Abstract
Kṛṣṇa has captivated the minds of South India’s Śrīvaiṣṇavas since the tradition’s inception. This Tamilnadu-centered form of Vaiṣnavism emerged as a religious community in the tenth century C.E., but the origin of the tradition, Śrīvaiṣṇava theologians argue, can be traced back to the Āḻvārs, a group of Vaiṣṇava poet-saints who lived in South India between the sixth and ninth centuries C.E. Clearly, the tradition’s early interest in Kṛṣṇa’s story comes from the ancient heritage of Āḻvār poetry.
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.