A Tale of Two Cēvais: Araiyar Cēvai and Kaittala Cēvai at the Āṇṭāḷ Temple in Srivilliputtur: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

Performance lives at the center of legends associated with the composition, loss and subsequent recovery of the Nālāyira Divya Prabandham, the Śrīvaiṣṇavas’ Tamil canon. The story in broad brush-strokes is as follows: Nammāḻvār, the foremost of the twelve āḻvār poets, reveals the Tiruvāymoḻi to his disciple Maturakavi in an intense and miraculous oral/aural encounter. But somehow these songs are forgotten, until Nāthamuni (c. 10th century) the Śrīvaiṣṇavas’ first preceptor, encounters a group of itinerant musicians’
performance of ten verses from the Tiruvāymoḻi and is inspired to seek out and restore the remainder of Nammāḻvār’s lost Tamil verses. He finds himself at the feet of Parāṅkuśadāsaṉ, learning Maturakavi’s panegyric to Nammāḻvār, and being directed to recite it continuously for the desired outcome.