thousand its couplets are counted as 40 pasurams.

Periya Tirumadal

The longer *madal*, on the same theme as Siriya Tirumadal: the girl in love with the Lord resolves to ride the palmyra horse through the streets rather than suffer in silence. Along the way she names a great many divya desams where He dwells. For the four thousand its couplets are counted as 78 pasurams.

Ramanuja Nootrandadi

108 verses in praise of Sri Ramanuja by Thiruvarangathu Amudhanar, a disciple of Kurathazhwan, whom Sri Ramanuja had won over. According to tradition, Sri Ranganatha Himself had it recited before Him in procession and placed among the Alwars' works, and so it completes the four thousand. It is called the *Prapanna Gayatri*: as the Gayatri is recited every day, every Sri Vaishnava who has surrendered recites this every day.

When it is recited: Part of the daily nithyanusandhanam. In the Adhyayana Utsavam it is recited after the Iyarpa, on the closing day.

Tiruvaymozhi

Swami Nammalwar's 1,102 verses in a hundred decads: the heart of the Prabandham, called the Dravida Veda and held to be the essence of the Sama Veda. It moves through the Lord's supremacy and His easy nearness, the soul's longing and its surrender, and ends with the Alwar's ascent to Paramapadam. Sri Ramanuja asked Thirukkurukai Piran Pillan to write its first commentary, the Arayirappadi, and Manavala Mamunigal taught its Eedu commentary for a year before Sri Ranganatha at Srirangam.

When it is recited: Tiruvaymozhi is the heart of the Adhyayana Utsavam. In the Ra Pathu, the ten nights from Vaikunta Ekadasi, it is recited before the Lord one part of its ten each night, ending with Nammalwar attaining the Lord's feet. Selected decads, known as Koil Tiruvaymozhi, are part of the daily nithyanusandhanam.