Brooklyn Museum - Varaha Rescuing the Earth page from an illustrated Dasavatara series

The Mutal Tiruvantati () is a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

work of literature composed by

Poigai Alvar Poigai Alvar was one of the twelve ''Alvar'' saints of South India, who are known for their affiliation to Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism. The verses of '' Alvars'' are compiled as ''Nalayira Divya Prabandham'' and the 108 temples revered are ...

, one of the twelve Alvars of

Sri Vaishnavism Sri Vaishnavism, or the Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya, is a denomination within the Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism. The name refers to goddess Lakshmi (also known as Sri), as well as a prefix that means "sacred, revered", and the god Vishnu, who ...

. Composed of 100 verses in the poetic meter called the

antati Antati ( ta, அந்தாதி, translit=Antāti) is a unique kind of Tamil poetry, constructed such that the last or ending word of each verse becomes the first word of the next verse. In some instances, the last word of the series of vers ...

, it is part of the compendium of hymns called the

Naalayira Divya Prabandham The Naalayira Divya Prabandham ( ta, நாலாயிரத் திவ்வியப் பிரபந்தம், lit=Four Thousand Divine Hymns, translit=Nālāyira Divya Prabandham) is a collection of 4,000 Tamil verses composed by ...

, composed in the seventh century CE.

Legend

According to a Sri Vaishnava legend, Poigai Alvar once travelled to offer his veneration to

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...

at the Ulagalantha Perumal temple at

Tirukoilur Tirukoilur also spelt as ''Tirukkoyilur'' or ''Tirukovilur'' is a city and the headquarters of Tirukoilur taluk in Kallakurichi District, Tamil Nadu, India. The town is located on the southern bank of Thenpennai River and famous for Ulagala ...

. He met other two Alvars, Pey and Bhutath, whom he did not know, but who had also chosen to coincidentally visit the temple during the same period. During an ensuing rainstorm, Poigai found some accommodation at a

mandapam Mandapam is a panchayat town in Ramanathapuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The famed Pamban Railway bridge and Vehicular bridge lie to the East of this Panchayat Town. Mandapam is Tamil Nadu’s largest refugee camp for Sri L ...

, and was asked by Pey if he could share some space in his room. Observing that there was a single bed present in the mandapam, Poigai remarked that it would be most convenient for an individual to lie down upon the bed, but two to be seated. During this very moment, Bhutath arrived, and expressed the desire to share the mandapam with the other two poet-saints. The trio decided that it would be most proper for an individual to lie down, two people to be seated, but the fact that there were three of them meant that it would be most suitable for all of them to stand. Thus, three poet-saints stood all night, and during the dawn, they felt the presence of a fourth entity in their midst. The force collided against them, and overwhelmed them so much that each of them composed hymns regarding their experience, in the form of an antati. The entity is proclaimed to be Perumal. Mutal Tiruvantati is stated to be the hymns composed by Poigai Alvar, using the sunlight as his lamp.

Hymns

The first hymn of the Mutal Tiruvantati elucidates his state of mind when Perumal overwhelmed him with his presence: Poigai Alvar also references the

Vamana Vamana (), also known as Trivikrama (), Urukrama (), Upendra (), Dadhivamana (), and Balibandhana () is an avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu. He is the fifth avatar of Vishnu, and the first Dashavatara in the Treta Yuga, after Narasimha. O ...

and the

Varaha Varaha ( sa, वराह, , "boar") is an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, in the form of a boar. Varaha is generally listed as third in the Dashavatara, the ten principal avatars of Vishnu. Varaha is most commonly associated with the lege ...

incarnations Incarnation literally means ''embodied in flesh'' or ''taking on flesh''. It refers to the conception and the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form or the appearance of a god as a human. If capitalized, it is the union of divinit ...

of Vishnu in this work:

References

Naalayira Divya Prabandham

External links

{{Tamil literature
Sri Poigai Alvar's Mutal Tiruvantati (Text and commentary) - N Rajagopalan
Tamil Hindu literature Vaishnava texts

Legend

Hymns

See also

References

External links